We are always interested in what other branding agencies have to say about naming:

When your customers read your ad, look at your business card or browse your web site, a conversation is initiated. And that conversation begins when they first hear or see your company name. Surprisingly, the name is one of the most under utilized, challenging and yet possibly the most evoking element of a brand. A good name or tag line isn’t about a good idea. Vocal brand expression announces and ignites your Brand Verve™, engages your customers, positions and differentiates your company and becomes the catalyst that resonates your message.

The name of the naming company that brings you this thoughtful paragraph on the importance of a company name? Check it out.

This company also lays claim to as many proprietary processes as we’ve seen, including Voice Catalyst™. Visual Cue™, Brand Verve™, Evocative Ambiance™. Brand ROI™, “Brand Irresistibility™, and Brand Developer™.

At least they have a catchty domain to help smooth things out. Imagine giving this out over the phone.

This is either one of the better parody sites we’ve seen — or not. It gets harder and harder to tell.

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USA Today proclaimed August 1st “Igor Day”, on August 2nd the Igor blog got a permanent link on the homepage of Fast Company’s blog (maybe not so permanent after this post), under their recommended reading section called “FC Reads”, and today Landor summoned the intestinal fortitude to launch a blog and let the world see what they really think.

Sorry, that last one was pushing it. Let’s try again.

USA Today proclaimed August 1st “Igor Day”, on August 2nd the Igor blog got a permanent link on the homepage of Fast Company’s blog, under their recommended reading section called “FC Reads”, and today bottom dweller Bill O’Reilly and bottom-feeder Geraldo Rivera publicly professed their affection for one another. But as they are both “bottoms”, can it really last? Stay tuned.

This interesting looking coup is the new Sky from Saturn.

The bold new look signals Saturn’s first foray into reinventing their brand. The name Sky is a nice thematic tie-in with the name Saturn, and is the perfect name for a new convertible.

The name also helps to demonstrate and reinforce Saturn’s brand shift, as the name is a 180 from the cold, one-dimensional, random names of Saturn’s legacy offerings, the Vue, Ion and Relay.

While it appears Saturn is following the brand makeover blueprint created by sister company Cadillac, they are wisely not following Cadillac’s alpha-numeric naming scheme.

During Cadillac’s successful repositioning, the company dropped all real words from their product naming strategy and replaced them with numbers and letters. The idea was to elevate the brand, mimicking the naming schemes of BMW, Audi, Lexus and Infiniti.

Since then, Lincoln and others have either done the same or announced the intent to do so. Any consumer perceptions equating alpha-numeric car names with quality, performance or luxury will soon be non-existant.

Here’s the skinny on the new strategy:

The (Opel) GT is the latest in a lineup of head-turners by a company whose cars were long considered dull by Europeans.

Its inspiration comes from a popular Opel GT model of the 1960s, but the new Opel is very much a part of GM’s recent push toward edgy looks to win back market share. Top management is betting Opel’s dynamic design will help power GM Europe back to profitability in 2006 after five years of steady losses.

GM is also twinning its Opel and U.S.-based Saturn brands in a bid to expand Saturn’s lineup with models that sport “European appeal” to compete with Volkswagen and Audi in the U.S. Going forward, Saturn’s cars will share common modules, components, and design language with Opel.

The Opel GT and the Saturn Sky are the first true sister models. “This car is about joining Opel and Saturn at the hip. Saturn deliberately wants to have more European styling,” says Carl Peter Forster, president of GM Europe.

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