subject: Fruity Business Names - They Must Be Bananas! [print this page] Fruity Business Names - They Must Be Bananas!
Their names are a big contributing factor to the companies' success, but they certainly are not the only reason. In addition, the companies produce good products, and spend a lot of money on advertising and PR. This latter point is often ignored by start-ups, who seem to think that a 'fruity' name picked at random, such as Purple Tomatoes or Banana IT Services, will somehow guarantee a business a brilliant future.
Apple, Orange and Blackberry are not names that were picked at random, despite the fact that they seem not to have any connection with the technical products they apply to. When Apple started up, most computers and computer companies had boring names based around the prefixes Com-, Compu- or -Tel, or the words Machines or Systems. Apple, as a different sort of name, was meant to indicate a different sort of computer, one that was less complicated and more user-friendly. The word apple has a positive image -- it appears in phrases such as motherhood and apple pie, the apple of my eye and an apple for the teacher -- so Apple computers benefited from the 'halo effect'. The word apple is closely associated with Eve, the first woman, since she disobeyed God by taking a bite from one, and so this name, more than other computer names of the era, would have appealed to women. An apple is also the 'forbidden fruit' and symbol of disobedience, which gave Apple Computers the image of an iconoclastic company that challenged existing wisdom and broke new ground.
The mobile phone company Orange is named after the colour, not the fruit, as shown by its original tagline 'The future's bright, the future's Orange.' Moreover, the company logo is a square, nothing like the shape of the fruit. The company website's colours are predominantly orange and black, so there is a harmony between all aspects of the company's branding -- name, logo, advertising and sales material. Less savvy businesses which call themselves by a fruity name, and those whose pockets aren't so deep, cannot emulate the big players in the field and often their name seems incongruous and unconnected with anything else about their business.
The Blackberry smart phone was first given the name PocketLink. Then someone noticed that the little buttons on the keypad looked like strawberry seeds. Strawberry became Blackberry as the naming agency Lexicon Branding felt that the alliteration (two Bs), a dynamic plosive sound (B) instead of a lazier sibilant sound (S), and a shorter vowel sound suggested speed and efficiency more, and was a catchier and more memorable name.
Giving your business a fruity name is not a guaranteed route to success -- who remembers Apricot computers nowadays? The name must fit in with the rest of your company values, or at least have a story behind it. The fruits apple, orange and blackberry have no negative connotations, but the same cannot be said about other fruits: a lemon, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, can also be a simpleton or loser, as well as something undesirable which fails to meet your expectations, a mandarin is an official who, again in the words of the OED, can often be secretive and reactionary, cherry is a synonym of virgin or virginity, and as for wanting to be associated with the word bananas...!
For advice and information on choosing a winning name for your brand or business, start reading Choosing a Winning Name for Your Business now by clicking here http://www.winningnames.co.uk/businessname.php.
For Susan's blog on names in the news go to http://www.winningnames.wordpress.com. Susan Purcell is a linguist who advises small businesses and start-ups on choosing a winning name that will create the right impression and attract more clients.
