WHAT'S IN A NAME? E-LOT, THEY
SAY
One Spring evening some years ago, in a moment
of alcohol-induced exuberance, two friends decided to set up a fast-food
business. Fed up of the burgers and pizzas on offer in the market, they decided
their baby would sell the very Indian kathi-kabab rolls instead.
The branding was a product of former McKinsey
employee Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee's long-standing annoyance: “Fanatic
Activism Against Substandard Occidental Shit“, or Faaso's. The sundowners at
Kallol's Pune residence had hit home.
“We didn't do any market research to zero in on
a name. We didn't want typical names associated with pizzas and burgers,“ said
Barman, who, during his London years, had badly missed the desi grub.“When we
opened our first restaurant in Pune, people went `What the hell is this?' The
name built curiosity and intrigued them,“ he said.
`Naaptol.com' too had its genesis in fluid,
though of a less potent variety.Launched by IIT Kanpur-Minnesota University
grad Manu Agarwal in 2008, the name stuck to Agarwal's mind during a swim. “We
started off as a comparison portal where consumers could `naap' and `tol' to
decide which product to buy . Our underlying mission and vision remains
unchanged -to give consumers only win-win deals,“ Agarwal said.Quirky names,
often with a distinct grassroot connect, are by now well-entrenched in the
Indian business scene. The trend has been pronounced in the e-commerce world.
Shaadi.com, Naukri.com, Quikr.com, Myntra.com are popular examples.
The connect with the target audience is almost
immediate, with recall value as bonus. Like Harish Bijoor of the eponymous
brand consultancy firm put it, in the e-commerce space, brand name is
everything as there is no physicality . For instance, nobody had heard of
Foodiebay .com until it was rechristened This is unlike the brick & mortar
space, Bijoor says, where you can get away with names that are not so
distinctive, meaningful or oblique. Some look for English words and translate
them like aam.com. For instance, a portal for those considering a “second marriage“
goes Secondshaadi.com.
“When an enterprise is launched in India, the
targets are Indian customers and the Indian diaspora which appreciates Hindi.
Some also opt for regional languages like a Gujarati name, which again is an
attempt to appeal to a particular group,“ Bijoor said.
Trendy apparel retailer Chulbulstore.com, for
instance, means naughty and mischievous in a playful way . It is a catchy ,
hardto-forget name, says founder Vivek Pathak.
Companies, in their quest to be memorable, have
in the past named brands after their founders, positive thoughts, places of
origin, colours, gods and business descriptions. Tata Salt, Birla Cement, Bajaj
Fans, are obvious examples, besides Thums Up, Kalyani beer and Maruti.
Jessie Paul, founder of Paul Writer, a marketing
advisory firm, says as long as a story can be told to connect the consumer with
the name, company or product, they will remember it. As four-letter
combinations and most meaningful English words are either already in use or
have been squatted upon, new firms have to get creative.Indic routes are an
advantage as these domains may still be available compared to the much higher
demand for English names.
“It has become harder and harder to find words
that can be registered; hence, the outburst of creativity . If you plan to
address a global or even pan-India market, the best names are those that make
sense in multiple languages, short and phonetic spellings,“ Paul said.
“By next year, even these hatke but meaningful
names would have been used up and we'll be seeing catchy words combined with
old favourites like `super', `India', and `online',“ Paul said.
The naamkaran ritual has never been so
interesting.
Reeba
Zachariah & Harish C Menon
TOI22MAR15
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