Wordcraft: The Art of Turning Little Words into Big Business

by Alex Frankel

In Wordcraft , Alex Frankel, a business writer who once briefly worked as a namer, tells the story of how five major brands got their BlackBerry, Accenture, Viagra, the Porsche Cayenne, and IBM’s “e-business.” Behind each name is an account of how words and language infuse the products we use every day with meaning, and how great words actually succeed in changing people’s behavior. The book is filled with stories about words that come from every corner of our technology, health, sports, food, business, and more.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Kasandra]

Naming agencies get huge amounts of money for coming up with names that, in many cases, just plain suck. A lot of their "process" ends up sounding like luck in this book, which often gets bogged down in uninteresting detail, and focuses on 5 names , half of which aren't interesting (Cayenne? who cares.... Accenture? again, who cares...) Viagra and BlackBerry, sure, those are appealing and interesting, but this book makes it sound like the naming business is hard to get into, populated with con artists and people who got lucky breaks, and largely a hit-or-miss proposition where each firm has its own techniques and "insiders" who get lucky enough often enough to keep their businesses going. If you've ever considered going into this field, this book will probably discourage you. If you've ever wondered how names get picked, a lot of it is luck, huge lists of crap, the use of focus groups, and selling techniques worthy of those into neurolinguistic programming. Not so much a book about linguistics, vocabulary, wordsmiths, or creativity as much as a book about a few lucky souls who have made obscene amounts of money in a business that's a lot more about "the sell" than a science.

[Jesse Jones]

WordCraft started off well with indepth and well crafted case studies of BlackBerry, Accenture, and Viagra, and derailed in the second half. The author had a promising book on the craft of words and language in branding, but tried too hard to give it an air of gravitas and zeitgeist when discussing IBMs e-business. Decent book overall, thought it suffers from lack of focus.

[Igor Podoprygora]

Solid book understanding a wider influence of the branding and naming processes. Full of good cases, instantly recognizable by those who have spent at least a few months investigating this industry.

[John]

[My review from Brand Building Magazine:]

In a transitional chapter of Wordcraft, Alex Frankel describes the genesis of the word ‘maverick’ and its meanings:

1 : an unbranded range animal; especially : a motherless calf
2 : an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party

Samuel Maverick was an American pioneer who did not brand his cattle. In time, Maverick’s neighbors and other cattlemen began to call any unbranded animal roaming the prairie a maverick, and from there the second, more metaphoric, meaning (above) evolved.

The name Maverick became so commonly known and understood that it took on meaning as a common noun and adjective. In the process of being transformed from a proper noun into a common noun, the word was imbued with a story. This is the key point for Frankel and the key point of each of his examples in the book – great names have great stories.

After a brief tenure as a naming consultant, Frankel set out to explore and understand the people and processes behind brand naming. Setting his sights on five brands – Accenture, BlackBerry, IBM e-business, Porsche Cayenne, Viagra – Frankel takes the reader along for the ride as he pursues each name’s story.

These names provide diverse examples of naming situations, drawing brands from a variety of industries. Wordcraft considers one of largest rebranding projects ever, a surprising endeavor from a classic brand, branding a business concept, and the creation of two new brands. Each naming situation also involves a different cast of characters, from the brand owners to the consultants.

One of the most valuable aspects of Wordcraft is that it shows the reader a number of approaches to the naming process. Naming consultancies are profiled in tandem with the brands they are working with. This rare look inside the methodology of different naming houses and business consultancies is insightful in trying to understand the relationship between the brand and the consultancy.

Another strength of Wordcraft is the approachability of the naming stories. Each narrative feels genuine and is entertaining. The book is rich with quotes from brand owners and the people who had hands-on roles in naming these brands. Frankel paints a complete picture of the naming process that is easy to understand and digest.

While BlackBerry represents the closest thing to the naming of a start-up brand, the one glaring omission from the book’s subject matter is the story of a small or mid-sized start-up brand. It was clearly necessary for Frankel to use identifiable international brands to help market the book and make it accessible to the greatest number of readers, but by only highlighting corporate brands, Frankel has neglected to show the process in scale. Each of the brand stories told in Wordcraft involves large companies with huge branding and marketing budgets.

Frankel has also been criticized for not being critical enough of his subjects. However, in a collection of best cases, such as this, less criticism is to be expected. In all, Wordcraft is an enlightening look at naming process as exemplified by some of the most successful branding efforts in recent years.

[Harvey]

- Frankel has written the "On Language" column for the New York Times Magazine and reported on business culture for Wired, Fast Company, and Outside Magazines. His interests in synthetic languages led him to launch his own product naming firm...
- from the jacket - "Five Little Words: Blackberry, Accenture, Viagra, Cayenne, and e-business. Two of the words are appropriated (Blackberry and Cayenne), two are completely made up (Viagra and Accenture) and one (e-business) is a composite word made of a word and a letter that already existed...The five words are the main characters in this book on product naming and marketing."
- Frankel gives the history of dozens of product names: Pentium, Tylenol, Starbucks, Saturn, Fedex, Advil, Chapstick, Kool-Aid, etc...
- product-naming is a strange, interesting, multi-million-dollar-a-year business

[Michael Klein]

Although I read this and the other branding books on here as research for a new article I was writing, I found this book to be very interesting. It is the nonfiction account of how a journalist became a corporate namer, and then talks about tricks of the naming trade and some case studies.

I referenced it in interviewing some namers for my article and they were impressed I had read it - but noted that it turned the author into a total persona non grata in the naming industry center of the SF Bay area.

If you like words and are fascinated by the stories of how decisions get made - good and bad - you'll be entertained.

[Sasha]

If you think the idea of people naming businesses and products is the coolest thing ever, you will be on the same wavelength as the author and might be able to enjoy this book. For me personally, it's not that exciting. I was interested in the subject for practical reasons. But I simply couldn't read this book... normally I like the style of writing that accompanies in depth journalism, but in this case it didn't succeed in making a fairly bland subject exciting or intriguing at all, and instead it meant that it seemed to endlessly circle around the topic rather than actually focusing on it.

[Bliss]

I have this one from the library but I have to take it back cuz we're moving and I don't want it to get lost. I did take time to read the author's notes and the table of contents and I can tell this is gonna be a good one. :-)

[Glen]

An excellent into the process and power of naming products. Anyone interested in the marketing should read this!! Would the Blackberry have been as popular if it had came out with a name such as the cumquat or the dingle berry?

[Agus Jakarta]

Quite a good book that tells stories on how some of the big companies like Porsche, RIM, and even my previous company before, Accenture. When Shakespeare said that "What's in a name?", I am really sure he doesn't know how powerful brand's name will be :)

[Kathy]

It was interesting to learn the origin of some words (Accenture and Blackberry) and how the "naming" industry works. But it was not cativating and pretty dry.

[Salim]

Wordcraft

[Jon Paul]

Not what I was expecting. About the practice of naming products. From an investigative case study approach. Very anecdotal.

[Lori Grant]

An optional-read book on branding for the knowledge worker, manager, executive, or entrepreneur.

[David]

just wonderful- great if your a fan of words and marketing ideas and thinking outside the box