Naming procedure 'is very complex art'

“Naming rights'' usually means that you buy the rights to “name'' a public structure for a fee. This place can be a stadium, a park, a wing in a university or any place or a structure which attracts large crowds and has a captive audience.

This medium of securing exposure to a company's name to the passing public has become a new massive global industry.

The concept started in the US on a very select basis during the 50s, but shot up during the e-commerce boom, when history making 60-second commercials were costing $1 million (Dh3.67m) for a single run during the Super Bowl football games.

These soaring costs justified paying large sums like $5 to $50 million to permanently name a stadium itself for a full year as being highly attractive over traditional advertising costs.

This is how naming rights exposed the corporate identity to millions of people passing through and whatever else the name was referred to during radio, TV broadcasts and in print media nationally or around the world.

This success all over the world has now become a new pool for city developers to raise very large and very quick money as a new advertising medium and for companies to enjoy exclusive name identity exposure.

The current overwhelming success of Dubai's Road Transport Authority (RTA) to select companies to name various rail and subway stations is headed in the right direction.

As this approach becomes very popular in the GCC and all over Asia, there are already many success stories of naming rights worldwide. However, some name identities became problematic when certain companies suffered setbacks and their name identities were withdrawn.

The facilities had to be renamed again and again, causing confusion among consumers such as during the demise of Enron, WorldCom and many other corporate ups and downs.

For example, the currently-named TD Banknorth Garden in Boston has been renamed over 34 different times since its establishment in 1993.

Also in 1996, the DuPont Pavilion, financed by John DuPont, was renamed to simply The Pavilion after it was discovered that he had been found guilty of the murder of an Olympic medalist.

Sometimes, some names become rather awkward, such as the Florida Panther's home arena being named the National Car Rental Centre and eventually, the Office Depot Centre.

Such names may be OK in the marketplace, but may sound too cumbersome for out of town tourists and the public. Here are some key challenges for corporations planning to buy naming rights.

Confusion

On a train journey, any station named based on a geographic connotation will cause confusion among passengers and particularly tourists who are not fully familiar with the background.

For example, a corporation called Abu Dhabi Builders or Fujairah Systems will have a difficult time projecting the correct message by naming a station in Dubai, as it will result in confusion among consumers and tourists who may think that they are headed towards Fujairah or Abu Dhabi.

Companies with long, and descriptive names may also run into problems. The Greatest Tea Biscuit Company or the Langen Jonathan Yateeb & Gharmazian Company won't register well among the public and more importantly, tourists.

The initialisation process can also cause further disconnection, how many can tell the difference between ADBC DBCS or BCSC or ADBDSC?

Similarly, companies with identities buried in alphanumeric combinations like B2Bi or iC3 or 1&1 often cause much confusion among customers within ticket lines.

Also, directional identities like North Systems or Western Designs are easily confused when the trains are headed in an opposite direction.

Corporate identities based on complex, difficult and unpronounceable names will always cause confusion among international tourists.

Also corporate names based on any generic terms like Grand, Prime, Central, United, Star, Gateway, Dubai, or Deira will never provide any real benefit to its brand value or equity as the name will simply be used as generic term without any real credit to its corporate brand.

The funny thing is that no amount of advertising can teach the public how to use or say a name and often corporations claim a very different name than what the public uses, some stay in denial and some simply accept the change in the long run, as this is what happened to Coca-Cola, American Express, Federal Express, they became, Coke, Amex and Fedex etc.

Naming is a very complex art and the sooner GCC companies acquire a deeper understanding of the global usage implications the sooner the GCC brands on the global stage will emerge.

The current corporate nomenclature, which is heavily diluted and locked into confusing names and initials, does not have any single globally recognised and respected brand yet out of the GCC. Solid proof of all this is sitting right on Google.

Furthermore, all those big players with massive promotion of graphic treatments to their name identities will be seriously challenged as naming rights are primarily creating the usage of the name as it is spoken, asked as a name at a station, told to a cab driver and read in directions or written on maps, therefore only those identities that can withstand the acid test of its utility will survive and odd logo-dependent names will simply become lost in the generic pool.

Naming rights are still a great way to generate revenue for cities, and a great way for businesses to create permanent passageways to increase their exposure; but the real challenge for the cities offering such plans and for the companies jumping to acquire fame the usability and longevity of the name is the real acid test.

The writer is an expert in corporate image and global
cyber-branding.