Comments on: $50 for Worse Brand Name Than Knol… We Have a Winner

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:23:19 +0000

You know who’s the WORST at branding? FOSS folks. For all their good work and intentions, they’re not great at winning hearts and minds.

Worst example: The free audio format “Ogg Vorbis” sounds like a word in Vogon poetry, or possibly a communicable disease.

By: tilsammans

tilsammans — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:23:17 +0000

I’m with everyone on the brand names, besides Vaio. What’s hard to pronounce about that?

By: infinitously

infinitously — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:16:33 +0000

@Frito: VAIO is more likely a backronym, which is when the start with the name and then feel that making into an acronym somehow justifies its bizarreness. And even if it is actually an acronym, it’s awful. I had no idea it was pronounced Vay-oh the first time I saw it. I actually didn’t know until I saw a commercial that mentioned the name. Bad idea.

By: Zman

Zman — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:06:50 +0000

i dont care if its an (awful) acronym, Viao sounds like shit and is nearly unpronounceable. its a bit shocking that an entire line of fairly popular notebooks by such a major company would have such a shitty name. course, sony has never been known for the quality of their brand names*.

*walkman excluded.

By: danreno

danreno — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:16:36 +0000

Fake Steve Jobs probably had the funniest ‘interpretations’ of one of John Doerr’s start-up companies. I would agree that it ranks high on any ‘Worst Brand Name’ list.

http://iamnotstevejobs.blogspot.com/2006/08/speaking-of-john-doerr.html

http://www.miasole.com/

By: Frito

Frito — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:04:54 +0000

Viao is an abbreviation (stands for video audio integrated operation). Creative’s oddly named MuVo is also a sort of abbreviation. It means Musical Voyage.

By: EMAILBEN145

EMAILBEN145 — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:33:29 +0000

Nope. Palringo is still the worst brand name ever.