The Game of the Name

This past week both Abbott and Kraft announced new names for the companies they are spinning off: Mondelez for the Kraft spinoff and AbbVie for the Abbott spinoff. Some thoughts:

1. First I understand that naming is not easy. In addition to getting customer feedback, the names have to work globally from a language perspective, and have to pass legal hurdles.
2. Both announcements apparently came with instructions on how to pronounce the name. That is not good right off the bat.
3. Apparently, both companies also saw the need to explain the names. That isn’t good either. If the reason for the name is not self-evident, maybe the name choice is not that good.
4. I am going to give both organizations the benefit of the doubt and assume they did research as part of this. This is not a given. I personally was involved with one U.S. brand with a lot of brand equity here that was acquired by a global brand. The global brand said it would not research the appropriate name in the U.S. The global company name was the brand everywhere else; it would be the brand here.
5. So even if the brands did research, the question is how aided the research was.

a) If people were just asked what they thought of the name on an open-ended basis, that is OK.

b) If people had to have the name explained to them before rendering an opinion, not so good. After all, these brands are not going to spend a lot of effort explaining the name in their marketing efforts.

6. For AbbVie specifically, it appears the company is really trying to leverage the Abbott connection with both the Abb, and the Vie. The Vie is based on the Latin for life, and ties into the existing great Abbott tagline of “A Promise for Life.” This may not be a bad strategy in the near term, as the Abbott brand is strong. But long-term it may hinder the organization’s name to establish its own identity.
7. Mondelez supposedly is meant to convey “delicious world,” using a derivation of the Latin word for world and “delez”, which apparently has Romance language roots signifying delicious. I am a pretty smart guy (IMHO), but if I do not get it, I am not sure who else would. Combined words and made up words are tough. Earlier this week, my daughter taught me the word “bracktastrophe,” which is an upset in the NCAA basketball tournament. I got that. I don’t get Mondelez.
8. In the end, these companies will spend hundreds of millions if not billions marketing these names, and the name itself might not make that much of a difference.
9. But if you don’t have hundreds of millions to market your name, do your due diligence, and make sure your name resonates with the target market.

Time will tell. Let me know what you think.