Thursday, December 21, 2006

Name Recognition

I got this email this morning from buy.com that read: $10 Nano MP3 player. Of course, I knew there had to be a catch, like "only 70 available" or multiple rebate offers, but it never crossed my mind that the Nano MP3 player they were referring to was the Creative Zen Nano, and not Apple's iPod Nano. I don't know who stole the name from who (I suspect Creative) but it seems a little misleading that both companies can call their products "Nano." What if Dell called their new computer a Dimension G4? Or if another company came out with a video game called "Karaoke Hero"? Sure, the words Nano, G4 or Hero could be used freely, and while it might help to boost your product by using the name of a familiar (and popular) brand, wouldn't the best way to market be to have a superior product and increase your own unique name recognition?

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