What's in a name?

Shakespeare said - "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Boy! Was he wrong or was he wrong!? In the modern world of globalization name is everything. Because names stand for something. Name, more methodically, has transformed to a brand. And look around yourself and everything is a brand. There was a time in this third world country where brands didn’t mean much. So much so that I don’t remember asking for Asheerwad atta ever before in my life except for asking Wheat Flour in the neighbourhood grocery store. But things changed, for better or for worse. Now, test of success in life is measured by how much your name has become a brand - Like Brand Bacchan, Brand SRK, Brand Sachin and so on.

I was made to believe that if I do good work, my 'name' would be recognized across schools/towns/states or whatsover. And working hard and well was the ONLY way to it. Not so anymore. Is there a Brand Kumble popular in Indian society - not much - even though he worked hard for Indian cricket. Then on the other extreme is Sachin, a brand from the day he walked in to bat. And then there is a middle path, where people work and brand gets built - Dravid, the Wall brand, for instance. So it is no longer enough to be good at what you do but also consciously work towards building a brand for yourself. And this is the secret to success in office workspaces too. If your name does not represent something like a brand does, then you have serious career growth issues at work. And I suggest that when you work, keep that brand in mind and work towards highlighting your brand personality. (That's my tip and if you are using it in office from tomorrow, send out a cheque towards royalty!)

My observation of brand popularity is based on the amount of consumerism in an economy. Consumerism in India is becoming popular only for the last 5-8 years. Previously, we just bought a shirt - now people buy a Louis Phillipe or an Allen Solly. People used to buy from a grocery store, now we shop at Food World or a Big Bazaar. And we, as a country, have become conscious of what we buy and where we buy. So much so that you cannot buy commodities any more, only brands. And worldwide businesses have long realized the premiums brands can charge over commodities - be it people or goods. So you pay more for a McKinsey consultant or HP Computer. So what if businesses grow bigger and have multiple products in diverse domains? How do we handle branding across diverse product groups from a same company?

I personally believe, there is no better guy than Steve Jobs, to understand the importance of design and branding. He has 'pioneered' successfully/unsuccessfully a lot of new products for the new economy and tech environment. However, one thing that spans across the offerings is a consistent focus on design and simplicity with huge emphasis on branding. The 'i-series' of products is a genius idea, I believe. So much so that anything with a name that starts with an 'i-' should be from Apple. i-Mac, i-Pod to the latest i-Phone. But how many people know that Cisco has the copyrights for the name i-Phone? Legal stuff apart, it is unwise on part of cisco to hold a name that starts with an i- and sell it. It would never be associated with Cisco anyway!!!!!

To summarize the moral of the story: There is a lot to a name than meets the eye, err ear! So create a brand for yourself, consistently meet your brand expectations and never flick anyone's brand proposition cuz you would be charged with 'trying to be like someone'.

Anyway, my inspiration for starting out to write this piece was a surprise name on my google page - it now reads 'iGoogle'. WHATTTT…?? I always thought Google is doing a great job of popularizing the 'g-brand' with g-talk, g-mail and so on. Why iGoogle now? Is it because "Google CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt Joins Apple’s Board of Directors" :))