27 November 2008
IMM studio A 2.24
Bernd Samland on successful names for brands and media
How do you come up with a good brand name? Which kind of media-title will help succeed? Bernd M. Samland is looking for some answers and has been doing so for the past 15 years. As founder and managing director of his own agency called ENDMARK, Mr. Samland was part of the brand-namings in media, e.g. TAFF, TOGGO and COLONEUM, music, such as BeFour and over 1.000 general brand names, from the dating agency PARSHIP to CARISMO coffee and REMONDIS garbage- disposal. Even world wide known, stock market-noted cooperations such as QIMONDA and TOGNUM were given names in Mr. Samland's cradle.
His lecture will feature aspects of the development process of a name, aspects of its effect, as well as avoiding legal and cultural differences in the vast sea of over 25 million registered names world wide. Mr. Samland brings in examples from his work experience that will prove, that no successful name or title was given just by coincidence.
Bernd Samland holds a degree in political science and communications science from the University of Trier, Germany, and the University of Kansas, USA. He started his career as a journalist and producer at RTL television in Luxemburg in the 1980s. He moved into marketing and became a founding member and managing director of Dietz & Partner, an advertising agency, marketing director of RTL-radio, managing director of Deutschlandfunk Marketing GmbH and communications director at VOX television. The network's name VOX, by the way, became Mr. Samland's first major naming. The experience inspired him to move full time into brand naming in 1994.
Bernd Samland is also a well-known writer of reference books. His hands-on, entertaining publications are beloved in the field. His current work is titled Unverwechselbar - Name, Claim & Marke (Unmistakable - name, claim & brand), published by Haufe Verlag, 2006, Freiburg/München, ISBN 3-448-07256-7.