zzzz-Zune

Zune, the new MP3 player from Microsoft. It must have taken ages for Microsoft to come up with that name for their new iPod. iPod will of course evolve into the generic name for all MP3 players and the only place you will not see it mentioned alongside the name Zune will be in Microsoft’s advertising.There is no zune.com website yet - it having only just been transferred from a, hopefully now very wealthy, chap in Madrid, on the 18th July - that was cutting it close. Meanwhile I expect there has been the usual rush to register domains with Zune in them and good luck to anyone who registered a zune domain years ago - expect a call from a Microsoft paid legal team soon extolling the virtues of releasing your domain.

Which brings me back to the point in this ramble. It is getting increasingly hard to develop brand names especially if you are a global player. Zune is not exactly a rememberable word and the marketers may well struggle with getting the public to believe its anything but an iPod rip off with a cool name. You can’t extend zune into a lifestyle phrase – the ‘Zune generation’ does not compare with the ‘iPod generation’ for example. They no doubt will play with 'Zune' sounding like 'tune' though - Listen to your Zunes, Zuning in, man I have some hip Zunes. Trouble is Microsoft are not hip. They have the biggest software base in the world but its in offices and people generally don't listen to zunes while working on Excel spreadsheets. (Only trendy accountants use Excel on the Mac.)

I think Apple really got it right by sticking the 'i' in front of things gives them access to nearly everything in the dictionary again and of course no one else can realistically follow this yet with other letters - phrases perhaps might work. We may see small companies being purchased purely for their duff intellectual property, brands that have not been heard of. Previously brands were only purchased if they had a good market following but the possibilities of buying a brand that did not work - i.e. no-one has heard of it - gives the protection of longevity and the potential of a unique name.

The world is shrinking still.

Posted by Simon at July 25, 2006 11:00 AM

Social Bookmarks:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.