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What a name can do for a brand

Johannes Roth
3 hours ago
8 min read
Nameplate, town house, showing J.Caesar as one of the names.

Brand management 2026. An excursion to the series.

By Johannes Roth, CURTH+ROTH

Imagine you build cars. You name your new model after a dealer's daughter. She is ten years old. Any agency today would advise against it. That is exactly how Mercedes came about.

Names are strange. Some have no meaning and work anyway. Others have a meaning and fail because of it. Why is that?


Mercedes: a girl's name becomes a star

Around 1900, Emil Jellinek sold cars on the Côte d'Azur. He raced under the name of his daughter, Mercédès. In 1900, he ordered a new car from Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft. It was to be called "Mercedes". In 1902, the name was registered as a trademark.

Why is a woman's name accepted as a car brand? Three reasons come to mind. The sound is soft, elegant and Romance. In Spanish, Mercedes means "mercy" or "grace". And above all: the name was filled with meaning early on. Through racing wins, through quality and later through the star.

Mercedes did not bring any car-related meaning with it. The brand earned it.


HARIBO: an acronym that sounds like play

In 1920, Hans Riegel founded a confectionery company in Bonn. Hans Riegel Bonn became HARIBO. A founder's name as a brand. Isn't that old-fashioned?

For HARIBO, it works. Three open syllables. Rhythmic, easy to say, almost like baby talk. The meaning comes from the German slogan "HARIBO macht Kinder froh" ("HARIBO makes children happy"). IKEA follows the same pattern, by the way: Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd.

We do not know whether such a name would succeed in the same way today. What is clear: the sound helped the acronym.


Sony: why does no one hear "so nie"?

Sony is an invented word. It combines the Latin "sonus" (sound) with the English "sonny". The aim was a short name that could be pronounced anywhere in the world. Sony has existed as a brand since 1955 and as a company name since 1958.

In German, Sony could be read as "so nie", meaning "never like that". Hardly anyone does. Our assumption: the logo, the English pronunciation and decades of presence override the German reading. The gestalt beats the dictionary.


What you can't pronounce, you don't say

Sony shows something else. A name has to be easy to say. In our interviews, we see it again and again: when people don't know how to pronounce a name, they avoid it. They talk around it or switch to another brand. Along with the name, they often avoid the brand.

Research supports this observation. In 2009, Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwarz showed that food additives with hard-to-pronounce names were judged to be more risky. In 2006, Adam Alter and Daniel Oppenheimer found that shares with easy-to-pronounce names performed better in their first days of trading. What rolls off the tongue feels more familiar.

But it also works the other way round. A difficult name can signal exclusivity. Häagen-Dazs is the finest example. The name sounds Scandinavian and upmarket. It means nothing. Reuben Mattus invented it in the Bronx around 1960. The foreignness itself was meant to promise quality. One study on brand acronyms even found that harder-to-read abbreviations seem more competent.

When does foreignness help, and when does it hurt? Our hypothesis: it depends on the risk. An ice cream is a small purchase. If it goes wrong, little is lost. Here, the foreign can be appealing. With big purchases, it is different. Anyone offering something unfamiliar there needs trust. A manufacturer entering a new segment, for example. Then the name should build trust, not create a sense of strangeness. The VW Phaeton, further below, shows how this can go wrong.


When a name points in the wrong direction

Being incomprehensible is not a problem. Being misunderstood is.

The Mitsubishi Pajero is the best-known example. The idea was good. The name comes from a wild cat that lives in the rugged mountains of South America. A fitting image for an off-road vehicle. But in Spanish, "pajero" is a vulgar insult. In Spanish-speaking countries and in North America, the car is therefore called the Montero.

The case shows that even a well-founded name can backfire. Hardly anyone knows where it comes from. Everyone knows what it means in everyday language.

Hyundai had a similar experience. In Portuguese, "Kona" sounds like a vulgar word. In Portugal, the Kona is therefore called the Kauai. Both names are places in Hawaii. So the idea is preserved. Only the sound changes.

Not every misunderstanding does harm, though. In France, "TT Coupé" sounds like "tête coupée", meaning "severed head". The Audi TT became a success nonetheless. The gestalt of design, brand and product was stronger than the sound of the words. People don't hear a dictionary. They perceive a gestalt.

That does not mean checking is unnecessary. The Pajero and the Kona show the opposite. It just means: if you check, check the whole gestalt. With people from the culture in question. Not just with a translation tool.


A name rarely comes alone

It gets even harder when a name is part of a system. Mercedes-Benz Trucks shows this. Actros, Arocs, Zetros. These names sound powerful. The ending recalls the names of Greek heroes. Hard consonants add to the impression.

The medium-duty series is called Atego. In comparison, the name sounds softer. Does it fit the system less well? Or does a distribution truck simply not need heroic pathos? A caveat: the Actros is the flagship for long-haul transport. Perhaps the heroic effect also comes from the product's role, not from the name. Only tests without product context could settle this.

The lesson: when you develop a name, you develop a system along with it. The next name has to fit the previous ones. And leave room for future ones. In Part 2, we used the concept of self-similarity for this. It applies to name families, too.


The Phaeton case

The VW Phaeton shows how much a name can achieve, and how little.

"Phaeton" means "the shining one". The name even has a motoring history. In the 19th century, a phaeton was an open carriage driven by its owner. Later, open touring cars were also called phaetons.

The myth is better known. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Phaethon is the son of the sun god Helios. He is allowed to drive the sun chariot just once. He loses control and crashes. In 2001, VW explained that the name "takes up a theme from antiquity and projects it into the future of modern car-making" (our translation). Der Spiegel mocked: "Unfortunately, it seems nobody read any further."

But the myth can also be read differently. Ovid gives Phaethon an epitaph. Roughly: he could not hold the chariot. But he fell in a great venture. Crash or courage? The meaning does not lie in the word. It lies in the interpretation. And as with the Pajero: hardly anyone knows where the name comes from.

The pronunciation weighed more heavily. Päton, Pfäton, Pfeton or Pha-eton? In German interviews, we have heard every variant. And even VW apparently could not agree. A Phaeton driver reports on the German forum motor-talk.de: the hotline said "Fähtohn", nasal as in "futon". At the handover in Dresden, it was "Fätonnn", fairly hard. In the TV advertising, by contrast, "Pha-eton". His question: "So what is actually right?" If even the manufacturer hesitates, how are customers supposed to know?

The parent brand weighed even more heavily. In English-speaking markets, "Phaeton" was hardly the issue. There, the question was: can a "Volkswagen" be a luxury saloon? As early as 2002, TIME called the Phaeton "a huge gamble for a company whose very name means People's Car". In 2004, Newsweek asked whether buyers paying 66,000 dollars would "forgive the plebeian nameplate". In the US, VW withdrew the Phaeton in 2006 due to weak sales. A name that has promised "for everyone" for decades cannot simply be stretched into the luxury class.

And then there was the product itself. The Phaeton had several weak spots:


  • Status: too little prestige for the money.

  • Looks: easily mistaken for a Passat. A British car magazine still writes today: "It looks like a slightly overfed Passat."

  • Technology: the complex electronics were considered fragile. There were breakdowns and repairs.

  • Maintenance: complex and costly.

  • Name: unclear pronunciation, even at VW.

[G

raphic: The Phaeton's weak spots]


How much the name contributed to the failure cannot be separated out. It was probably the smallest share. But it fitted the picture. Trust in a new segment is built from many signals. The name is one of them. And it is the first one customers encounter.

What this means in practice

A good name connects with the audience. And it communicates a brand promise. Whether it does so can be tested:


  1. Test hearing and reading separately. Some associations arise only when hearing a name, others only when reading it.

  2. Have it read aloud. This reveals the actual pronunciation. And whether people hesitate.

  3. Spontaneous associations first. No hints, no priming.

  4. Test in the real target markets. With local cultural experts, not just in German-speaking countries.

  5. Separate name and product. Blind tests with names without context.

  6. Think about the system. Does the new name fit the family? And does the parent brand fit the new segment?

  7. Consider purchase risk and sender. The bigger the purchase and the newer the segment, the more the name has to build trust.

  8. Fix the pronunciation. And make it binding internally, from advertising to the hotline.

  9. Play through distortions. How could the name be twisted or reinterpreted as an acronym? Mockery likes to attach itself to existing prejudices.


How we develop a name: an example

A client wanted to launch a new product for agriculture. It needed a name. This is how we went about it:


  1. Listen. First, we spoke with farmers from different regions. We wanted to understand the rational and emotional benefits. And possible barriers.

  2. Open up naming territories. From these conversations, we developed emotional naming territories. And defined which performance promise the name should carry.

  3. Develop names. Based on this, Marion Ballier developed name proposals along several dimensions.

  4. Sort out. The client team struck out names that were not an option for the company.

  5. Check the legal side. The remaining names were checked for trademark availability.

  6. Make it visible. For the names left, the design team developed logo variants. Because a name never works on its own.

  7. Pre-select. The whole team made a shortlist.

  8. Test with the audience. We surveyed farmers on this shortlist.


The result: a registrable name that the audience accepted straight away.

The order is what matters. It does not start with a list of names. It starts with the people who will later say the name. And at the end, they have their say again.

Of course, a single case proves nothing. But it shows how the checkpoints above work together in a real project.


Who we work with

Marion Ballier is a naming specialist. She develops names that translate brand strategy into language, create differentiation and generate resonance. She supports companies in times of change. With strategic name development and a structured process. It takes positioning, trademark availability and linguistic and cultural suitability into account.

The division of labour is clear. Marion Ballier develops the names and checks language, law and culture. We research what the audience needs. And we test how the names work with them. Together with our clients, we develop names that carry weight.


A word of caution

Mercedes, HARIBO and Sony are success stories. We explain their success with hindsight. We do not see the failed names that sounded similar. Conversely, products rarely fail because of the name alone. The Phaeton shows this. Success and failure can come from the product, from sales or from timing. And our associations are those of German speakers. Cases show patterns. They cannot prove anything.

And you?

Which product names have struck you as particularly good or bad? What were your first feelings and thoughts?

We look forward to your examples. Disagreement is welcome, too.


Sources


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