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How cool would you feel
pulling up to the stoplight and revving the engine of your new “Pastelogram”
coupe? Believe it or not, this unfortunate name is a real world example of brand
strategy misalignment.
After World War II, Ford’s
marketing executives dropped their usual year-based naming convention in favor
of names that connected with customers emotionally. However, by 1955, Ford struggled
to find a clever name that would “flash a dramatically desirable picture in
people's minds” for their latest car design.
Finally, assuming that a poet
would be about as clever as you could get, Ford hired a Pulitzer Prize winner to
take on the task and over the next few weeks they received dozens of tongue-twisting
car names like:
> Magigravure
> Symmechromatic
> Mongoose Civique
> Turcotinga
> Utopian
Turtletop
Because the poet lacked an
understanding of how Ford and their products were positioned in the
marketplace, there was no alignment between the names and their overall brand
strategy. In the end, Ford threw
out the poet’s suggestions and named their 1958 model the “Edsel” after the
founder’s son—not exactly the most logical branding strategy either.
To avoid a similar fiasco in your product naming, tagline or messaging, remember
to always step back and logically assess the connection to your brand’s
strategy. Alignment can only happen when you clearly define how you want to
position your brand and what emotions you want customers to associate with that
brand. The outcome will connect and resonate with your audience to create
winning results.
Tags: brand misalignment / naming / message / edsel / ford