fiercer in a dwindling economy, Martinez predicts we should expect an
increase in unusual business and product names, “since the success of a new
product may be directly related to the novelty of its trademark.”
This concept is not, however, a novel one. Almost a century ago
Kodak was an invented “inherently distinctive” name, which still sounds
and looks good today. But the problem with Altria is that its made-up-ness
has a false ring. Today, there are myriad strained product and business
names that start with “A” and end with “A,” like Acura, Altima, Achieva,
Adapta, and Accela. Or names like Maxima and Previa, which sound like
Russell Crowe’s buddies in the movie Gladiator.Then there are names like
Consignia—a reinvented title for England’s Royal Mail that was
abandoned shortly after its introduction—which sounds like a medicine for
stopping flatulence. It also turns out the Altria is not entirely original
either. In 2002 , a Denver venture capital firm called Altria Group LLC
tried to legally enjoin Philip Morris from instituting the change, but lost its
case because trademark law doesn’t ban company names that sound alike
unless the similar names would cause confusion among consumers.
Made-up names are not, however, a priori bad, notes Brian
Collins, Senior Partner, Executive Creative Director of the Brand
Integration Group at Ogilvy & Mather: “I truly hated Verizon at first. It
sounded too desperate. But at some point, I started thinking the name was
sorta okay—maybe even good.” Of course, names get their real meaning
from what they represent, and Verizon has become a successful brand
(despite a clumsy logo now seen on countless phone booths and stalls)
because it efficiently serves its clientele.
But back to Altria: Collins was originally suspicious of the Altria
name, though he now says, “In all of the advertising work they’ve done to
launch the new name, they’ve actually gone out of their way to say it
represents the two divisions of the Phillip Morris Company. They are not
really hiding behind anything, as Phillip Morris remains the name of their
big flagship tobacco company, [which] they have made very clear.” He
further believes that the graphic identity is a memorable, fair representation
of a giant company that is in several different businesses. “The logo is a
distillation of the colors of their many, varied brands. I think the identity is
beautiful and powerful—especially when it’s animated.”
Granted, the color grid is alluringly hypnotic when morphing on
the computer screen, yet on the printed page it is just vague and clumsy, in
large part because the Altria logotype is not integrated into the mark and
sits untethered to one side, as if it were a typographic afterthought. When
used on the four magazine advertisements, created by Leo Burnett USA
that launched Altria—which feature pleasing, though enigmatic, color
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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