2019-05-01 Fortune

(Chris Devlin) #1

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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

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