The world of brands is full of stories about naming. We love to collect such stories and present them to you regularly. Today we have a selection of 5 (probably secret) stories, which we bet will be interesting for you to read. So here we go:
Panera
Panera is a brand of sandwiches in the United States. The brand’s Facebook page states that the origin of the brand name has Latin and Spanish roots. Looking in the dictionary we find that the Spanish part “pan” means bread. The Latin “era” stands for age. The sense of the name becomes obvious: „The age of bread”.
J. Crew
Looking down the hall of fashion brand names, we can’t help but notice the story of J. Crew’s naming. In Forbes publication the founder of the brand revealed that he choose the name as a competition move against Ralph Lauren’s polo line. Crew and Polo are both words that stand for great sport activities, and the J in J. Crew adds uniqueness and sound. Sounds like a good lesson for any brand entrepreneur.
Rolex
The founder of Rolex Hans Wilsdorf has also shared the history of his brand’s naming. We doubt how serious he was when he told the story in Business Insider, but briefly his explanation was “A genie whispered “Rolex” in my ear”. However, before the genie’s whisper, he admits that the made combinations with all of the letters in the alpha bet looking for a name that will sound great in any language. Which means that if you want to be blessed by a genie’s whisper, first you have to work hard with letters and words. If you don’t have the time for us, hire a brand naming agency to do it ;)
Lululemon
Lulu-what? This is a very special brand name because it is very intentionally invented to be hard for pronounce. “It was thought that a Japanese marketing firm would not try to create a North American sounding brand with the letter ‘L’ because the sound does not exist in Japanese phonetics. By including an ‘L’ in the name it was thought the Japanese consumer would find the name innately North American and authentic.” Those are the word of the founder of Lululemon Chip Wilson.
Häagen-Dazs
We intended this list to be consisted of only 4 stories. But when it’s mid July and you find yourself writing a brand naming article while eating Haagen-Fazs, the fortune comes at play and you can’t help but tell the naming story of the infamous ice cream brand. It’s actually one of the deepest naming stories we’ve encountered so far.
Reuben Mattus is the owner of Haagen-Dazs and he is a Jewish immigrant form Poland. He wanted the name of his brand to sound like a Danish name, because he wanted to pay tribute to Denmark. So he basically invented the name with а special thought for Denmark, because Denmark was of the few countries which saved the Jews during the World War II.
