Unit 03 What's in a Name

Unit 3 Page 30 READING exercise 4 Brand names OK, so imagine you've thought of a great idea for a product to make and sell – a game, or an app, or clothes, for example. You know you can sell millions of them, but first of all, you must give the product a name – a brand name. And that may not be as easy as you think. The brand name is the thing that distinguishes your product from all others, and it's really important that it makes an impact. Businesses spend a lot of time thinking about brand names; when the name has been picked, it's very difficult to change, so companies have to get it right first time. So how do you choose a name? A brand name ought to be unique, memorable and easy to understand. It should create some kind of emotional connection with people who buy the product – the target market. Some companies use the family name. When Henry Ford started making cars, he just called the company Ford. But you don't have to use a family name – you can go for an image. Staying with cars, think about the brand name Jaguar, a beautiful but dangerous wild cat. What does that say about the manufacturer's product? Some companies use wordplay. It's a common technique for naming apps, for example WhatsApp (from the English expression "What's up'?). Others like to use foreign words because they sound special or different. For example, in Britain, in Europe and in the US there's a chain of sandwich shops with the French name Pret A Manger, which means 'ready to eat'. And what do you have to be careful about when choosing a name? Well, you shouldn't choose one that might not work in certain countries or cultures. Many years ago, a car company launched a new car that they called Nova. They thought it suggested something nice and new, but in Spanish it can be read as no va ('it doesn't go). Not a good name for a car in Spain, then! These days, the choice of brand name is particularly important if your product is targeted at the teenage market. Teenage consumers are perhaps more concerned with brand names and company logos than any other group. When a brand, especially a clothing brand, becomes popular with teenagers, then there's a lot of pressure to wear those clothes and have the name and/or logo visible. A teacher in an American high school said: 'I certainly see that kids are obsessed with brand names. They won't buy something that's almost identical – and cheaper – simply because they feel they must wear something with the right logo.' So if you want to get into the teenage market, you have to find a product and a brand name that works with that age group, and create some great advertisements, too. Companies know that the name isn't everything – the product itself has to be good, of course – but it's an essential part of the package.

Page 33 LISTENING exercise 6 and 7 What do your friends call you? Have you got a nickname? Well, my family call me Sandy. It's short for Alexandra. Oh, I didn't know that. I knew Alex was short for Alexandra but not Sandy. I like it. Maybe I can call you that, too, can I? Sure. I don't mind. What's your nickname then? It's very boring. It's from my surname. My surname's Smith, so some people call me Smithy. But you'd better not tell anyone at school. I don't want everyone to start calling me Smithy. Don't worry, I won't. My best friend at primary school got nicknamed Gummy. She hated it. Why did they call her Gummy? It was because she used to like those sweets – called Gummy bears. Well, that's not too bad. My brother found his nickname quite annoying. It was Buzz. I bet you can't guess why he was called that. No idea. Perhaps because he looks like a mosquito? No! It was because we used to live in a town called Leighton Buzzard. The Buzz came from Buzzard. Oh, right. That's clever. I quite like that one. Talking of names, I read an article recently about celebrity nicknames. Do you know how Sting got his name? No, how? Well there was a jumper he wore on stage. It had black and yellow stripes like a bee, and another guy in the band started calling him 'Sting'. That's cool! And here's another one. Do you know how the American singer, Miley Cyrus got her name? Isn't that her real name, then? No, her real name was Destiny. But she was a happy baby, always smiling, so her parents nicknamed her Smiley and later it got shortened to Miley. She changed her name, officially, to Miley in 2008. Oh, right. I read about Lady Gaga, too. Apparently, her friend thought she sounded like Freddie Mercury from Queen, so every time she came into the studio, he started singing that Queen song 'Radio Ga Ga'. And then one day, they were texting about a stage name for her, and he suggested Radio Ga Ga ... and the phone automatically corrected it to Lady Gaga. That's brilliant. Hey, look at the time. We'd better go now. We've got P.E. in ten minutes and ... Page 33 FUNCTIONS exercise 10 Conversation 1 What's the matter, Jo? I've got to phone someone and I've no idea how to pronounce her name. Why? What's her name? It's something like Sharita Wass Ikonor. Well, you'd better get some help – quickly! Conversation 2 My sister's really angry with me. Why? Well, I wrote the wrong name in my birthday card to her son. I called him Jason, not jacob. You'd better not do that again! I know. She's really cross.

Page 34 READING exercise 3 FUNNY place names Around the world, there are lots of names for towns and villages that sound funny in English – for example, Monster in the Netherlands, Egg in Austria and Silly in Belgium. Here are a few of my favourites. Accident In around 1751, George Deakins was offered some land in the US by King George Ⅱ of England as payment for a debt. 'You can choose a piece of land anywhere in Western Maryland; the king said. Mr Deakins sent two teams of engineers to find the best land, without actually working together. The two teams came back with their maps and to their surprise, they discovered they had chosen exactly the same piece of land. Mr Deakins called it, 'The Accident Tract', and that's how the town got its name. And guess what a person from Accident is called: an Accidental! Hot Coffee In Mississippi, in the late 1800s, you had to travel a long way to take your crops to market and to buy food and provisions. When Levi Davis built a store halfway between Natchez and Mobile, it provided a welcome break. He always offered tired travellers a good pot of hot coffee which he advertised as 'the best coffee around'. Soon his store became well known as a place to stop for hot coffee and the surrounding area became known as Hot Coffee, too. In the 1920s, the name Hot Coffee began appearing on maps. Today, you can still see the road signs to Hot Coffee, but maybe it's not really 'the best coffee around' anymore. LOST There is a little village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland called Lost. (The name comes from the word Losda in Scottish Gaelic.) Visitors loved the name and local road signs were often stolen. In fact, the longest time a sign stayed there was for three months, and the council became so fed up with this that they decided to change the name to Lost Farm. However, the local people complained. 'We're happy with the name;' they said. 'You mustn't change it.' So the name wasn't changed and instead the council made the road signs stronger. Now people can't take the signs, but they can still have their photograph taken beside them. Batman The Turkish city Batman takes its name from a river and not from the comic book superhero. The river's name was probably inspired by the Bati Raman Mountain. However, there is still a connection with the Batman we've seen on the screen. In 2008, the mayor of Batman said that Christopher Nolan, the director of The Dark Knight, should have to pay money to the city for using the name Batman without permission. 'There is only one Batman in the world,' he said. 'The American film producers used the name of our city without informing us.' Of course, Nolan didn't have to pay, though. It's true that filmmakers can't steal information and ideas, but the name Batman has been around since the character was created in 1939. Page 35 PRONUNCIATION exercise 1 and 2 What do you always buy the same brand of? I always buy the same brand of trainers. They're called Ace. I bought a pair of green ones last week. Ace? What are they made of? They're made of fabric and rubber. They put a lot of effort into the design and quality of them. And into the marketing of them, too! Page 35 PRONUNCIATION exercise 3 What do you always buy the same brand of? I always buy the same brand of trainers. They're called Ace. I bought a pair of green ones last week. Ace? What are they made of? They're made of fabric and rubber. They put a lot of effort into the design and quality of them. And into the marketing of them, too!

Page 36 Fiction exercise 2 How I Met Myself by David A. Hill The next day, I was walking home from work. [...] As I went along a street I saw some men putting up a new sign on an old shop. There was the owner's name in red, and below it the word szabó in green. In the window there were suits, jackets and trousers. Szabó. Tailor. The tailor's was getting a new sign. 'Szabó', I thought. Then I said 'János Szabó' out loud. Then I thought, 'János the tailor. John the tailor. John Taylor.' I stopped in the street. János Szabó was John Taylor! My doppelgänger and I shared a name. John Taylor was the English for the Hungarian János Szabó. My hair stood up. Here was something new and important: we shared the same name! I [...] thought about what I had discovered. I tried to decide what to do. Should I tell Andrea about this? Perhaps it would help her to believe me? I didn't know. [...] I decided to go and see Mrs Fischer again. I walked quickly round to [...] her flat. 'Do you remember I came to ask you about János Szabó, Mrs Fischer?' I asked when she let me in. 'Oh, the poor young man,' she said, looking at me sadly. 'And do you know something – you look so like him, too.' This was quite a surprise. 'Really?' I asked. 'Come here under the light,' she said. I moved under the strong light in the hall. 'Yes,' she said, looking at me carefully. 'You look very much the same. The eyes, the nose, the mouth. Very much the same. I didn't look at you carefully when you came last time. Oh, the poor young man.' I felt myself getting very hot. 'Mrs Fischer, I came to ask you something different,' I said. Then I went on very slowly, because I was so afraid of her possible answer. 'Can you remember the names of the wife and daughter who were killed in the cellar?' 'Well, I know the wife was called Andrea,' she started, and I felt my face go white, 'but as for the little girl ... let's think ...' I waited for a moment. She didn't seem able to remember. 'It wasn't ...' I waited, and then said, 'It wasn't Kati, was it?' Mrs Fischer looked at me and smiled. 'Yes, that was it;' she said. 'Quite right. Andrea and Kati. The poor young things.' I thanked her and left as quickly as I could. My head was turning round and round. I felt sick. Outside in the cold street, I stood against the wall of the building. There were too many new things inside my head to understand at once: my doppelgänger had the same name as me – Szabó, or Taylor – I looked like him, and his wife and daughter had the same names as mine!