Brands that don’t give a damn about Romania, on a naming daily basis

27 Jul

 

 

Fa, especially talking to women – In Romanian,” fa” is a derogatory appelative for a cheap woman.

Blackberry Curve – In Romanian, “curve” means whores.

Benq Qisda – “qisda” sounds exacly like a slang term which may reffer to vagina or easy woman.

BTS – on several brands accesible in Romania, even on products for children, in Romanian – BTS stands for sexually transmited diseases.

You are invited to find others!

 

PILOS DAIRY NAME FAIL (sana, lapte, smantana)

26 Jun

In Romanian, derived from French and the older Latin – “pilos” means hairy. Who would want that in a dairy product? And the marketers could find this information with the minimum naming research. So why try to enter the Romanian market with such a stupid approach? Why cut your strings from the beginning of the show, when there are brands that use a lot of different naming approaches to pet different markets?

Take the great example from ALGIDA. The same ice-cream as Langnese/Wall’s is sold under different names around the world:

Algida (Albania, Kosovo, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey, Hungary, Croatia)

Bresler (Chile)

Eskimo (Slovenia, Croatia, Austria)

Frigo (Spain)

Frisko (Denmark)

GB Glace (Finland and Sweden)

Glidat Strauss (גלידת שטראוס) Short: Strauss (שטראוס) (Israel)

Good Humor (Canada USA)

HB (Ireland)

Holanda (Mexico and Latin America)

Kibon (Brazil)

Langnese (Germany)

Miko (France, Morocco)

Ola (Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and South-Africa)

Olá (Portugal)

Pierrot Lusso, Short: Lusso (Switzerland)

Pingüino (Ecuador)

Selecta (Philippines)

Streets (Australia, New Zealand)

Tio Rico (Venezuela)

Wall’s (Indonesia, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Lebanon, Singapore, Thailand and Maldives)

Kwality Wall’s (India)

And that’s only the first example which came into my mind.

How I Met Your Mother – Names of clubs

2 Jun

 

 

Naming is all about having fun!

“Barney : Let’s see, what club should we hit first ? There’s club “Was”, there’s “Wrong”…

Marshall : Those places shut down a long time ago.

Barney : Oh no!

Marshall : Yeah “Oh No” shut down too!

Ted : There’s “Where”.

Jerry : Where’s “Where”?

Lily : “Where”’s where “Was” was isn’t it?

Barney : No “Was” wasn’t where “Where” was, “Was” was where “Wrong” was right?

Jerry : Okay…

Ted : No “Okay” that place is lame.

Robin : “Okay” is lame ? I thought “Lame” was a gay bar… Or is that “Wrong”

 Marshall : That’s wrong, that’s not “Wrong”.

Barney : Guys, focus!

Robin : Oh I like “Focus” let’s go there!

Ted : Where?

Robin : Not “Where”, “Focus !

Lily : I thought “Focus” was closed?

Barney : No, “Was” was closed, once “Was” shut down it reopened “Is Closed”

Marshall : “Closed” is opened!

Robin : No, “Closed” is closed.”

 

Kind of  ”Zed’s dead, baby! Zed’s dead!”

Read more: http://www.tvfanatic.com/quotes/shows/how-i-met-your-mother/page-2.html#ixzz1O7y4D9g2

Bio Products – A Tell Tale

2 Feb

I have this beautiful TV reporter friend who comes from a very into questioning everything family. Truth be told, being just an ordinary Romanian makes you do that, but that’s another story. So, one day, the TV reporter’s brother gets aroused observing hundreds of synthetically weird products in a shop, all wearing the scarlet letter of big price – the BIO logo. Confused by the clear call to action these products were shouting, with truthful radical colors, mature content ingredients all shaped to cherish evolution and fine cuts, he asks the shop assistant: How come they’re labelled Bio? Based on what? With a preciously flavored smile she replies: Oh, Bio is the name of our boss.

A classic.

Of Names Of Episodes Of TV Shows

17 Jan

The naming trend or the effective solution American TV shows found for identifying episodes is by using popular song names and movie names in puns or ad litteram.

From Rolling Stones to Eagles, seasons look like playlists.

A short example from last night’s new entries on my favorite online channel: Start Me Up – Gray’s Anatomy, Fools Rush In – Greek, Where Do I Belong – Desperate Housewives, If You Don’t Know Me By Now – Private Practice, New Kidney In Town – Family Guy and The Kids Are Not Alright – Gossip Girl.

Very impressive indeed, but not so memorable and even subject to confusions. I still believe that the best naming strategy for the episodes of a TV Show was practiced with Friends – they simply used the way people name episodes when they forget the actual name – descriptive ones – The One Where Joey Speaks French – easy to remember, easy to find, online or elsewhere.

Naming Naming Agencies

25 Oct

 

The bulk: Brand Institute, The Naming Company, BizWord, Name Lab, Name Base, NamingStuff, Name Development, Brighter Naming, Nomen, Nomenon,  Nomino

The memorable: Frozen Lemons, Apella

The great: A Hundred Monkeys, NamingNames, Igor

Obviously.

the names of our fathers

19 Oct

Naming and the Sea of Stories

14 Sep

In fairytales, naming a character means bringing it to life, making it appear and perform its magic, whether it is white or Beetlejuice-Candyman-Moriarty black.

In real life, the good and politically correct naming of a problem means at least half way ahead to the solution. Thus, naming is power. Your name enables you to tell where you come from, what your dreams are, where you wanna go, what you’re gonna wear, why should people love you, why should corporations pay you, what will you bring to the table and how it rocks. Please stop crushing perfectly fancy names between the vain powers of common roots, such as: art-, euro-, -vision, -invest, -first and the odious -media-.

Let’s go to work

17 Aug

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dm6Z3eYs7E

Namers should have balls like that.

A name to long for

5 Aug

Stands for stylish-rockish-sexy-precious-intensive handmade jewelery – which I chose to wear at my wedding, obviously.

More new entries on www.gavrilescu.com

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