Of late, many on social media have given free advice to Sridhar Vembu of Zoho to change the name of their messenger service, Arattai. Their reasoning: it is hard to pronounce and not ‘evocative’ in meaning to many who don’t know Tamil. The context: many discovered Arattai recently after a call for using ‘Made in India’ products by the central government ministers on social media.
Needless to say, a brand name is important. In the context of Arattai and call for change of brand name, my submissions are as follows:
It takes more than a great brand name for market success: this is stating the obvious but a lot of factors other than just a good brand name are necessary ingredients for market success. Such factors vary depending on the domain. In brick & mortar retail, it is said that the three most important factors are location, location and location. In app-based services, discovery of the app in the Play Store or App Store, number of downloads and frequency of usage become critical factors. ‘Build it and they will come’ rarely works in the tech product business. In social media apps, the network effect is crucial. Remember the time when downloads of Signal app went up and seen as an alternative to WhatsApp? That trend died down simply because your friends were not on Signal but on WhatsApp. The social app Koo suffered the same fate without traction and adoption from celebrities. X, or Twitter continues to be the go-to platform for instant announcements and broadcast by business & political leaders and celebrities. Arattai is yet to find wide adoption. So it will resemble a ghost town when you login first without many of your friends and active conversations. Brands & media houses are yet to adopt it. So unless those events are triggered no amount of cosmetic change will be meaningful.
Product acceptance and regular usage which leads to familiarity and affinity trumps any minor ‘negatives’: do users of Ola & Uber really know the etymology of those names or even care? ‘Hard to pronounce’ names have long been successful in countries other than their origin: Liebherr, Häagen-Dazs, Grundfos, Shiseido, Vacheron Constantin and so many more come to mind. Marketing textbooks say that that an evocative brand name that cues the category or brand benefit to the intended audience is a best practice. It certainly is so but not always achievable as audiences get global. A word in one language might mean something totally different and even unpleasant in another language. All of these boxes cannot be ticked by every brand. Some of the most trusted brands in India are just family names and seen across diverse categories: from pad locks to fridges. Sure, when having a chance to name a brand from scratch, an evocative brand name (e.g.Mama Earth) can be an edge but not ‘everything’.
Marketing has guidelines but not strict ‘rules’: a perfectly acceptable answer to many legit questions about marketing is ‘it depends’. Brand names have guidelines but as we have seen above, there are exceptions to every rule. A Dindigul Thalappakatti and Bukhara can have fan following in restaurants. A ‘Godrej’ name can evoke trust in properties as well as interiors.
As far as Arattai is concerned, I think it is perfect and stays true to its Indian essence. It was intended to convey a meaning in Tamil and if & when it gains traction the fact that those who didn’t know Tamil didn’t get it, will hardly matter. If name was the only criteria, Hike should have been a household name by now. But maybe it was too early for the market. Hence the stars have to be aligned for a product-market fit too. Many OTT brands are popular in India thanks to affordable data costs and explosion of mobile devices. It isn’t just about one factor.
Of course, new brands have the benefit of a clean slate and creating a name that’s compatible with the category, relevant to the audience and conveys a benefit. But the more important aspect is the product quality, service and customer delight through exceeding expectations. A great brand name is a cherry on top.
