Does it ever seem like PC manufacturers are clueless when it comes to actually selling products? or that they have no interest in making their products seem desirable, interesting, or fun? Let’s say that you’re in the market for a laptop. You do your research, and you narrow your choices to just a few likely candidates. “Hmmm,” you think. “Which one sounds best? Well, i could get a toshiba satellite L645D-s4036, an HP Pavilion Dv4-2173nr, or a Dell Inspiron iM501r-1459MrB.”
Don’t those model names just roll off your tongue?
Um, no. They’re a garbled grab bag of inharmonious numbers and letters. Can anyone really get excited about a product whose name can’t be recalled, much less repeated, without a teleprompter?
The products that i mentioned above aren’t exactly obscure items either; all three are best sellers at Amazon. so that means someone is buying them, even if their names have all the sizzle of a Microsoft security Bulletin code.
Why do PC names have to be so deadly dull? Consider the names of the latest phones: Droid incredible, iPhone 4, Samsung vibrant—simple, direct, zippy names all. Maybe this is one reason why throngs of buyers line up to snag the latest phone, whereas you never see a news report about people queuing up for a hot new notebook.
Sure, phone makers have it easier in some ways: fewer products in the line, fewer configuration options. But simplifying a name just requires a little discipline, creativity, and maybe—gasp!— even plain old fun. it works for car manufacturers, why not for PC makers?
Some manufacturers might argue that these unwieldy names are highly descriptive, giving an accurate representation of the internal options a buyer can expect. Te problem with that argument: PCs, both desk- and lap-bound, are now so configurable that no label can hope to encapsulate what’s really inside. Within any given line of laptops, you can chose from a panoply of processors, storage options, and more. Tat kind of choice is great; there’s just no need to call out every combination of options in the machine’s name.
Designed to Confuse
A cynic might say that computer manufacturers design their naming conventions to produce confusion. obfuscation isn’t accidental; it’s the point.
If a big-box store advertises a Widgettech Huzzah 5097B-15iJ laptop, it does not have to worry that a consumer may demand that the store match the price that a retail outlet across town is offering on the Widgettech Huzzah 5097B-15iK. in reality, there may be virtually no difference between the two units, but the consumer doesn’t know that.
Complex names also make online price comparisons impossible. Dozens of models; thousands of configurations; indecipherable, protean prices? Don’t sweat it; just click the ‘Buy Now’ button.
Still, i find it hard to believe that in - creasing customer confusion is an effective marketing strategy. Most manufacturers these days are selling a computing “experience,” not just a bundle of components. so why can’t they pick a name that conveys that experience and lose all the follow-on letters and numbers.
Customers would rejoice—and maybe even ask for products by name.
Mitul Choksi
7-September 2010
11 AM Indian Standard Time
