Barnes & Noble is launching Nook, their new e-book reader this week. Will the Nook unseat Amazon’s Kindle? Only time will tell. What we do know is that the Nook has a color touch screen and allows customers to share their e-books, both major competitive advantages over the Kindle.
But what about the name? We here at Catchword are pretty big fans of Nook. The brand name, of course, refers to a sheltered and secluded place, specifically a reading nook or book nook in this case. The connotations are of a small, personalized, private book reading experience. All good things for an e-book reader.
Also, in contrast to Kindle, the name is shorter (one syllable) and keys on a more personal experience of book reading. Kindle is about the general fervor of reading, whereas Nook is about that unique personal connection book lovers have with their books.
There were obviously other possible messages to explore when naming this product. Naturally, the luminosity, colorfulness, sharing capabilities are all key differentiating features worthy of naming exploration. However, these are also all features that will quickly be adopted by the competitive set. Naming a product after a short-term differentiator is okay when you plan on changing the name when version 2.0 comes out, or if you only plan on a 2-year product life cycle. But, we’re guessing Barnes & Noble is in this game for the long haul. This might be their last best chance to compete with Amazon. Thus, Barnes & Noble appropriately picked a lasting brand name that speaks to the meta concept of books and book lovers.
Photo of Ambrosia Rose by Brian Adamson
The only pronunciation or negative connotations we could come up with seemed minor in comparison to the positive features of the name. Some folks might pronounce the name “nuke” as in nuclear. Not too much worry there. And, it’s possible some folks might extrapolate to “nookie.” Again, this isn’t likely. And even if “nookie” does get popular, is there anything wrong with making books a little sexier? (I’m reminded of the common sexy librarian fantasy.)
Overall, we like this new name a lot. We’d love to claim that we created this name, but alas, we cannot. We just hope it doesn’t show up on Lexicon’s portfolio page on Friday. Don’t they have enough famous brand names already? Here’s hoping that one of our other competitors came up with this great new name.
An engaging rationale, but isn’t it equally likely that the people who came up with the name were simply drawn to its similarity to the word ‘book’?
One might even surmise that ‘nook’ is as much a contraction of ‘new-’ or ‘neo-book’ as it is a slightly twee reference to the joy of reading in private.
The holy grail of naming is a word that works on several levels and has the potential to transcend branding to become synonymous with the thing it seeks to represent. Kindle appears to lack the depth to become a hoover or a biro. Nook, on the other hand, looks and feels like a possible evolution of ‘e-book’, as well as an appealing brand name in its own right.
Interesting blog, thanks.
It was a hard won naming job when I was at R/GA, you’re both right. I was drawn to the store as a physical space, so I thought of a space where books were relevant. The similarity to book was a bonus. But, revealed here first, the true inspiration of the name was my daughter, she’s named Anouk. I realized the name whilst I was reading her a bed time story. The worst part about it all, is that ammunition the Industrial design company allowed a contractor Rex Wilder to do a press release saying that he named the device. Ammunition later retracted the press release, but you know the internet. Thanks for the kind words though, nice to see the work appreciated. Best Marc Shillum
Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but…just to clarify: I was working on the naming project for Ammunition before R/GA was put on the job. The name “nook,” which I contributed along with its rationale, was presented to the decision makers at Barnes & Noble before Mr. Shillum arrived on the scene. I received a note from him recently with his story — which I have no reason to disbelieve — that he subsequently thought of the name independently, and sold it to the higher powers at B&N. Ammunition never “allowed” me to release anything; they just congratulated me and said sure, you’re free to tell people that “nook” originated with you — because it did, unless you count the dictionary. Neither of us knew of Marc’s or R/GA’s involvement. As far as it stands now, I congratulate Marc on a great name for his daughter.