2019-05-01 Fortune

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FORTUNE.COM // MAY.1.

BRANDING

TWO PLUS ONE EQUALS THREE. In the span

of that many weeks, consumers were

introduced to a trio of subscription services promis-

ing to add to their lives: Apple News+ and Apple TV+,

plus one from Disney, aptly titled —Disney+. (See our

article on page 13.) They’ll complement a growing

roster of arithmetic-branded media services, joining

Disney-owned ESPN+ and following in the footsteps

of the original “plus” brand in tech, Google+.

Things didn’t work out so well for the latter. The

Internet giant shut

down the social

network in April

after seven years. And

while Google+ ulti-

mately failed because

of competition with

Facebook and a mas-

sive privacy breach, its

name didn’t do much

to encourage engage-

ment in the first place,

branding experts say.

“That’s the big-

gest problem with

[this type of name],”

says Laurel Sutton,

cofounder of brand-

naming agency

Catchword. “It doesn’t

tell you anything at

all. It doesn’t tell you

what you’re getting;

it doesn’t say why it’s

different. It’s just add-

ing a superlative on

the end—like saying

‘ultra’ or ‘supreme’ or

‘better.’ ”

Of course, “better”

is the exact message

companies like Apple

and Disney want to

convey. When you use

the + “in conjunction

with a really strong,

well-known parent

brand, it reminds

people, like ... this is

Disney—we’re not

going to try to rein-

vent the wheel,” says

the Naming Group

founder and presi-

dent Nina Beckhardt.

But the problem, she

adds, is that brands

then miss a chance

to differentiate

themselves, and they

expose themselves to

copycats with vague

symbols that aren’t

easily trademarkable.

Just look at the

knockoff electronic

brands beginning

with a lowercase i.

So is the simplic-

ity of the + effective

or obscure? It’s a

missed opportunity,

says Sutton. “Look at

Disney—its brand is

all about magic and

wonder. The name

‘plus’ doesn’t do any

of that stuff. It doesn’t

appeal to the essence

of the brand.”

When Plus Is a Minus

Experts weigh in on the growing use of the
arithmetic symbol in product names.
By Aric Jenkins

AF TER ZUCK:

THE WINKLE VII’S

NEXT CHAPTER

BOOK REVIEW READERS OF 2009’S aires (and viewers of the film adaptation, The Accidental Billion-The

Social Network) might have thought that Tyler and Cameron

Winklevoss got short shrift—both in what happened at Face-

book and in having a smaller slice of the narrative. Now author

Ben Mezrich is back to give the entrepreneurial twins the lead

roles in a new book, Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius,

Betrayal, and Redemption (Flatiron Books), tracing their lives

and work since the late-aughts’ legal battle with Mark Zucker-

berg. Cryptocurrency followers should already be familiar with

the pair’s digital currency fund as Bitcoin has blown up and gone

haywire in recent years. But Mezrich’s account of their past de-

cade is gripping from the opening pages, potentially setting the

twins up for yet another portrayal by Hollywood. —RACHEL KING

PLUS SIGN: BUBAON

—GETTY IM

AGES; W

INKELVII: TAYLOR HILL

—GETTY IM

AGES