Sticks and Stones.

Seems companies are going out of their way to invent names for their products.  If you’ve read Blink or Making it Stick, you’d know that a product name needs to not only be clever but also high concept—easy to associate with the product’s purpose.  Good names?  iPod, Walkman, Mustang, Salad Spinner, Hula Hoop, Container Store.  Best of the worst grocery store names of all time?  Piggly Wiggly.  What’s that mean?  Microsoft gets kudos—Excel for a spreadsheet.  Word—perfect (actually WordPerfect is even better).  Access.  PowerPoint.  SharePoint.  Get the point?

Read these education industry product names out loud--to yourself.

• eSembler
• Transfinder
• Eduphoria
• Winsnap
• SchoolDude
• Moodle
• Winocular
• Parature
• NetTrekker
• RaizersEdge
• Starbak
• NutriKids

We’ve gone beyond acronyms, beyond descriptive names, beyond family names.  You are challenged to guess what each product really does based upon its name.  NutriKids wins the EduGuru's only annual award for the best made-up, composite product name in the education market.  The name actually makes kids sound like they are good for you.  The others?  ConfusiMonikers.  AnonaNames.  ForgetMePleases.  ComeAgains.

The EduGuru speaks:  Names will never hurt me?  Hearing some of these names hurts me.

Comments

[Jim]

Hello Eduguru!!!

I'm a bit confused. How does Excel(cell is a stretch) indicate that it has anything to do with a spreadsheet? So you know, I have read Blink and even seen Malcom Gladwell in person. I think you are missing his point or perhaps taking it a bit too far and personal. For instance, Eduphoria, a product I work with, seems to be a perfect name. Euphoria is a name that connotates euphoria and education. Definition: Euphoria (emotion), a state of very intense happiness and feelings of well-being. This is a BROAD company name, but there are many products within the company that do have a true representation of exactly what the product does, unlike Excel. For that matter, Microsoft is the company that makes Excel. Is Microsoft representative of the multiple products they provide? Perhaps we should rename Microsoft-slidesanddataandcellsandbunchofotherstuffsoft. Catchy huh? Using your logic of Microsoft, Eduphoria essentially has done the same thing-given a broad company name that suggests the industry in which they reside, at the same time, adding a catchy phrase to the industry indentity. They then name their products relevant to their functions: Workshop(crazy huh?) Formspace(can't imagine what this one does) Appraise(this might have to do with religion, though who knows huh?), PDAS(give me a break...). Let's analyze Microsoft-PowerPoint(new wrestling move) Excel(perhaps this has to do with the constant accelleration of time/space). You know why you think these suggest what they do? Because they are imbedded in your phsyce. If you had never heard of them and used them a million times, you would not have a clue. Before the "weed eater"(brand name by the way-it's a weed trimmer) was invented, what would you think when you heard that phrase? Probably not what you think 20 yeers after its invention. I don't understand your logic or purpose. My response is almost as ridiculous as your logic, but since your asking for a response, I'll play along and give one.