LG Thrill and Marquee: Smartphone naming gets smarter

With a huge appetite for evocative names based on real English language words, mobile carriers have put OEMs in an difficult position: to locate something ownable in an increasingly picked-over namescape. The resulting names, while resourceful, sometimes also come off as a bit ludicrous—to the endless delight of critics in industry pubs. (How many 10 Worst lists can you find?)

LG Electronics asked Applied Storytelling to address the naming bottleneck at several levels, from assessing the “state of naming” category-wide to refining LG’s own process to actually developing names for LG’s newest devices and technologies.

Thrill and Marquee are the first outcomes to go live from this ongoing effort. Debuting in 3Q 2011, the LG Thrill™ 4G is the first glasses-free 3D smartphone from AT&T. The name has enjoyed ready acceptance as a fitting cue for 3D-and-more capabilities the phone delivers.

Likewise, the LG Marquee, marketed through Sprint, has set the stage for a story around the smartphone’s ultrabright 4-inch Nova display as well as for its sleek, lightweight fusion of fashion and technology.

Ultimately, we see a world in which carriers and manufacturers come together to develop more truly brand-centric naming solutions. Until that day, we’re pleased to provide LG with a naming platform that supports an ambitious product roadmap while responding to the realities of smartphone naming today.

Naming made easy

So easy, in fact, anyone can do it. (Except that a growing number of the names you generate will already have dibs on them.) First, forget about any symbolic or rational link to the company to be named. That doesn’t matter. What matters is sheer, raw memorability—an iconic pow. This is the most important rule in the exercise. If you can’t do this, you simply can’t have the kind of name that will gain the notice you crave in the brave new world we live in.

Okay, now create two columns. Your name will be the combined result of the lh + rh columns. (Some clever, resourceful people will invert this order in the never-ending pursuit of ownability.)

In the lefthand column, list the four Pythagorean elements — air, earth, fire and water. Or, if you prefer, the six elements of the I-Ching: heaven, earth, thunder, water, mountain, wind (or wood), sun (or fire), marsh (or mist).

Beneath them, list the names of colors. Give preference to the basic colors of the spectrum. Obscure hues (carmine, sepia) or colors with long, complicated names (viridian, chartreuse), generally don’t work as well.

If you think you might need more options, you can add the names of basic elements (iron, copper, helium) or stones (jade, sapphire, diamond).

In the righthand column, list lots of names of animals. Give preference to commonly recognized animals —barnyard animals, the animals of the Chinese zodiac, etc. Add lots of birds and great cats.

If you think you might need more options, you can add a second set of names derived from flowers (rose, daisy, orchid) and possibly other plants and trees as long as the words are simple and the species aren’t overly obscure (pine, alder, ash).

Now, get some of those great multi-sided dice that used to be so popular for role-playing games in the pre-computer days — you can still find them at Forbidden Planet in Manhattan, among other places — and randomly generate some candidates. Keep going until you tire, get something that strikes your fancy, or hit upon something still ownable.

Lithium Bear

Rose Pine

Daisy Gray

Donkey Neon

Earth Rhino

Cheetah Green

Marsh Monkey

Ruby Tulip

Still not ownable enough?

Go to three elements (alternating columns):

Blue Cheetah Green

Add some fun numbers. Only you need to know what they refer to. But some numbers are inherently more pleasing than others. Our faves: 7, 13, 21, 24, 52, 69, 2000 and any numbers that repeat themselves (55, 66, 77, etc.). Don’t forget the the address of the street where your parents lived when you were born or derivatives of your birthday. Remember, good numbers should be easy to say as well as fun to look at!

21 Red Plover

Violet Monkey 69

Go have fun! And be a great, visionary entrepreneur, too.

[Apologies to anyone who already owns these names. We didn’t check them. We  just generated them at random.]

Genoptix introduces NexCourse, a comprehensive approach to solid tumor testing

Genoptix Medical Laboratories, a specialized laboratory diagnostics company focused on delivering personalized, comprehensive assessments to community-based hematologists and oncologists, has released its first bundled set of evaluations for solid tumors under the NexCourse™ name.

According to a company spokesman, the new solid tumor offering will play a significant role in the Genoptix’s goal of expanding its customer outreach in 2010.

The company turned to Applied Storytelling to develop a comprehensive brand messaging and naming framework that included the new name.

“Like many companies, Genoptix reached a point where an organic, one-off approach to product naming would no longer suffice,” says Eric La Brecque, Principal of Applied Storytelling.

“The new offering needed to be seen not only as important in its own right but also as part of a meaningful system—and an overall business strategy.”

Supplemented by external insights from Frymire & Associates (Menlo Park, CA), Applied Storytelling worked with a cross-section of company’s C-level executives and departmental leads to arrive at a new product naming and messaging solution. To succeed, the company needed to maintain the loyalty of its existing customer base as it reached out to a broader array of oncologists.

“In the oncology diagnostics space, as in so many other categories of service business, the pressures towards commoditization are tremendous,” says Matthew Kruchko, Managing Director of Applied Storytelling. “Those pressures can increase even further as a company diversifies its offering.”

In the life or death battle between diversification and commoditization, companies must often find ways to port their brand’s core strengths into their new offerings, Kruchko adds. Carefully considered messages, together with a compelling, credible, brand story, can play a vital role in making this translation possible.