able, accounts payable, treasury, cash management, tax, billing, budgeting and reporting. A customer may buy the Acme general ledger system, or any combination of products that meet their needs. If these different components integrate well and enable automation between processes and information and reporting, then the value and benefits of the complete set to a customer is far greater than any individual product.

Recognizing this, Acme decided that the optimal relationship with a customer is one where the customer buys most or all of the Acme s

Are you hoping your customers will suddenly yell out “Bingo – I’ve got it!”? Is your product naming strategy so complex that customers have no choice but to keep their own charts of each name or acronym along with a description of what the product is? Do you sell standalone products or integrated solutions? Are you a business to business services company that offers multiple products to potentially the same customer? Do you know if your brand identity is more strongly associated with the first product that you sold rather than your company name?

Perhaps your company grew by acquisition and your portfolio includes legacy products that you have not integrated or renamed because you have been convinced by the members of the acquired entities that their strength lies in their brand identity and ability to continue to operate separately. Is that why you justified the acquisition in the first place, or was it to integrate their solutions into your portfolio? Unfortunately, all too often the long term strategy and broader needs of the customer seem to take a back seat to the interests of the managers inside the company.

Whatever the reason that you arrived at this point, several factors need to be considered when deciding right structure for your product/service naming strategy, including:

• customer needs for integration of workflow and information between products,

• the degree to which your product or service addresses a unique set of needs in the market in a more-or-less standalone fashion,

• your ability to retain a customer that purchased multiple related products or services,

• the degree to which any of your core product offerings are under severe pricing pressure and commoditization in the marketplace.

To illustrate this, let’s visit the fictitious Acme Financial Services company. They sell a collection of products that are software and information services and internet technology designed to automate the financial and accounting processes of their clients. These services are sold in a modular fashion and are all designed to work together to provide a complete accounting and financial management solution, from general ledger, to accounts receivable, accounts payable, treasury, cash management, tax, billing, budgeting and reporting. A customer may buy the Acme general ledger system, or any combination of products that meet their needs. If these different components integrate well and enable automation between processes and information and reporting, then the value and benefits of the complete set to a customer is far greater than any individual product.

Recognizing this, Acme decided that the optimal relationship with a customer is one where the customer buys most or all of the Acme so

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Perhaps your company grew by acquisition and your portfolio includes legacy products that you have not integrated or renamed because you have been convinced by the members of the acquired entities that their strength lies in their brand identity and ability to continue to operate separately. Is that why you justified the acquisition in the first place, or was it to integrate their solutions into your portfolio? Unfortunately, all too often the long term strategy and broader needs of the customer seem to take a back seat to the interests of the managers inside the company.

Whatever the reason that you arrived at this point, several factors need to be considered when deciding right structure for your product/service naming strategy, including:

• customer needs for integration of workflow and information between products,

• the degree to which your product or service addresses a unique set of needs in the market in a more-or-less standalone fashion,

• your ability to retain a customer that purchased multiple related products or services,

• the degree to which any of your core product offerings are under severe pricing pressure and commoditization in the marketplace.

To illustrate this, let’s visit the fictitious Acme Financial Services company. They sell a collection of products that are software and information services and internet technology designed to automate the financial and accounting processes of their clients. These services are sold in a modular fashion and are all designed to work together to provide a complete accounting and financial management solution, from general ledger, to accounts receivable, accounts payable, treasury, cash management, tax, billing, budgeting and reporting. A customer may buy the Acme general ledger system, or any combination of products that meet their needs. If these different components integrate well and enable automation between processes and information and reporting, then the value and benefits of the complete set to a customer is far greater than any individual product.

Recognizing this, Acme decided that the optimal relationship with a customer is one where the customer buys most or all of the Acme s

agers inside the company.

Whatever the reason that you arrived at this point, several factors need to be considered when deciding right structure for your product/service naming strategy, including:

• customer needs for integration of workflow and information between products,

• the degree to which your product or service addresses a unique set of needs in the market in a more-or-less standalone fashion,

• your ability to retain a customer that purchased multiple related products or services,

• the degree to which any of your core product offerings are under severe pricing pressure and commoditization in the marketplace.

To illustrate this, let’s visit the fictitious Acme Financial Services company. They sell a collection of products that are software and information services and internet technology designed to automate the financial and accounting processes of their clients. These services are sold in a modular fashion and are all designed to work together to provide a complete accounting and financial management solution, from general ledger, to accounts receivable, accounts payable, treasury, cash management, tax, billing, budgeting and reporting. A customer may buy the Acme general ledger system, or any combination of products that meet their needs. If these different components integrate well and enable automation between processes and information and reporting, then the value and benefits of the complete set to a customer is far greater than any individual product.

Recognizing this, Acme decided that the optimal relationship with a customer is one where the customer buys most or all of the Acme s

our core product offerings are under severe pricing pressure and commoditization in the marketplace.

To illustrate this, let’s visit the fictitious Acme Financial Services company. They sell a collection of products that are software and information services and internet technology designed to automate the financial and accounting processes of their clients. These services are sold in a modular fashion and are all designed to work together to provide a complete accounting and financial management solution, from general ledger, to accounts receivable, accounts payable, treasury, cash management, tax, billing, budgeting and reporting. A customer may buy the Acme general ledger system, or any combination of products that meet their needs. If these different components integrate well and enable automation between processes and information and reporting, then the value and benefits of the complete set to a customer is far greater than any individual product.

Recognizing this, Acme decided that the optimal relationship with a customer is one where the customer buys most or all of the Acme s

able, accounts payable, treasury, cash management, tax, billing, budgeting and reporting. A customer may buy the Acme general ledger system, or any combination of products that meet their needs. If these different components integrate well and enable automation between processes and information and reporting, then the value and benefits of the complete set to a customer is far greater than any individual product.

Recognizing this, Acme decided that the optimal relationship with a customer is one where the customer buys most or all of the Acme solution set. Acme is their provider of financial services solutions. Acme’s product naming strategy reflects this approach. They used a completely descriptive name for all of their products, each name attached to the Acme company name. Thus, Acme Financial Services became the meaningful collective name for everything they represent to the marketplace. Their accounts payable solution is called Acme Accounts Payable, general ledger is Acme General Ledger, billing is Acme Billing, and so on. In this way, the product name says exactly what it is designed to do using the language that the customer uses for that function. Most importantly, the name Acme precedes every name so that the brand awareness and equity and association with the products and services offered by the company are continually driven back to the name of the company. Their goal is to establish long term loyal and trusted relationships with customers of the Acme Financial Services company. In fact, this approach is likely to ensure that the product portfolio will evolve in a way that aligns with the evolving needs of their customers as the customer values Acme as their provider of financial services solutions.

Let’s contrast this for a minute with another fictitious company called Amerfin Financial Services. Imagine that Amerfin had grown through acquisition. Their original core product was an accounting package that specialized in general ledger, accounts receivable, and accounts payable processes. These products were sold as a product suite under the brand name “Fostar”, so the Amerfin Financial Services company sold a product called “Fostar GL” for general ledger, “Fostar AP” for accounts payable, and “Fostar AR” for accounts receivable. Every one of their fifteen thousand customers had bought Fostar GL, but the other products had achieved only twenty percent penetration of that base. The general awareness and brand equity that customers had with the Amerfin company was attached to the Fostar GL product that they had been using. Their perception of the scope and capability of Amerfin was limited by that product relationship.

Amerfin recognized through increased competition and price pressure that their ma