What’s Name Got To Do With It?

(Photo taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexpatterson)

Whoever says that choosing a brand name for a product is not THAT crucial to the business needs a brain check. I’m serious. As I was watching Australian Open a week ago I kept seeing the logo of Nike, which was correct all the time. The name is simple yet unique, hard to copy. The closest I can think of is Hike or and it still doesn’t sound close to Nike. My father used to have a pair of Abibas sandal and I thought that was hilarious. Virgin is another example of a good name; applicable to various industries and at the same time oozes innocence, truth, and pure vibe to even saying the brand name. A name creates energy around your products, it basically determines the destiny of your products, it has the power to move or to remove your products from the market.

FingerTec came about in 2000. To some people in the industry, it’s not deep but at the same time they are kicking themselves in the head for not thinking of that name earlier. It’s a good name for what we do. Finger Technology – FingerTec; it could be a generic name for fingerprint system like Colgate for toothpaste and Google for the Search Engine. When I was in India, my reseller informed ma that someone was using FingerTec name to sell his other brand’s fingerprint system. My dealer made a call to his office. “Hi Sir! Are you selling FingerTec?” in which the culprit replied him nonchalantly, “Yes, we are Sir. FingerTec we have many and we sell at a very reasonable price.” “But Sir, we are the exclusive distributor of FingerTec in India and we didn’t know you exist” “Don’t get me wrong, I am selling Finger technology, FingerTec! My brand name is XXX. Are you interested?” “But Sir, your advertisement mentioned FingerTec instead of your brand!” “I mean finger technology! Finger technology! FingerTec! &*^%*”

Apple is an extremely good name. For those who made fun of Gywneth have to first see the history of an apple. It’s innocently inviting yet dangerously cursed in the story of Adam and Eve, the same plot retold in the Sleeping Beauty, an alluring products with dangerously huge potentials in the computer and electronic market when it comes to Apple, the brand. Apple is indeed a good name!

FingerTec for fingerprint product is a match made in heaven. However, there’s also a hurdle when it comes to diversification. The name FingerTec is a little bit off for iris technology, palm, voice, cards and cameras for example. So, shall we name our new product line Pomegranate or Papaya?

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ