Our July naming quote of the month:
“Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable.”
W. H. Auden, Anglo-American Poet
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Our June naming quote of the month:
“I wanna get a job as someone who names kitchen appliances. Toaster, refrigerator, blender … all you do is say what the shit does, and add ‘-er’. I wanna work for the Kitchen Appliance Naming Institute. ‘Hey, what does that do?’ ‘It keeps shit fresh.’ ‘Well, that’s a fresher … I’m going on break’.”
Mitch Hedberg, American Comedian
Like any other exotic culture, Las Vegas fascinates me. The Los Angeles Times has a great story on the latest trend in Vegas clubbing — the exclusive pool party. With names like Rehab (at the Hard Rock Hotel — and clearly the best name of the bunch), Bare (at the Mirage), the Venus Pool Club (at Caesars Palace), and the Tao Beach Club (at the Venetian), these new “dayclubs” now make the Vegas “nightlife” a round-the-clock proposition:
Since it began in 2004, Rehab has transformed Vegas’ once-sleepy daytime scene into a “Girls Gone Wild” tableau of debauchery. Today, almost every major casino resort has nightclub operators managing its 21-and-over pools. They hire DJs to spin music and demand hefty cover charges. Rates vary by the weekend; on the cheapest days women pay $20, men $30.
Several resorts have separate “Euro-style,” or top-optional, pools, with half-naked women cavorting in the water. This summer, both the Mirage and Venetian — heavyweights in the nightclub arena — have unveiled re-imagined pools.
“It’s done a remarkable thing to the nightlife landscape,” [the Hard Rock Hotel's Jack] LaFleur said. “Day life? It’s hard to even categorize ! It’s finding those ways to generate revenue. For a town that’s been known exclusively for nightlife, this was extremely daring and off the charts.”
The gamble is paying off.
What will they think of next? Whatever your reaction, you’ve got to admit Las Vegas is a one-of-a-kind laboratory for destination branding. See you at the pool.
Swedish physician and botanist Carolus Linnaeus (AKA Carl von Linné) would have been 300 years old today. Known as the father of modern taxonomy, he developed the system of scientific nomenclature we use in one form or another to this day: Kingdom, Class, Order, Genus, Species, Variety.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau said of him: “I know no greater man on earth.” August Strindberg eulogized him as “a poet who happened to become a naturalist.” And Swiss physiologist Albrecht von Haller called him “the second Adam” because, like the first man, he named every living thing.
Here are some fun facts about Carl:
At the time he lived, most Swedes had no family name. When he entered the University of Lund, he invented the surname Linnaeus after the linn ‘linden tree’ that served as his family crest.
He included a variety of mythological creatures (including the troglodyte, satyr, hydra, and phoenix) in his system of classification.
He was the first person to figure out how to grow bananas in Europe.
He made a habit of naming ugly plants after his critics. Hmmm.
Our May naming quote of the month:
“The right name is an advertisement in itself.”
Claude C. Hopkins, British Advertising Pioneer
Our April naming quote of the month:
“A name is a mirror to capture the soul of a thing [...]”
Susan Brind Morrow, American Egyptologist
It’s been an extraordinarily hectic but especially enjoyable month around here, with a variety of entertainment, hospitality, and restaurant projects competing for our attention. We hope to catch our collective breath this weekend, watch the Bruins thrash the Gators, and return to a more regular blogging schedule in April.
The Cruise Log, USA Today’s “port of call for cruising news and trends,” recently discussed the cruising industry’s startling lack of imagination when it comes time to christen a new ship:
- Crown (Princess) and Crown (Norwegian)
- Dawn (Princess) and Dawn (Norwegian)
- Dream (Norwegian) and Dream (Carnival)
- Freedom of the Seas (Royal Caribbean) and Freedom (Carnival)
- Jewel of the Seas (Royal Caribbean) and Jewel (Norwegian)
- Legend (Carnival) and Legend of the Seas (Royal Caribbean)
- Magic (Disney) and Magic (Carnival)
- Pride (Carnival) and Pride (Norwegian)
- Sinfonia (MSC Cruises) and Symphony (Crystal Cruises)
- Splendour of the Seas (Royal Caribbean) and Splendor (Carnival)
- Star (Princess) and Star (Norwegian)
What’s going on here? Three things, I think. First, there’s the weight of nautical tradition. Second, this appears to be a clear-cut case of naming by focus group, an approach which inevitably yields a name that “sounds like a cruise ship” — like every other cruise ship, that is. Third, I suspect the cruise ship industry, like the theme park industry, suffers from the understandable but dangerous desire to be all things to all people.
It’s particularly surprising that Caribbean has fallen prey to these temptations, since they position themselves as the “fun ship” line. Kudos to Holland America for hewing to an even older tradition, naming its ships after the Dutch cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Oosterdam.
BusinessWeek has an intelligent story on the recent decision of Binney & Smith (a subsidiary of Hallmark) to rename itself after its most familiar brand — Crayola. This is one of those rare cases where the experts all seem to agree — it’s a strong, confident move by a company on a roll.
Crayola is one of the world’s great invented brand names, in the same league as Kodak, Oreo, and Google. Edwin Binney’s wife, Alice, coined the term from the French word craie ‘chalk’ (the source of our word crayon) plus the affix -ola (a clipped form of the word oleaginous ‘oil-like’ — think Mazola).
While we’re talking Hollywood, what are your out-of-the-gate picks for the best titles of 2007? You can see my early favorites — and the Los Angeles Times’ nominees – on our entertainment branding blog, Let’s Talk Story.