7:2 Names and Taglines - Vespa

For our second session for the copywriting elective we began by following up on our previous sessions about what makes a name, trends and looked at different brand names and why they're so important. We also explored writing a creative rationals behind making decisions.

We looked at different brand names and what they stood for, for example:

Innocent - purity

Google - sounds like goggle = looking/searching

Amazon - exotic, got all the stuff u can’t get your hands on

Nowness - digital video channel who only work on word of mouth and no advertising

Tesla - Elon Musk, Tesla actuall means inventor of many things

Kodak - onomatopoeia of a camera click

We looked at the car Mitsubishi Pajero and learnt that the name translates to 'liar', showing lack of research from the company when choosing a name.

We looked at Ford Fiesta's two ways of branding the same car. The red was popular with women over 50 in the UK, while the black with teenage boys in Spain.

We also had to write a creative rational for why Coca Cola gave the same drink, two different names.

My creative rational for why is because Light is likely to be popular with females, light relates to weight, delicateness, the packaging is prettier, shining. Zero is likely to be popular to be with men because of the darker colour, the sleek bold text. Zero also relates to being stable, grounded. Zero nonsense.

We then looked at Nike, Adidas and Under Armour and compared the three to each other. Nike and Adidas are similar in that they focus on fashion and sport, whereas Under Armour purely prefers to focus on sports and being exercise based. Their name also has stronger connotations related to war and aggression compared to Nike and Adidas.

We then looked at taglines and looked at familiar/unfamiliar brands taglines, for example:

Nike - Just do it

Mcdonalds - I'm loving it

L'Oreal - Because you're worth it

One surprising one was Google's which is 'Don’t be evil'.

We were then challenged to create our own tagline for Google.

Some I thought of and some of the other class members:

We’ll know it

Find it

Type it

Infinite information (which got a no from Brian)

Anything you wanna know

Search it

Just type

Our task then was to think of a new name/tagline for Vespa 'Electric'

1 name and tag line - specifically for young men

2 - young women

3 - both genders

Sum up our learning and choose our fave with a creative rationale of why

We also had to ask ourselves the following:

I did some independent research of the brand through Google and their website:

An idea I had for female names were 'Serenity - Your voice heard.' Because one of the key features of the bike is that it's silent and can be personalised so it's your voice, your choice.

For men, I had 'Lead - Always ahead'. Because men like to be number 1, always ahead of the competition, quick speed and the bike uses advanced technology.

For both genders, I had 'Neon - Revolutionise your glow or colour' or 'Neon - Glow with Intensity' because the website has a lot of imagery of nightlife and uses neon colours. When googled, neon supposedly represents popular culture and Vespa have worked with big names in pop culture such as Salvador Dali and Giorgio Armani. Neon is also used for warnings - put a spotlight on yourself.

This is what I submitted:

We then had Jon Ryder come in, who is also an experienced copywriter to judge our submissions with Bryan.

Neon was the preferred out of my three and Brian said it could work on an international scale too.

Some names that other classmates chose were:

Best vespa aria - think fresh

Vespa capo - traffic?

Vespa silenzio - a silent change

Vespa Luna - to the moon and back

Vespa dolce - enjoy the good life

Vespa Carica - one journey, countless memories. (But just countless memories works better)

Vespa moments - my vespa and me

Vespa explore - see the world

Looking back, I still like the name 'Neon' because I think the rationale behind it works but the tagline could change to 'let your colours glow'.

From this task I learnt that your name and tagline should be in line with your brand values and not made up but also to find an angle where you are different from others and play off that. And how important giving a rationale is. Jon also noted that some good tips for presenting was that people remember the first and last thing they see and to explain why and lead with the rationale then give the result, which keeps from people creating their own assumptions.