Danny Sullivan of Daggle.com and SearchEngineLand.com (interestingly enough!) posted about a Seth Godin blog entry about the dangers of using generic company names like “Jewelry Central”, “Party Land”, “Computer World”, etc. He said it was a bad branding strategy, likely limited your success and made trademarking a nightmare.

Mr. Godin ended his blog entry with a challenge to name companies who have been successful with this type of branding. Mr. Sullivan brought up Disneyland as a good example (yes, I realize “Disney” is the unique part of this name, but it is a “land” name, regardless). I’d like to add Disney World, Sea World to the mix (VERY generic). Let’s also consider Circuit City and a Canadian counterpart of Future Shop that’s doing okay for itself. I’m sure there are many more, but that’ll do for now. Post your own below.

More:

- The Pannekoek House (a local franchise)
- House of Blues
- Electronic Boutique
- Playland (a local long-time amusement park)
- Fitness World (local fitness chain)
- XXXX Zoo – Add your city to that name.

Disclaimer:

Although, I agree with the general sentiments of Seth’s post…I don’t think he can make the blanket statement that companies just don’t succeed with this naming strategy.

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