Here’s some food for thought. If you were watching yesterday’s WWDC keynote by Apple with a marketer’s eye, you might have seen a number of innovations coming to the IOS and Apple platforms. Bear in mind that Apple accounts for somewhere between 25 and 33% of all mobile markets worldwide and more than double that in the burgeoning tablet markets. The biggest announcements involved tighter integration with their voice recognition software, Siri. Also included was IOS and Mac OS X integration of Facebook at the same level that Twitter is integrated now along with Yelp on their mapping software.
Ask yourself this – or better yet, find someone with an iPhone 4S and ask Siri – how easily pronounced your company’s digital assets are. (or go to an Apple store and ask her there)
Siri, browse the web for [your domain name here].
Siri, what is the address for [business name here].
When the new Facebook integration rolls out, you can bet that it will be as tightly integrated as Twitter is. Are your Facebook and Twitter profile names easily pronounced so that an iPhone or an iPad can get to them by voice?
Finally, there’s also a low-tech reason to go pronounceable. If your company name or domain name is so obscure that you have to spell it out to people, you can bet that no one is telling their friends about it. When was the last time someone shared by word of actual mouth a domain name like i-find-140-things-u-like-2-share.com? Never.
The days of clever Web 2.0 names with missing vowels and peculiar spellings are rapidly drawing to a close as more of the world goes mobile with technologies like voice recognition. Unless you’re already a major name brand, choose clarity and pronounceability first and foremost to future-proof yourself.
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That’s a really, really good insight. Even if everyone doesn’t have Siri (yet), there will be lots more voice-controlled technologies coming on the market. This will also make those really clear, easy-to-pronounce and easy-to-remember domain names all the more valuable.
I think I’ve got some work to do on this one …
Great perspective! A brand needs to focus on their product value and unique benefits it brings to the customer vs. clever names. That will make it easy for customers to share with their friends and “pronounce” to new customers.
Yeah. Waldow Social … not so much. Then again, I need a new company name.