Naming for Power: Creating Successful Names for the Business World

Rating:
Summary: Better than others are saying
Review: I'm a trademark attorney and I found it a fun read and informative as to the mindset of those who created the trademarks that elicit the "What were they THINKING" or "How BORING!" reaction.

The book is good at telling people what NOT to do, or at least for alerting them to the fact that MONEY will not necessarily help them create a great trademark.

I especially liked the analogy of naming one's own children: it may not be prudent, effective . . . SMART . . . to gather your entire family around to form a committee or a focus group on the subject of what your next child's name will be; such decisions shouldn't be made by a group. Similarly, you should give your product a name that YOU find pleasing, as it is highly unlikely that the resulting name will be worse than a name resulting from thousands of dollars spent on focus groups and committees.

No one can tell you how to come up with a good name that will immediately convey to the masses how great your product is. However, one CAN tell you how to come up with a name similar to thousands of others. No one wants that kind of a trademark. Mr. Javed tries to alert the reader to the common actions that lead to common and similar sounding names.

The ottom line is, NAMING FOR POWER gives you some insight to the naming process and the fact that luck and personal satisfaction with your choice, more than money, will lead to a stellar trademark.

It was fun book.

Rating:
Summary: The one and only.
Review: If I am correct, this is the one and only book on Naming. I enjoyed it, and found it quite useful. I think most of the other reviewers expected the book to solve their naming problems for them. It is not up to the book to do it, it is up to the reader. You can also find lots of on-line resources on naming and branding.

Rating:
Summary: Misguided, but useful
Review: The sidebars and the historical context of existing brand names is fantastic. The conclusions he draws in the main text are confusing at best, contradictory at worst.

I don't regret having it, and it's got more naming information than any other resource I've found. However, his advice is based on very subjective conclusions and needs to be taken with gigantic grains of salt.

Rating:
Summary: Better than others are saying
Review: This book is amateurish and shallow. Javed peppers his text with exclamation marks and bold lettering because he lacks the skills to create emphasis through language. Perhaps if he were better with the English language, he would better grasp the concepts of naming!