Branding strategy revolves around developing the brand, creating awareness of that brand, and then obtaining and sustaining brand loyalty over a period of time.  A brand can be a physical product, a service or a corporation.  Brands are developed in order to gain a competitive advantage in a marketplace filled with a myriad of alternatives for consumers.  One important element in branding strategy that is often overlooked is the brand’s name.

To keep things simple, think of a brand as a person:  A person has a name; so does a brand.  A person has a certain type of personality; so does a brand.  A person is packaged or looks a certain way; so does a brand.  A person can be described demographically (e.g., female, educated, higher income, and so on); so can a brand. Just as we are attracted to or repelled by certain people, the same thing happens with our attraction/repulsion to/of brands.  The problem for many brand owners is that the name of the brand might work in the country in which it was originally launched.  However, when the brand enters new, international markets, it suddenly has a name that is difficult to pronounce, means something else, or can actually be a cultural insult.

The people example: When our children were born, we had to think of two things being that they are both U.S. and Swedish citizens and will spend considerable time in both countries: First, they had to have names that could be pronounced similarly in each language.  We did not consult your typical book of possible baby names.  Instead, we had to develop lists of names for boys and girls (we did not know the gender of either of the children before each was born) that worked in two different languages. Second, we had to make sure that, even if they could be pronounced similarly in two languages, the name did not end up meaning or representing something else in one of the cultures.  How did our adventure in international linguistics end?  Lukas for our boy; Natalie for our girl.

The brand example:  I once came back to Michigan State University’s advertising program (from which I graduated in 1988) to “hire” the students in the program’s capstone course (ADV486), where actual companies “hire” the students to develop ad campaigns for their company and/or brand(s).  It is an invaluable experience for the students before they graduate; the company that hires them, gets creative ideas from some very talented advertising minds.  I was coming from Europe to East Lansing representing a cookie company in Sweden that wanted to look into launching their high-end brand of cookie in North America.  The problem (and one of the duties for the five groups of students, each of which developed an actual ad campaign for the client) was the name of the cookie in Swedish:  Prix.  That’s right…just like it sounds…phonetically in English it would have been P…r...i…c…Well, you get the idea.

I told the client here in Sweden that the students, before they could develop any sort of ad campaign for the brand, first had to have the freedom to give the brand another name.  The students went on not only to do this, but also to develop excellent ad campaigns behind the new name.  From there, the brand at least had a chance.  Either way, the client ended up with five different brand name ideas, each with a promotional campaign behind it.

So what is the moral of this story?  Be careful what you name any of the brands your company develops, as the opportunity to take any one of them international always exists.  Just to be safe, be careful what you name your kids as well … you never know where life will take them!

NOTE:  If you are interested in becoming a client for the advertising course mentioned above, please contact Professor Bruce Vanden Bergh at the department of advertising, public relations, and retailing at Michigan State University. His e-mail is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and his office telephone is 517-353-8606.

		Tim Foster is a lifelong resident of East Lansing and has spent a large portion of his adult life obtaining his education and working as a consultant in both the U.S. and Europe.  He will soon complete a PhD in marketing from a Swedish university and hopes to someday return to his alma mater (MSU) to teach.  Tim can be reached at his e-mail, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .