I love baseball. Not just baseball games, but everything about the sport (except the designated hitter, but that's for another blog). I love its history, its characters, the freshly cut and well-manicured fields, peanuts and popcorn, the crack of the bat, the uniforms, the very fiber of the game. So while I was never a fan of the Reds or the Tigers I was sad to see the legendary old manager, Sparky Anderson, leave us this week.
I was watching ESPN pay homage to Sparky this morning. As they recounted his career they talked about how, in his fifties, he asked sportswriters to begin referring to him by his real name, George Anderson. He believed no man in his fifties wanted to be called "Sparky". Of course, the writers, fans and public at large didn't honor this plea. He was, is, and will always be Sparky Anderson.
That got me to thinking about nicknames, and I realized nicknames, in essence, teach us a lot about branding. Now, let's start by returning to the original Ries & Trout definition of the marketing term they coined, branding. It's not just getting your name out there. (If you've got marketing people on payroll who think getting your name out there is branding, fire them! They're incompetant.) Branding is taking ownership of a word (or concept or attribute) in your customers mind. Coca-Cola isn't a brand because we see their logo everywhere. Coca-Cola is a brand (a great brand) because they own the entire cola category. Play word association all day long. You say cola, most people will say "Coke" (a nickname, by the way, like "Sparky") Hamburgers...McDonalds. Beer...Budweiser. Brands!
Now, not every brand can take ownership of a whole category. But every brand stands for some graspable thing. The uncola?...Seven-Up. Having it (your burger) your way?...Burger King. That's the key to a brand. If you don't own a word in the customers mind, you aren't a brand. But that's not the point of this blog, either.
You see, you can't get to that point without a memorable name. Lawyers always advise companies to use made-up, meaningless names. They're particularly fond of initials. EMC, B&Q, 3M, ALZA, ATI, DEC, JAL. How the heck are you going to brand that? How's anyone going to remember it. Lawyers also hate it when you allow your company name to become synonymous with the product category. They think it's bad that people say "Coke" when they mean Cola and refer to every photocopy as a "Zerox". This goes to show that all those years of law school don't help you understand marketing and branding at all.
Generic, forgettable names are an albatross around any company's neck. Sure, some have overcome it (AT&T, GMC) but why handicap yourself? Meanwhile, becoming synonymous with the product line (while it may have some potential for copyright issues) is priceless! It's the ultimate extension of successful branding!
Which brings me to George Lee Anderson, late manager of the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers. George Lee Anderson had not one, not two, but three very forgettable, very typical names. It's the kind of name about which we say, years after somone's heyday, "hey, that guy who managed the Reds in the seventies...I can't remember his name, but that guy was a good manager." But Sparky Anderson! What a great name!
It's unique, (especially when hung on a man in his fifties!), it's catchy, it's memorable, and now it's synonymous forever more with the skipper of Cincinnati's Big Red Machine (another brand!)
The reality is, every good nickname is the beginning of a personal brand. I rarely forget a person's nickname. I mean a real nickname, the kind that gets hung on someone (usually against their will) and really becomes what people call them. Of course, if you have a unique name in the first place, the nickname isn't needed for the effect. Growing up in a small, rural southern town in the 1970's where everyone's first name was Tom or Bob or John and every last name was Smith or White or Jones, I will never forget a kid a few years younger than me named Giacamo. Or a guy several years older than me who was named Jegade. Brands!
Now the point of this isn't for you to go out and get yourself a nickname (you generally can't, anyway. They're always hung on you). The point is, in business or your personal life, the combination of a memorable name and something meaningful to hang it on is priceless. And that, my friend, is how you get yourself (or your company) branded!
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