The Making of a Name: The Inside Story of the Brands We Buy [Hardcover]

Steve Rivkin (Author), Fraser Sutherland (Author), Jack Trout (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 2005

How do brand names differ from other names, and what goes into making a good name great and a bad name ghastly? Knowing this can spell the difference between bankruptcy and marketplace triumph.
In this indispensable guide, the authors share the secrets of successful brand names--how they've indelibly stamped cultures around the world; who makes them; why they're made; and how they're compiled, bought, sold, and protected. The book outlines what kind of names exist--the initialized, descriptive, allusive, and coined. How namers surf on brainwaves. The do's, don'ts, and nevers of naming, how the structure of names is built from the ground up and how their sounds are engineered. Why names symbolize benefits. Where in the world brands may be found, and what will become of them.
Fast-paced, illustration-packed, gazing at the past and probing into the future, this is the definitive book on naming. The Making of A Name is the one book anyone interested in "owned words" must have.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The naming industry sprang up in the 1980s to deal with the complexities of brand identity, the legal maze of eligibility and the pitfalls of translation. In this encyclopedic compilation, Rivkin, proprietor of a U.S. naming consultancy and Sutherland, a Canadian author and editor, mix business with linguistics in an attempt to demystify the name game. In Part I they distinguish among the basic types of names: descriptive, allusive and coined. Part II, on the naming process, offers a massive amount of recycled information, from right-brain/left-brain functioning to obvious brainstorming methods à la marketing 101; a blizzard of lexicographic, phonetic and linguistic factoids; a brief dissertation on the origins of speech; a litany of familiar cautionary tales about the perils of translation; and much more. All of this is exhaustively researched and appropriately cited; while some of it bears a direct relation to naming, a great deal comes across as too much icing. Part III, an overview of naming firms and alternatives, concludes with Rivkin's own finding that companies consider naming consultants less effective than internal task forces or agencies. If this overstuffed volume is representative of the field, that comes as no surprise. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"This authoritative and fascinating book on names and naming will be used by entrepreneurs, students, inventors, marketers, and wordsmiths at all levels. Recommended."--Library Journal

"Right now, all over America, millions of freelancers are starting companies, inventing products and marketing their services. Whether they're laid-off dot-com kids or unfulfilled Boomers, they have one thing in common--they all need names. Sadly for them, there's no book on the market that lays out the process. Rivkin and Sutherland's book will fill that gap. It's packed with useful 'how to' as well as tales both inspiring and cautionary: back-stories on the brand names we know--and why we love or hate them."--Laurie Pollock, formerly Senior Partner, Planning Director at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising in New York

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1St Edition edition (January 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195168720
• ISBN-13: 978-0195168723
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #985,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A passionate, intelligent guide to those names we buy, January 16, 2005

By 

John Yunker (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Making of a Name: The Inside Story of the Brands We Buy (Hardcover)

The book provides a thorough introduction to the evolution and significance of brand names. It's an easy read for those of us without degrees in linguistics and covers a great deal of ground. I particularly liked the anecdotes liberally spread throughout.

Of particular interest to me was a chapter devoted to global brand names. While I would have liked to see more attention devoted to this topic - since most brand names created today should first be given a "global analysis" - I found some wonderful anecdotes in the chapter. Here are a few:

"Standardizing the taste is one thing. Standardizing the marketing is another." Even though Heineken is kept standard globally, its marketing is widely tailored to each market. For example, in Asia beer is marketed as a sophisticated, almost feminine, product while brewers in Australia position it as quite the opposite.

Nestle succeeds globally because it creates products specific to local markets. For example, it offers an instant coffee specifically for India called Sunrise, blended with chicory to appeal to local taste buds. The company may have a dozen worldwide brands but has more than a hundred regional brands and more than 700 local brands.

Be careful when taking your brand name into new markets. Consider the challenges that these local brands would face if they were introduced into the US:

* Bimbo bread (Spain)
* Zit soft drinks (Greece)
* Pschitt soft drink (France)

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "Comprehensive" Inside Story of the Brands We Buy, March 3, 2005

By 

Gregory A. Tarallo (Yardley, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Making of a Name: The Inside Story of the Brands We Buy (Hardcover)

"The Making of a Name" is a terrific, comprehensive book on names, namers, and naming. I highly recommend this book to anyone, whether you are an entrepenuer in the midst of launching a new company, product or service, a seasoned marketer, or quite frankly, you just like names and words. "The Making of a Name" is chock full of naming anecdotes, hints, tips, and history (I was especially interested in the tid-bits about the brands we're all familiar with).

By the end of the book, you'll know names--inside and out. What makes a good name, what makes a bad name, how names are created (and in some cases, re-created), and a ton more. You'll be hard pressed to hear, read, see, or think of a name in the same light!

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Words matter., December 18, 2004

By 

Anne Miller (usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Making of a Name: The Inside Story of the Brands We Buy (Hardcover)

In an overcommunicated world, the words we choose to name things are very important if you want to catch fire with a market and be remembered by consumers. This book is enormously helpful to anyone bringing out a new product or service. It is also extremely entertaining to read -- a winner on every count.