The Name Game

What's in a name? Plenty, if you're a CPG marketer, but different rules apply to retailers.

I spend about half of my professional life thinking and acting like a retailer, and the other half behaving (or misbehaving, if you insist) like a packaged goods marketer. Sometimes, however, certain topics bring these contrasting approaches into dramatic contrast, which sets my head spinning.

Recently, within a 24-hour period, I had two conversations about the importance of naming. A CPG colleague was going on and on about the importance of name selection. He suggested that no single decision was more important in the branding process and that no expense should be spared, implying that the wrong name could kill a promising product. His attitude explains the phenomenon of the $500,000-per-project naming experts.

In contrast, a retailer friend suggested that the banner name really didn't matter much. He was selecting a name for a new format, and considered it to be a minor detail — one of the thousand things he needed to do before the store opened. Not surprisingly, this got me to thinking, and after some reflection, I've realized that both of my friends are right: It's just that the nature of retail is so different from the nature of branded products that the importance of naming really is quite different.

When you're introducing a CPG product into the supermarket, you're instantly committing to do battle with the 40,000 SKU and 10,000 brand names already in the store. But when you open a new store, you need only to stand out from the other 10 stores in the mall or, at worst, the other 50 stores in the neighborhood. And the brand gets an average ofabout 16 square inches of package space to tell its story, while the average store has almost 1,000 square feet of frontage to use to communicate good reasons to come inside. And perhaps most importantly, with a brand, you need to buy it to try it. With the exception of the occasional sampling event, you need to part with your cash to try the product, while stores invite you to experience the store (if not the goods) on your own terms.

Naming is a critical function for CPG companies — it's one of the few variables that will determine the success or failure of a brand. But naming is just not that important for retailers — its importance pales in comparison with the importance of concept, selection and location. In fact, even the great retail names are sometimes simply accidents. Remember, the first warehouse club had the seemingly perfect name of Price Club only because it was founded by one Sol Price.

What should retailers do about naming? I have two specific suggestions. First, my friend Kevin Shriver, a recently retired strategy (and purchasing) guru from Minneapolis-based General Mills, and I are offering up the four-names theory. That is to say, there are only four names to consider for a retail establishment: "Blank City," "Mr. Blank," "Blank Unlimited"and "Blank ‘n’Stuff". It really is that simple. If you want to open a tire store, for instance, you could call it Tire City, Mr. Tire,Tires Unlimited orTires‘n’ Stuff; for pets, it's Pet City, Mr. Pet, Pets Unlimited or Pets ‘n’Stuff.

There are a few variants to the four-name theory. City could become Town, Village, World or even Universe; ‘n’ Stuff could be ‘n’ Things; and, in certain categories, Mr. could become Miss, Ms or Mrs. But the basic theory holds.

Second, however, retailers need to understand that when it comes to private label, the name is important. It seems clear that most retailers have spent little time or imagination on the names of their private label lines. Here's a place where the retailers are actually being packaged goods companies, and they need to act the part. So retailers can feel free to give short shrift to naming, but when it comes to private label, naming is just as critical for retailers as it is for CPG manufacturers.

So, retailers of America, let the packaged goods wizards spend millions of dollars on naming exercises — but give your private label department some latitude and the budget to create great names of their own.

David Diamond is an independent consultant to leading retailers, manufacturers and service providers in the grocery industry. In his over 25-year career, he has helped numerous small companies identify and execute the strategies that have allowed them to become large companies. He can be contacted at [email protected].