There was a time when car names were decided by packing a bunch of advertising and marketing guys in a room with bourbon and cigarettes. When they ran out of both, the meeting was over. Back in those days, the names were bold and good. Marauder, Ramcharger, Roadmaster. Now names are formed by using focus groups and polling data. The old way was better, in our opinion. In the ’50s, someone would have lost their job if they proposed the names Cube, Probe, or Azera. Did you know there’s a Mitsubishi T-Box? Add a space after the “i” in Mitsubishi and see what you get.
There are some good examples of where the whole focus group thing breaks down. Naming the Buick LaCrosse with a word that has some sexual connotations in Canada is one. Changing the name of the Ford Taurus to the 500 was another gaffe. The old guys weren’t perfect either. The old Dodge La Femme comes to mind as a name that really took a car and made it undesireable to a large segement of the marketplace.
US News and World Report recently ran a story about the whole car naming process and it is a good look at what companies are considering these days when naming cars.
With so many of the old names still hanging on current models, their process appears to suck.
