It has recently come to my attention how certain companies seem to either be utterly oblivious to the meaning behind their chosen brand names or feel quite nonchalant about it.
In Italy, for instance, a fairly recent Vodafone spinoff was branded ‘Ho’. Needless to say that, when I switched to this new low-cost phone company and had to relay my new number at work, my British and American coworkers let out a sonorous guffaw. I suppose even its very own brand name must be low-rent in order for it to be financially viable.
That being said, it’s quite mystifying that at no stage in the decision-making process did anyone in the boardroom ever bother to check what this word might mean in other languages. Mind you, to the best of my knowledge, ‘ho’ does not have any particular meaning in Italian, either.
Another example of ill-conceived name is the pet food brand name BARF, which apparently stands for ‘Biologically Appropriate Raw Food’, but which has a sickening ring to it to most American ears. Surprisingly, though, this company is based in Minnesota. Go figure.
I came across scads of similarly ridiculous examples while researching this topic. Some verged on the offensive, others on the insensitive, but they all seemed to share a blatant disregard for the basic rules of brand naming. A constant reminder that language is powerful and that choosing the wrong name may even put you out of business.
