Application of latour's Law

The name is the hook that hangs the brand on the product ladder in the eyes of prospective customers. In the era of positioning, the only important marketing decision you can make is what name to give the product. Shakespeare was wrong. Roses wouldn't smell so sweet if they were called by another name. You not only saw what you wanted to see, but also smelled what you wanted to smell. This is why in perfume marketing, the most important decision is what name to give the brand.

The perfume named Alfred won't sell as well as Charlie? Don't take the risk. Haug Island, located in the Caribbean, was not known until it was changed to Paradise Island.

If you choose a name according to your constituency, don't look back at history. What worked in the past may not work now or in the future. In the past, there were fewer kinds of products, less information dissemination and less important names.

Today, it is difficult to let a meaningless name enter people's minds in a lazy way. You must come up with a name that can start the positioning program, a name that can tell potential customers the main features of the product.

For example: Head and Shoulder (Head &; Shoulder) shampoo, "IntensiveCare" emulsion, "slim" low-calorie drinks and "close-fitting" toothpaste. Or the long-lasting battery is called "DidHard" brand, the ingredients of New World Roast Chicken are called "Shake'nBake", and the shaving cream that helps shave more cleanly is called "Edge".

However, the name cannot be "overdone". In other words, the meaning of a name can't be too close to the product connotation itself, just like a generic name, so it can be applied to all products in this category, not the trademark of a specific brand.

"Laiwu" (low-alcohol) beer produced by Miller Company is a general product name, covering all similar products. As a result, a large number of other low-alcohol beers such as "Schlitz Low-alcohol Beer" and "Anhaeuser-Bisch Natural Low-alcohol Beer" appeared, and the name "Miller Low-alcohol Beer" was quickly abused by the public and the press, so that Miller Company lost the exclusive right to use "Low-alcohol Beer" and similar pronunciations as beer trademarks.

In the years to come, the trademark registration agency will regard Wright as a negative example of using descriptive documents as trademarks.

Naming is like driving a racing car. If you want to win, you must seize the opportunity. You must choose a name that is almost universal but not very universal. If you temporarily deviate from the track and enter the common name area, so be it. No racing world champion won without deviating from the track several times.

How to choose a name? On the other hand, as a weekly news magazine, Time is not as general as Newsweek. Time is the first magazine to enter Newsweek, which is obviously a success. However, Newsweek is not far behind. In fact, Newsweek has more advertisements every year than Time magazine.

Many people think Time is a great magazine name. This is true in a sense because it is short, eye-catching and easy to remember. However, it is also ambiguous, ambiguous. Time can also be regarded as an industry magazine in the watch industry, because the word time also has the meaning of time.

The name "wealth" has the same effect. Fortune can be a magazine aimed at stockbrokers, retail companies or the rich, and its meaning is very unclear. Business Week is a much better name and a more successful magazine.

Names will also be out of date, leaving room for responsive competitors. For young people who often go to entertainment places, Mr. Fashion is a good magazine name. Those young people used to like to add the word "gentleman" after their names when signing their names. However, Gentleman gave the leading role to Playboy. Everyone knows who Playboy is and what he likes. Like girls, right? What should a gentleman look like? What does he like?

Yacht has been the leading magazine in the maritime industry for many years. How many gentlemen still own yachts today? According to our prediction, Yacht will be surpassed by magazines like Sail sooner or later.

In an era when all advertisements are published in newspapers and magazines, Printer'sInk is a good name for a magazine serving the advertising industry. However, since radio and television advertisements and print advertisements are now equally divided, ink has died and given way to the advertising era.

One of the most influential newspapers today is the Wall Street Journal, which has not yet met its real rival. However, the name of this newspaper is not suitable for a business daily, suggesting that this newspaper is narrow in content and only focuses on finance and economics; In fact, this newspaper covers the whole business world.

When to use meaningless names. What about those companies that use new names (such as Coca-Cola, Kodak and Xerox) and have achieved obvious success?

One factor that makes it difficult for many people to accept positioning thinking is that they don't understand the importance of timing. The first company to enter people's minds with a new product or idea is easy to become famous, no matter its name is Lindbergh, Smith or Rumplestiltskin.

Coca-Cola Company was the first company to be famous for its cola drinks, Kodak Company was the first company to be famous for its low-priced films, and Xerox Company was the first company to be famous for its ordinary paper copier.

Take the word "coke" (English words also mean "coke" and "cocaine") as an example. Because of the success of Coca-Cola, the alias "Coke" has acquired the second meaning that semanticists say. Will you use this word to name a soft drink? Does this word mean "the residue of coal burning in air isolation" or the common name of hallucinogenic cocaine? Because the second meaning of "coke" is too strong, Coca-Cola Company need not worry about its negative meaning at all.

However, it is at least risky to give new and meaningless names to new products, such as Keds, Shu Jie and Kotex. Only when your product is brand-new and urgently needed by consumers, and its name first enters people's minds, can you have a meaningless name.

Good name, bad name. Although people generally think that this is "just a name", more and more evidence shows that a person's name plays an important role in his life.

Dr Herbert Harari and Dr John Macdavid are two professors of psychology. They used to wonder why pupils give people unusual names to make fun of their classmates. So, they experimented with various names and put them on the compositions allegedly written by the fourth and fifth grade students in primary schools, among which two groups of names can particularly illustrate this phenomenon. From some compositions, we can find that some names are more (such as David and Michael) and some names are less (such as Hubert and Elmer). They gave each composition to different groups of primary school teachers for grading.

Do you believe that the compositions written by students named David and Michael, such as those written by Elmer or Hubert, have an average grade higher? "Teachers have summed it up from past experience," two professors said. "Students named Hubert or Elmer are usually underachievers."

What about those celebrities with strange names? For example, Hubert humphrey (former vice president of the United States, defeated by Nixon in the presidential election of 1968) and Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (American politician, twice failed in the presidential election). They both lost to two common names, Richard and Dwight.

If Richard Humphrey and Hubert Nixon run for office, will Americans choose Hubert Nixon? Jimmy, Jerry, Richard, Linton, John, Dwight, Harry and Franklin are all better names. Since Herbert was elected, no former owner of the White House has been labeled as a "loser".

Who did herbert hoover (9 1929- 1933) beat in 1928? Another loser named Alfredo.

1932, Herbert's opponent named himself a "winner": Franklin (that is, franklin roosevelt, Hoover's successor), so he was defeated and came back with a big defeat.

What can you guide Wang to get from a man named Ethel? Before Ford introduced the "edsel" car, it was the name of a loser. It was this name that led to Ford's marketing disaster.

Take Cyril and John for example. According to psychologist David Shepard, even if people don't know people by these two names, they still think Cyril is a sneaky guy and John is a trustworthy person.

What you see is what you want to see. A bad name or inappropriate name will cause a series of reactions, and these melons will only consolidate your original bad impression. Elmer is a loser. You see, he didn't do very well. I will say to you, "I have seen this kind of thing many times." That seed experience turned into an accident in the good service they expected.

Passengers who have experienced unpleasant experiences in Eastern Airlines will say, "Eastern Airlines again." This is the reappearance of the bad service they expect. China Eastern Airlines is not without efforts. A few years ago, China Eastern Airlines recruited several first-class marketing experts and made every effort to reform. It is one of the first airlines to "change planes", "improve the quality of food" and "dress up stewardesses carefully" in order to improve their reputation. In terms of spending money, China Eastern Airlines is not stingy. Its advertising expenditure has been among the best in the whole industry. Last year, China Eastern Airlines spent more than 200 million dollars on advertising alone.

What do you think of China Eastern Airlines, despite the cost? What route do you think it has? Go north or south along the east coast and fly to new york, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and Miami, right? In addition, China Eastern Airlines also flies to St. Louis, New Orleans, Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Acapulco, Mexico and Mexico City.

Look at the problems faced by Indianapolis, the city where China Eastern Airlines flies. China Eastern Airlines flies north from Dalin in Indianapolis to Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis, and south to Louisville, Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale. There happened to be no eastbound route.

Furthermore, China Eastern Airlines also has a Yihua route to San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, which has been in operation for more than 30 years. In the past, it always occupied the largest share of this market. Later, American Airlines acquired Pan Caribbean Airlines. Up to now, this letter has become the only one on the San Juan route? American Airlines, of course.

Another common naming problem of the twins in Akron City occurred in the company headquartered in Akron City, Ohio.

What should I do if the name of a company (goodrich) is similar to that of a large unemployed company (Goodyear)? Goodrich has many problems. The research results show that it can transform wheels, but Goodyear is the biggest beneficiary. Goodrich undoubtedly recognized this problem. The following is the company's view on this issue in an advertisement a few years ago:

Benjamin Franklin goodrich's misfortune fell under his name. God, it's so unfair. The name of our biggest competitor is similar to that of the founder of our company. One is Goodyear and the other is goodrich. It's easy to confuse them.

At the bottom of the advertisement reads: "If you want to find goodrich, you must remember the name goodrich." In other words, this is not goodrich's problem at all, but your own.

Goodrich is the first company to sell steel radial tires in the United States. However, a few years later, when answering that this kind of tire was produced by a company, 56% of the buyers said it was Goodyear, and Goodyear did not sell this kind of tire in the domestic market. Only 47% of customers said it was made in goodrich.

As Akron said, "goodrich invented it, firestone developed it and Goodyear sold it." 1968, Goodyear's sales reached $2.9 billion, while goodrich's was only $ 1 300 million, and the ratio between the two companies was not 2.21. 1978, that is, ten years later, Goodyear's sales were $7.4 billion, and goodrich's was $2.5 billion, 2.9 1. Therefore, the rich are getting richer and richer. Enough for the company!

Strangely, however, advertisements of losers are still everywhere. The sentence "We have helped others" has aroused many people's sympathy in the newspaper, but tire customers have little sympathy. The name alone forced goodrich to bear the humiliation of the strong.

That's a perfect name. Sometimes the name is too apt, too vivid and too easy to be associated with, especially when used in mass consumer goods.

Take Mead Johnson's Metrecal and Carnation's slimble for example. Although Metrecal has the advantage of being the first to go public, it is "slim" that wins in marketing.

The name "slim" (which makes people understand the benefits of using this product) is much more effective than Metrecal, because the latter is a word invented by IBM computer.

However, you must be careful of low-calorie products consumed by the public. Calorie-free soft drinks will never be a big success Who would go to a restaurant and ask for a "calorie-free" coke? It's easy for people sitting at the next table to think, "That's a big fat man."

It would be much better if I wanted a Tab. "After a cup of Tab that must be drunk every time was delivered to him," the new york Times wrote recently, "the president of new york University sat down and began to have a working lunch." If the headmaster knew that reporters would go to that restaurant, would he want a "diet package"?

During lyndon johnson's presidency, there was a button on his internal phone to send him Fresca drinks. Although everyone knows it, he doesn't seem to care. Be careful when naming low-calorie and low-priced products, and don't overdo it when hinting at their benefits. Once the meaning is too familiar, it will drive prospective customers away.