Technological Aspects of Naming/Технологические аспекты именования

A  commercial  name  (an advertising  namein  the  conceptual  tradition  of  the Volgograd school–[1]) provides the primary communication of a business, social or political entity (corporate name) or object of nomination (product name, service, event, intellectual result) and is an independent marketing information carrier[2, p. 259].The company itselfcan act as the subjectof such techniques. The development of  a name  canbe  entrusted  to  professionals,  e.g.  brandingor  naming  agencies.  The name of an object (less often of asubject)can be obtained througha name development competition.The commercial name as part of company or productidentity is an independent sourceof marketing information in the marketing communications system.Researchers  and practitioners  focus  on  name  development  techniques.For example,  the  article “The  commercial  name  in  world  onomastics:  modern  status”presents  an  overview  of  the  materials  of  the  reports  on “economic”issues  at  two international onomastic scientific events: the 26th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences  (ICOS,  Debrecen,  Hungary,  August  27 –September  1,  2017)  and  the  4th International  Conference  on  Onomastics “Name  and  Naming”(ICONN,  Baia  Mare, Romania, September 5-7, 2017)[3, pp. 276-290].Let us turn to someunderstudied keytechnological aspects of naming.Technologically,a commercial  name  is  developed according  toall  universal marketing communications procedures: analytical processing of customer information; competitive  analysis,  including  a  review of  communicationsin  the product  category and  the  communication  policy  of  competitors;  the  formation  and  justification  of  the communication company’sown creative concept of naming; development and testing of  the  proposed  options,  including a  protection  test, the  only  technologically unique procedure, and, finally, presenting thefinal version to the client.Examination of a commercial name is a four-level analytical procedure, which includes  ananalysis  of  the  content,  speech  form,  linguistic,  stylistic  and cultural characteristics of the name. The name developed in accordance with the client’sbrief is tested by checking:1) content capacity (meaning of a word or words forming thename as recorded in dictionaries);2) associations(what  emotions,  unanticipated  feelings  and  impressions  are caused  by  the  communication  of  the  name; since  perception  can  be  individual  and unpredictable,  it  isall  the  more  important to  take  into  account  this  parameter –a potential property of communication –during the examination)[4, pp. 227-287];3) figurative perceptions, formed by the reflectionof the five senses (what I see, what I hear, what I taste, what I smell and what Iperceive throughtouching) shapethe sensorypotential  thatincreases  the  effectiveness  of  the  name  in  the  absence  of visualization,an important impulse to form corporate identity as an already established system of primary communication of the subject or object of nomination;4) assortmentformingcapacity (what already has this name and what could be given this name, whether the name may or may not hinder the development, expansion of the product range of the object of nomination);5) adaptability (how it will exist in different communicationenvironments and conditions of verbal communication: how it will sound when spokenor adapt to the Latin alphabet whentransliterated, etc.);6) protectability[5].The analysis of the speech form includes quantitative (how many words are in a name)  and  qualitative  parameters (grammatical  properties  of morphological  and syntactic nature).Linguistic  analysis makes  it  possible  to  systematize  the  data  obtained  in  the previous stages, e.g. functional style markers.And  finally,  linguistic  and  cultural analysis  will revealthe  potential  of intercultural communication of the name and prevent possible communication errors and verbal conflicts[2, pp. 141-175].Let  us emphasize:  thecommercial  name  is  a  complex  form  of  microtext communication, when  the  minimum  speech  unit  transmits  a  much  larger  amount  of significant marketing information about the nominated object than is reflected in the formal characteristics of the name as a communicationunit[6, pp. 261-278]. A rigorous examination procedure makes it possible to explicate this marketing information from the name as text.When conducting an examination of a commercial name, we not only identify its contentpotential, butalso -much more importantly –the corporate identity of the subjectthat is already  inherent  in this name.  In  the  future,  the  company caninclude associative  and  subject-like  representations  inherent  in  the  name fix  in itscorporate identity system or refuse to use themin its communications.

The  facts  obtained  as  a  result  of  this  kind  of examination  satisfy  the  needs  of business communicationas speech material, but they cannot be used in raw form when interacting  with  the  internal  or  external  publicswhen  promoting  the  company  or product on the market. The main speech form that allows oneto translate information relevant  to  the object of naming  from  professional  to  a  generally  accepted  and understandable language is theessay. The skill of working with this genre form is an important  part  of  the linguistictraining  of  specialists  in  public  relations,  because creating  aname  is only  the  beginning  of  communication.  The company  needs  to  be ready  to  answer  the  questions  of  who  and  when,  how,  why a  particular  name  was chosenor created.  These  questions  will  certainly  arise  sooner  or  later,  because  they satisfy  the  archetypal  curiosity  of  a  person. Thus, information  about the  history  of creating thecommercial nameshould be on the organization’s website (in the “About the Company” section or in the section on corporate identity). It can be presentedin the form of a separate documentasa fact sheet, as part of the background or the history of the company, or in the form of a question and answer page.The CEOshould also be prepared to answer these questions. Renaming requires even more  attention: as a highly  risky  and  responsible  procedure,  the  name  change  must  be  accompanied  by information coming from the company itself, at all stages -before, during and after the name change, so that the rumors do not distort the picture and damage the company’s reputation.The children’s question,“Why did you give me this name?”or“What does my name mean?” refers to the semantization of the name. It complements awareness withinvolvement. The more we understand something the more we value it. Therefore, to explicate  the  deep  content  of  the  name  in  an  interesting  form  for  the  uninitiatedis another important area of PR work.The  corporate commercialname should  become  an  independent  object  of attention for the company’s PR staff. It can be a regulated notion, fixed in its charter or commercial book, or one that has spontaneously developedin the speech practice of employees and customers. Companies pay little attention to explaining when, in which documents, this  or  thatform  of company name  is  used,  what  are  the  stylistic  and pragmatic differences between the options, e.g., from the strictly official the Federal State  Autonomous  Educational  Institution  of  Higher  Education Peter  the  Great St. Petersburg  Polytechnic  University to  the  colloquialPolytech,which  is  a  permitted nomination as well. With regard to the spontaneously evolving corporate name system, the PR service should develop a certain strategy eitherto promote aspeech practice or to containit.Another aspectrelated  to  naming is unfair  competition,  based  on  borrowing someone else’s  public  or  advertising  capital.  This  iswhen, using  the  similarity  of names  or  focusing  on  the  keywords  of  someone  else’s  name, acompany draws attention  to  itself or to  its product.  Examples includea  search  engine  offering forpolytechnic universitySynergy University, forthe confectionary brand “A Bear in the North”“Bears in the North”, “A Mouse in the North”, “A Northern Bear” and even “Mybrother has come backfrom the North.”It  is  important  to  remember  that  naming  and  advertising  are  applied  and independent communications. It is interesting to trace their interaction, which is caused by  the  purpose  of  the  advertising  campaign  and  can  be  aimed  at  increasing  the recognition or retention of a name, creatingloyalty to it orcontributing to achievingmore complex goals.Technologically, this is achieved in different ways: quantitatively by repeatinga commercial  name  in  the  text;compositionally by  changing the  function  of  different elements  of  the  complexheadingand  creating  an  echo  phrase;  using  rhyme, metaphorization  orsemantization whose  purpose  is  to  remove  cognitive  dissonance and explain incorrectly perceived primary communication produced by the name;and de-semantization  of  the  namewhen  it  is  necessary,  on  the  contrary,  to  weaken  the impact of primary communication. In the latter cases, legend building can beuseful.Different  types  of  repeats  are  necessary  if  the  name  is  poorly  recognized  and remembered, often in medical advertising. For example, in a television advertisement for thecold medicine,Oscillococcinum, the name is twice pronounced with a voice-over  and  twice readas  text on  the  package–enough not  to  forget  it  orbe  afraid  to pronounce  it  and  to  always  spotit on  a  drugstore  shelf in  the  future.  The  same technique, but complicated compositionally and metaphorically, is used in the audio advertising  of  the professional  and  leisure  event,  The  Night  of  the  Ad  Eaters: “The Night  of  the Ad  Eaters!  Eleventh  season. Cinematheque  Jean  Marie  Boursicotand Twin  Media present!All  the  most  delicious  global  advertisingon  December  17thin Oktyabrsky Concert Hall. Tickets on adshow.ru and by phone 279 60 33. Those who order before November 9threceive a gift! Password -007! Hurry up! The Night of the Ad  Eaters  on December  17thin  OktyabrskyConcert  Hall!  Enjoy  your  meal!”The purpose of communication is to draw attention not to the subject (Cinematheque Jean Marie Boursicotand Twin Media), butto the object, therefore the commercial name of the event is repeated twice; it occupiesstrong positions at the beginning and at the end of   the   text.   Usedmetaphorically, it partly   corrects   or   even   anesthetizes the communication transmitted by the name, eaters,through the use of the etiquette echo phrase, “Enjoy your meal!”Rhymingas  a  method  of  attracting  attention  to  a name  is  also  often  found  in medicaladvertising (there are special naming lawsin this product category), therefore achieving recognition and retention of a namerequiresadditional care. This ad uses rhyming  in  the  original  Russian:“Kogda  kashlyayesh’,  primi  Bromgeksin  Berlin-Khemi.  Kashel’  vylechit’  neslozhno,  bystro,  berezhno,  nadezhno.  Preparat  davno proveren,  i  mishutka  v  nem  uveren.  Kogda  kashlyayesh’,  primi  Bromgeksin  Berlin-Khemi”(“When  you  cough,  take  Bromhexin  Berlin-Chemie.  Cough  is  easy  to  cure, quickly,  carefully,  reliably.  The  drug  has  been  tested  for  a  long  time,  and  the  teddy bear  is  confident  init.  When  you  cough,  take  Bromhexin  Berlin-Chemie”). Another similarexample is from an audio advertisement from another product category: “Dlya progulki  i  parada  obuv’  v  magazinakh  Brado.  Dlya  lyuboy  nogi  nagrada  obuv’  v magazinakh  Brado”(“Shoes  for  walking andparade  in  Brado  stores. A  reward  for any foot,shoes in Brado stores”). It is important to note that in both cases there is a combination of several techniques.A  more  interesting  and  complex  phenomenon  is  the  semantization  of  a commercial  name.Keeping  in  mind  that technological  procedures fordeveloping  a commercial  nameare classified,  we  take  for  granted  that in  terms  of  content  and association  thename  already  communicates  with  the  recipient,  sometimes  creating problemsof  associative,  technological,  linguistic,  stylistic  or  culturalnature.  In thissituation, thereis no pointinvestigating how it hashappened and who is to blame. It is more useful, using thepossibilities of advertising communication, to try to rectify the situation. This audio commercial is a good exampleof this:A womancalls her husband in the office, he is very busy and annoyed, because she often distracts him over trifles, and when she says, “I found a Tomato,» he almost fails to stay polite, “Make it short!”Having caught this threat, the wife shift to apatter: “Tomato is a new building. It is great. Completed in Q4.”Further, the dialogue proceeds in atelegraph style: “Price?”-“Reasonable.”“Where?”-“At Leningradka, opposite the air terminal. There used to be the Tomato restaurant there”.The genius of the place:the name is not absurd, as it  might  seem,  but is  based  onpopular  toponymy. Still,  thename  misleads  the uninitiated; so at the end of the video, the main character makes an entry in his diary»Tomato.» But imagining with a smile how he would wrestle over the strange entryin the morninghe qualifies it:“Tomato is a building.”We find an example of desemantization of a commercial name in thisadof the Gastronom, a posh restaurant in the center of Moscow.In this case,the creators had to strip  the  name  of  its  original  meaning  and  the  associations  it  carries,  because Gastronom is not a grocery store, nor does it offer affordable prices (“The average bill is 4,000 rubles, the menu includes soup with truffles and oyster mousse for dessert”).In themain “Merry Milkman”ad(“Once a boy saw a sad cow …”), the legend buildsthe connection between the name and the characteristics of the brand itself (good deeds, positive emotions, care for others –always, since childhood).Avery interesting technique is creatinga bold dialogue of the advertising name and the advertising text. It isused ina series ofads for the Schebekinskie macaroni. The  name  undergoes  an  evolution  from  Takiesptichkino  (“a  boxwith  a bird”)to Krasnopachkino (“in a red box”) and, finally, Vsegdaburukino(“I always take them”). RA Instinct copywriters dared to build a communication on exposing the fact that we both  know  and  love  the  product,  but neverremember itsname (“Shebekinskiemacaroni. Quality has a name! Only no one remembers it”).We  showed  how  using  advertising  can save  or  enhance  the  communication provided by a commercial name by listing the main forms of interaction between two communication systems –the advertising (commercial) name and the advertising text. The techniques are often combined to create a synergy effect.The  name  as a  type  of microtext  communication  should  satisfy  the  pragmatic communicative needsof a business, social or political subject, despite the fact that the volume of speech material is usually very small. Like a person, a company can change its name, but this is the normneither for people nor forcompanies. Therefore, from the start they try to approach the choice of a basic verbal identifier veryresponsibly and are willing to spend a lot of money. However, once the name is created it ceases to play the  rightful  part  in  company  activities.  All  too  often  companies  fail  todevelop  the potential that was laid down in the development of itscommercial name.

Referencese

[1] Kryukova I. V. Reklamnoe imya: ot izobreteniya do precedentnosti: monografiya. Volgograd, 2004.

2] Еlistratov V. S., Pimenov P. A. Nejming. Iskusstvo nazyvat’. M.: Omega-L, 2014.

[3] Goryaev, S.O., Bugheşiu, A. (2018), The commercial name in world onomastics: modern status. Communication Studies, No. 3 (17), pp. 276-290.

[4] Malajkin  S.  N.  Odnim  slovom.  Kniga  dlya  tekh, kto  hochet  pridumat’  horoshee nazvanie. 33 uroka. M.: Mann, Ivanov i Ferber, 2018.

[5]ZHolobov V., Gavrilova M., Solov’ev N. Nejming 3.0: Kak pridumat’ i zashchitit’ nazvanie. B.m.: Ridero, 2016.

[6] Reklamnyj  diskurs  i  reklamnyj  tekst:  kollektivnaya  monografiya.  M.:  FLINTA: Nauka, 201