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  April 10, 2005 By William Safire When the New Yorker reporter Jeffrey Goldberg asked Senator John Kerry whether the Democrats had a credibility problem on defense controversies, the party's titular leader replied without equivocation, "Look, the answer is, we have to do an unbranding." As Kerry saw it, the political problem had to do with salesmanship: "We have to brand more effectively. It's marketing." An editor on the linguistic qui vive titled Goldberg's article about the Democrats' need to shuck off the appearance of weakness "The Unbranding." Read the entire review...  April 9, 2004 By Daniel Akst Would a BlackBerry by any other name smell as sweet -- or be as profitable? The hand-held e-mail device is certainly popular, but what has contributed more to its success: its nimble technology or its adorable moniker? Such questions are at the heart of "Wordcraft," Alex Frankel's look at the business of naming names. A young journalist in San Francisco, Mr. Frankel had some first-hand experience as a "naming consultant" during the dot-com boom and afterward decided to research the whole subject. The result is a thoughtful and engaging exploration of how companies and products get their names nowadays, as well as the function of brands in a global culture. Read the entire review...  June 14, 2004 By Gabriel Sherman The spring, Manhattan shoppers were greeted on the bustling corner of Broadway and Houston Street, with a lime-green billboard announcing "Fashionable planes now departing from the runways of La Guardia and JFK" followed by the enigmatic brand name "Song" and a swooping futuristic logo reminiscent of Star Trek. The attention-grabbing billboard is part of the marketing push for Song, a hip discount airline that made its debut last April. Nowhere on the sign does it mention that Song is, in fact, owned by Delta Air Lines - and that's exactly the way Delta executives want it. Read the entire review...  April 19, 2004 By Jennifer Barrett What's in a name? More than you might think-when it comes to brand names, at least. Frankel, a business writer and former brand "namer" himself, offers an enlightening, engaging and entertaining glimpse behind the scenes of the brand-naming business. He traces five major recent brands back to their roots: Accenture, BlackBerry, IBM's eBusiness, Porsche's Cayenne and Viagra. You may be surprised to learn just how complex the process of building the next big brand can be. But it can pay off. Just ask the folks at Pfizer, whose best-selling Viagra brand leapt from the pharmacy shelves to the Oxford English Dictionary in just three years. http://www.msnbc.msn.com August 22, 2004 By Rob Walker By his own account, J. Darius Bikoff was "confused" when he looked at the labels on bottled water -- the ones showing images of streams and mountains. The connection between the packaging and the benefits of the water itself seemed vague. So Bikoff took a different approach when he got into the beverage business and created Vitaminwater, which he says now sells two million bottles a day. Read the entire review...  March 21, 2004 By Paul B. Brown E-business is among a handful of examples used in another book, by the freelance writer Alex Frankel, to show how names of new products and services are coined to help them resonate in the marketplace. In that book, "Wordcraft: The Art of Turning Little Words into Big Business" (Crown), he also chronicles the origins of the names BlackBerry, Viagra and Porsche Cayenne, and explains how each has become accepted. In each case, the goal was the same: to create a brand. Read the entire review...  June 2004 By Bobbie Gossage Kevin Brynan spends a large chunk of his day explaining over and over again how to pronounce the word Mxyplyzyk--the name of his gift shop in New York City's Greenwich Village. As it happens, the name (which is pronounced "mix-ee-pliz-ik," in case you were stumped) is so long that Brynan's business card is a three-part foldout. The unusual moniker, created by a co-founder and inspired by a Superman comic book character, is fitting for a shop with unusual items like pug dog "puggy" banks and warped vinyl record serving bowls. On the other hand, it's hard to tell your friends about a store when you can't pronounce the name, and good luck finding it online. Read the entire review... Inc.com Naming Contest Winner April 2004 By Michael Dirda Shakespeare wrote that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Maybe. But would the handheld BlackBerry have sold as well if it had been named AirWire, Badge, Hula, Sling, Vuant, or TelTop? In Word Craft , business writer Alex Frankel explores how "namers," working for consulting firms like Lexicon and Wood Worldwide, came up with Pentium, PowerBook, e-business, Saturn, and Viagra. A good name must support the product's "message," suggest a subtle backstory of meaning, and function as a kind of one-word haiku. Read the entire review...  July 2004 By Adam Smith Wordcraft: The Art of Turning Little Words Into Big Business (Crown). How did we come to e-mail using a BlackBerry, or treat impotence with Viagra? As a fly-on-the wall at some of the world's leading brand-naming firms, Alex Frankel uncovers the thinking behind some of the most successful names. http://www.time.com/time/asia/  July 30, 2004 By Ruth Walker I've been paging through a new book by Alex Frankel, "Wordcraft: The Art of Turning Little Words Into Big Business." It's introduced me to the world of naming consultants, the people who get paid to help entrepreneurs come up with just the right monikers for the latest hot new products and companies. Read the entire review...  May 8, 2004 By David Kipen As Google prepares for its initial public offering, some skeptics are griping that their SEC documents leave out key information -- for example, how the ubiquitous Internet search service actually works. This is, of course, patently absurd. Want to know how Google works? Easy. Tell a friend about two search engines that you find useful. One's called Google, the other Lycos. Later that night, your friend sits down at his computer and wants to look something up. He has two choices. Read the entire review...  October 6, 2004 By Amy Alexander Six years ago, if you said you were going to check your BlackBerry, you'd have gotten quizzical glances. Now, the BlackBerry is carved into our lives. By any other name, the digital pocket device that lets road warriors check e-mail, flight schedules and today's headlines wouldn't be the same, says professional namer Alex Frankel. Read the entire review...  July 1, 2004 CNBC's Power Lunch chooses Wordcraft as part of summer reading list. A wonderfully entertaining look at the recipe Corporate America uses to come up with brand names: one part pop psychology, another part pop art, plus lots and lots of money. Frankel focuses on five case studies: Accenture, the Blackberry PDA, Porsche's turbo-charged Cayenne SUV, IBM's e-Business, and the best of the lot: Viagra! http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/CNBCTV  April 29, 2004 Marketplace Morning Report from PRI Hosted by Tess Vigeland http://marketplace.publicradio.org/morning_report   May 14, 2004 Wisconsin Public Radio Hosted by Ben Merens http://www.wpr.org/merens  May 1, 2004 By Chris Tucker According to writer Alex Frankel, even the smallest word carries a heavy bag of associations, connotations, and images-which is why consultants are paid big bucks to attach the right one to a new brand... In malls or airports or even our own homes, we swim in a sea of brand names, each beckoning for mindshare. Rolex, Alpo, Krispy Kreme, Prada, Gray Goose, HBO, Fossil, TNT, Gillette, Centrino, Bose, Windows XP, Bank One, Ethan Allen, Eclipse, Sprint, ad infinitum. Read the entire review...  May 5, 2004 Book review by David Kipen http://www.npr.org/features The art and science of choosing a corporate name has evolved rapidly in recent decades. Our book critic, David Kipen, has this review of an inside look at what goes into picking the perfect company name. Read the entire review...  May 5, 2004 Hosted by Christine Romans Wordcraft featured on CNN  May 5, 2004 By Harvey Schachter When Research In Motion approached Lexicon Branding for help in naming its wireless e-mail device, it already had a strong working title: PocketLink. But that was a descriptive name, and it wanted something more connotative and catchy. The folks at the naming firm thought the device looked like a strawberry, Alex Frankel reports in his book Word Craft, with the 32-key keyboard reminding them of the pattern and texture of seeds on a strawberry's surface. But strawberry was too slow a word. Blackberry was faster. Read the entire review...  May 6, 2004 By Nathan Bierma There is a moment every marketer both dreams of and fears. It is the time when a brand name, by decree of the dictionary or whims of the zeitgeist, becomes a common noun or a verb. This can be a blessing -- the ultimate validation of a name that is both catchy and meaningful. But it can also be a curse. The more widely a word is used, the harder it is to legally protect as a trademark.. Read the entire review...  May 15, 2004 By Nathan Bierma Why some words are Muzak to our ears. When names such as BlackBerry or Viagra catch on, it's not by chance. An author looks into branding. Read the entire review...  May 2004 Wordcraft nominated for Fast Company Book Club. http://www.fastcompany.com/bookclub  May 2004 By W.O. Goggins A is for Accenture, asked to change its name from Andersen. B is for branding and big successes like BlackBerry. C is for corporate story, like the cautionary tale of Cayenne. Frankel, who once ran a naming firm called Quiddity, is still spellbound by the business, and lyricism here takes a backseat to the sales side. Wordcraft is best in the narrative episodes, though true word freaks will yearn for a few more logotechnical details. Call it In Search of Lexcellence. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive  March 1, 2004 By David Siegfried Frankel has managed to crack open the world of professional namers, a highly guarded group of specialists who focus exclusively on coining brand names. A winning name is crucial to the success of any product, and large companies may spend half a million dollars or more for a cadre of wordsmiths to craft just the right one. A successful name--think of Viagra or FedEx--will leap beyond mere brand recognition to enter the public lexicon. Professional namers don't just sell a name, they craft a complete story to go with it, one that companies will expand on when marketing to the public. Read the entire review...  June 2, 2004 By Rosie Right A picture may seem to be worth a thousand words, but don't agree too quickly. A new book "Wordcraft: The Art of Turning Little Words into Big Business" by Alex Frankel makes a good case for the power of words. Frankel has studied and worked in the business of creating names for new products that want to find their way into our daily life and into our vocabulary. He says that "words owned by corporations have become core components of our modern language, if not a new language entirely, seeping into vernacular speech. Read the entire review... |
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© 2004 Alex Frankel. All rights reserved. |
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