Misspelled Brands

Many brands in the US have, well, misspelled names. Like Dunkin’ Donuts (not Doughnuts), Froot Loops, Cheez-It, Flickr (not Flicker) or Tumblr (not Tumbler). If you attribute this to American stupidity, you’d be as wrong as you are contemptuous.

In case of tech companies, it’s because they’ve often been founded by kids in college. Nancy Friedman, a branding consultant:
“Professional name developers usually advise against spelling or punctuation that requires repeated explanation, won’t translate into print, and doesn’t contribute to actual distinctiveness—but many companies and products are named by entrepreneurs who don’t seek, or follow, professional advice.”

In other cases, it’s because of what Vanitha Swaminathan, who teaches at the Katz Graduate School of Business says:
“One way in which brands can be memorable is to kind of switch or change something about the spelling so that it stands out in your memory and it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.”

And sometimes, it’s based on which Internet domain names are available. If Flicker.com is already taken, surely a deliberately misspelled name like Flickr.com won’t be taken!

And sometimes, they are indeed spelling mistakes. Like Google which was supposed to be named Googol, the number 1 followed by a 100 zeros. Of course, it isn’t a typo anymore: it’s a verb!

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