It is common knowledge that it is Google’s ambition to take over the world, but with the release of the new Android Operating System – the Ice Cream Sandwich – is it possible that Google’s new tactic is to tempt us into purchase of their products because they sound so delicious? So I thought to myself – how does the power of naming a brand, affect the way we purchase?
Google Android Ice-Cream Sandwich...yummy
All of the previous Android releases have been named after deserts in alphabetical order: Cupcake; Donut; Éclair; Froyo; Gingerbread and now the Ice-Cream Sandwich (who knows what happened to A & B?). Is the naming of the operating system just a fun alternative to the standard 001, 002, 003, or is there a genuine purpose to this confectionary naming method?
I’m inclined to say that the sub brand names do encourage purchase and at the very least, make them memorable. I went to a telecommunications session a while ago run by Google, and the seminar leader made an interesting point on the way that mobile phone providers have been naming phone models in recent years. Whilst once upon a time 3210s were all the rage, now days we have the Galaxy’s, Desire’s and Xperia’s.
Mobile phone providers have latched on the power of successful phones and harnessed this into creating a full series of phones with similar names which can ride on the coat tails of this success. By naming phones after particular theme’s it is also making them more memorable and associating them with a particular ambition, making sure that recommendations will not get forgotten.
Interestingly Nokia phones do not seem to have fallen into line with this new trend of naming convention, stubbornly sticking to their traditional numerical formatting. Is it just coincidence Nokia’s decline over the year’s falls in line with this lack of harnessing the power of brand naming? Conversely, it could be this lack of willingness or ability to modernise in line with the other phone makers which has turned them into a brand in on the way down.
All I know is that I’ve been thinking about eating an Ice-Cream Sandwich the whole time I’ve been writing this article – but where to find one?
Watch out for the rumoured Jelly Bean for the next Android release… Mmmm….
