Tassimo out of order | Coin Branding

[Cache – #3]

Before you can name something, you have to know what it – your organization, product or service – is. In other words, you have to get to the bottom of what makes you different. Zipcar relates a fast, almost spontaneous way of renting a car and driving it away from a parking lot in your neighbourhood – a profoundly different value proposition than the customarily brutal experience of renting an automobile from traditional rent-a-car brands like Hertz or Budget. Hotel Gelato conveys the luxurious dessert/restaurant experience delivered by two proprietors with a combined 50 years of service at upscale brands including Four Seasons and Hyatt.

And in the increasingly competitive niche of sophisticated yet affordable home espresso and coffee makers, the name Tassimo evokes quick, convenient drinks with the flair of a European coffee house.

Or so I thought. However, their new advertising campaign features a tagline that stakes the brand on another position altogether: the bar code on each type of disc, which, read by the Tassimo machine, results in a drink brewed precisely to the specifications set out by Starbucks, Nabob, or whomever is that disc’s manufacturer.

So it looks like this brand was named first and positioned second, which is exactly the wrong way around and results in a name that says nothing about the product’s purported position (or, the position was simply ignored in the naming process). In addition, what a brand hopefully uncovers in a positioning exercise is a uniqueness that is sustainable over the long term – but it seems that a bar code system is easily replicable by Tassimo’s competitors, should they choose to go that route.

The bottom line is oh so simple: to create a name of maximum value, know what you’re naming – and then name it accordingly.

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