The name game

Plopp chocolate, Bum crisps, Cock nuts and a garden product called Green Pile explain why John Murphy is in business. They are the sort of brand names that just don’t give a brand a chance. Murphy, chairman of the Novamark/InterBrand group, has all manner of Cock and Bum stories to relate. Brands that are perfect in Norwegian or Swahili, but somehow just don’t have the right ring in any other language.

Murphy set up Novamark in 1974 to find the brand names that worked both here and abroad, and, equally important, could be protected as trademarks. The company now has a staff of almost 40, a turnover expected to be more than £2.5m in 1985, and five offices outside the UK. A USM flotation is planned for spring 1986 and Murphy has just delivered the typescript of a book on branding to Macmillan.

Murphy is an engaging 41-year-old who passes over his pre-Novamark career quickly. He did a master’s degree in business studies at Brunel in the mid-60s, spent five years working for a textile machinery company in the UK and US, and in 1970 joined Dunlop. “Working on tyres – a classic “distress” purchase with little or no brand identity – made Murphy realise how important the name was, both here and overseas.

The problem for the tyre manufacturer became the opportunity for the entrepreneur. “I was looking to leave Dunlop,” recalls Murphy, “and it occurred to me that if I had this difficulty finding international bramd names, other people would probably have the same difficulty. So I left Dunlop and started Novamark.”

It was hard to get established, says Murphy, because the concept was so new. However, Novamark had a crucial break in 1978-79, when it was called in to name British Leyland’s new range. “The Metro,” says Murphy, “was the make-or-break product for Leyland. If it didn’t work, it was going to be a shattering disaster for the company.

Murphy realised that Leyland had no real branding policy, and sought to fill the vacuum by creating consistent names for the whole range. He looked at animals, winds and Greek gods, but came up with a far simpler answer: the letter M, after Mini. Thus the Metro, chosen because it was short and chirpy, was followed by the mid-market Maestro and the plusher Montego. Since then the company has created a host of well-known names, such as Brevia, Barbican, Homebase, Slalom and Quatro, and its client list reads like a who’s who of blue-chip businesses.

So what makes a good brand name? Memorability, says Murphy, and that depends on the name being distinctive. Too often, walking around a supermarket, he says you are faced with a “brand soup – nothing stands out at all. Murphy sees himself trying to overcome the brand manager’s desire to play safe, the sort of conservative thinking that led one confectionery company to reject the name Rubbish, which in product tests had proved immensely popular with kids. Murphy is still convinced the brand would have cleaned up.

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