The person who actually created the “Zune” name is getting no credit at all.
Zune is on everyone's lips these days, be it in a context of criticism or... Let's be fair, there is no or. But who do we have to give credit to for coming up with the name? Surprisingly enough, not Microsoft. If it would have been up to them, Zune would have been called Portable Windows Media Player, or something else equally dull and with corporate nuances.
Actually, the person that created the name isn't getting any credit at all. The Zune name originated within Lexicon Branding, a Sausalito-based branding company. BlackBerry, Pentium, PowerBook, and OnStar are among their impressive creations.
“The creative strategy was quite simple: Don't try to be like iPod or to beat iPod. Instead, create a new word that will help Microsoft to create a distinct personality,” revealed David Placek, founder and CEO of Lexicon.
Three Lexicon teams, two people each were put to work on designing a brand identity for Microsoft's portable player. Two of the teams worked under the presumption that they were creating names for a Sony player and an MTV broadband experience while only one knew that Microsoft was behind the project.
“Additionally, the Lexicon Research Network of 60 Ph.D. linguists in 39 countries was tapped to provide insights into the latest brands in music and video entertainment and to give us suggestions as to words, word parts, sounds and metaphors that might be applied to a next generation entertainment system,” Placek added.
News source: Softpedia
Zune is on everyone's lips these days, be it in a context of criticism or... Let's be fair, there is no or. But who do we have to give credit to for coming up with the name? Surprisingly enough, not Microsoft. If it would have been up to them, Zune would have been called Portable Windows Media Player, or something else equally dull and with corporate nuances.
Actually, the person that created the name isn't getting any credit at all. The Zune name originated within Lexicon Branding, a Sausalito-based branding company. BlackBerry, Pentium, PowerBook, and OnStar are among their impressive creations.
“The creative strategy was quite simple: Don't try to be like iPod or to beat iPod. Instead, create a new word that will help Microsoft to create a distinct personality,” revealed David Placek, founder and CEO of Lexicon.
Three Lexicon teams, two people each were put to work on designing a brand identity for Microsoft's portable player. Two of the teams worked under the presumption that they were creating names for a Sony player and an MTV broadband experience while only one knew that Microsoft was behind the project.
“Additionally, the Lexicon Research Network of 60 Ph.D. linguists in 39 countries was tapped to provide insights into the latest brands in music and video entertainment and to give us suggestions as to words, word parts, sounds and metaphors that might be applied to a next generation entertainment system,” Placek added.
News source: Softpedia
Just shows you how easily all the "experts" can be wrong. A bum in the street could have told you for a $1 that the name "Zune" sucks, and you would have saved yourself some time.
Why would you hire all these people come up with a name for your product? Didn't anyone at MS have any ideas?
Last edited by toadeater on 22 Nov 2006 - 05:43
I believe its an interesting name as do alot of people whom i discuss the Zune with, sure the product itself may not be original but that does not take away from the value of its name as it is very original and has a nice ring to it.
But i guess most people will go with their natural instinct "oh noes change *waves arms wildly*"
LOL, now that is a good one!
Wait 'til you hear how much time and money they invested making the 4 second startup sound that sounds worse than the "Microsoft SOund" featured in Windows 95.
Wait 'til you hear how much time and money they invested making the 4 second startup sound that sounds worse than the "Microsoft SOund" featured in Windows 95.
I'm starting to think that it takes MS 100x as much money, and 10x as many devs to develop something as it does other companies. Considering that, their billions don't equate to much.
Is that company's job to come up with creative names and slogans for future products?
oh double standards...
That's my opinion of the name.
seems like is a very slow day for news today...
seems like is a very slow day for news today...
What so the US came up with the term 360 and japanese came up with XboX
If only there was a way to merge the two!
softpedia may be surprised to know that Microsoft hires companies to do advertisements for them also! wow!
people also don't realize theres a reason Microsoft chose names like 'Portable Media Center' and 'Ultra-Mobile PC'. Its because they weren't selling a device; they were selling a category of device, which was to be built by independent companies; each of which could have their own fun sounding name. You have to name things differently depending on how they are used in the market.
part of the reason the iPod ended up with such a good name is accident, because of the whole marketing strategy for Mac items where everything would start with an 'i'. In general, this was a stupid thing, really; even though it had a marketing point. And naming a product 'pod' itself would be a stupid thing. but the combination of the two made 'iPod' which was actually kind of a good name for an mp3 player.
Alright, so they know that "Zune" here in Quebec means penis right...?
no... in France french it's zizi
in Quebec french it's zune - pronounced "Zoune"
Alright, so they know that "Zune" here in Quebec means penis right...?
You can listen to your Zune while playin with your Wii.
rofl... so all the company did was made fun of Microsoft by creating the name "Zune" and "Wii"?
It's not really a surprise to hear microsoft not doing every piece of small stuff. Look at the bright side, nobody will flame microsoft for the "bugg" name. XD
Is it actually possible for the Zune to have less success?
I kid, I kid.
Tell that to Peugeot. The only reason that the Porsche 911 is 911 (it was originially going to be 901) is because Peugeot declared they had the monopoly on n0n, therefore anybody else with a marque similar could be "confused" with Peugeot. Not only is this typically French, it's also bollocks, but they won anyway...
And your names would have been better and better sounding?
Sure.
Tell that to Peugeot. The only reason that the Porsche 911 is 911 (it was originially going to be 901) is because Peugeot declared they had the monopoly on n0n, therefore anybody else with a marque similar could be "confused" with Peugeot. Not only is this typically French, it's also bollocks, but they won anyway...
You do realize that you and MrCobra are talking about courts and patent laws in two totally different countries, right?
And am I the only one thought from the title of this article that it was going to be about the fact that the Zune is just a rebranded Toshiba player? The funny thing is, the Toshiba player supports PlaysForSure, and the Zune doesn't!
As it is, the player is jinxed - who really cares.
Isn't there entire job to create the name and then hand said name off for a company to use? ...perhaps I am missing something obvious here.
But dont feel left out.. the fact that someone is trying to bring out a negative point of a product in this way is hilarious.
Its like saying OMFG my Honda Civic wasn't made by Honda it was made by *insert random factory* then Honda sold it.. shame on them
It's usually in the form of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars.
No news but MS bashing .
"Hey what're you doing?"
"Download these tunes to my zune."
Okay so that sounds stupid... :lol: Maybe it'll become a verb, like google...
"I'm just zuning along."
Who wrote this, a Mac fanboy or what?
This first line throws me off, it starts off so maliciously.....Why not start with:
Completely pointless article.
Last edited by antaris on 22 Nov 2006 - 09:16
What exactly did Microsoft do with this thing, other than slap their name on it and maybe toss in some crippled wifi? Oh, wait, I forgot, they are effectively trying to nullify all the PlaysForSure-compatible players on the market.
Go Microsoft, the only multi-billion dollar company that couldn't innovate their way out of a wet paper sack.
They bought over the Toshiba Gigabeat and used their resources to alter it and change it to suit them.
Is that a crime in any way? They have the money.
I'm sure if you look back in history many concepts have evolved in the same fashion. They've taken a previous idea and altered it to suit their aspirations, then sold it.
If you've got the money then why waste the time and effort creating a 'new' player as opposed to buying over an existing player if ultimately they will do the same basic things.
And hey..They went to Lexicon to have this whole 'Zune' branding worked out. What's wrong with that.
Once again, they have the money to afford these resources. Ultimately, if they think it's in their best interests then so let it be.
Personally, I think it's a great strategy, and I think they've done really well in achieving what they did.
In fact, it's called running a business in the best possible way, in order to make a profit for themselves.
So yes. Go Microsoft for using their resources and, like any other business, trying to maximise their profits.
As I stated in the post above.
Microsoft had the money, so good for them. It's theirs. Let them spend it whichever way they want.
If the Lexicon people thought it was so 'horrendous' of Microsoft to engage in such an 'evil ploy' then I'm sure they wouldn't have agreed to the branding in the first place.
But it seems they do that as a job. To generate profits. And I'm sure for many other companies other than Microsoft.
This is hardly an important 'news item' at all.
I think its a mediocre name and can think of several better names. But it doesn't matter, once people get used to it, it should be fine. Vista wasn't well received neither but we all got used to it and accepted it.
it will be like rest of the play for sure products......dead
lol I was thinking the same thing. I barely even know what a Zune is, and I haven't heard anyone talk about it.
So where is the "Apple didn't create the PowerBook name" article?..
lame, useless MS bashing.
If you want to post a fair news, please do post all other products too....... geez...
How is this surprising? Microsoft: Innovation Via Imitation
Where do you want to go today? Please tell us because we have no clue.
Here's the definition of imitation, in case you missed it: "something made to be as much as possible like something else" -From MSN Encarta
Zune was not designed to copy iPod it was designed to beat it. Does it look like an iPod? No. Feel like one? No. Act like one? No. Have as few features as one? No.
If Microsoft didn't have a clue, would their software run, what is it, 90% of computers in the world today? Not likely.
Good try though.
"Zune is on everyone's lips these days, be it in a context of criticism"
"Zune is on everyone's lips these days, be it in a context of criticism"
Judging by the forums all over the internet, that's an accurate statement, not bias. And it's not surprising.
Here's another thing to note, it seems buyers aren't interested in video on their portable players. Zune's advantage of a larger screen doesn't seem to be a feature most people are interested in.
Personally, I took a look at the Zune, and besides the ridiculously bad name, it has the styling of an almost 1980s product. The trim around the controls and screen is ugly and superfluous. It doesn't look very sleek.
Besides, looks, like I said, people don't seem to be interested in portable video nearly as much as audio and audio features/accessories.
this is how business works, their service was developing a name.
They bought Bungie (Halo)
They will probably buy Epic (GoW)
Give it up.
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