On 'Windows Vista' and my ignorance on foreign words

windows vista

So, Microsoft announced that the next major version of Windows, what is code named Longhorn -- will be called Windows Vista and will ship in 2006. In short, I kinda really like the name, and think it is a great choice, and that their marketing department did a great job. In long...

What's in a name

Earlier today I wanted to find something I'd said before, or rather the post, and searched the site for 'marketing' and 'marketing' and 'extreme', and it turns out I talk about marketing more than I thought. Anywho, the post I was trying to find was The High-PPI Problem (Redux (AKA, notes on CoreImage)) where I go off on naming and my now ingrained hatred of the word extreme and such, which brings me back to Windows Vista.

Windows Vista, with 'Vista' being used as an 'edition' is a really, really good name, and very descriptive of how they want people to view the product. Makes you think of looking over the horizon, and the future.

I never really cared for the XP in Windows XP, and haven't been all that hot on Apple pushing the X in Mac OS 10... or, lord, a lot of their recent marketing for Mac OS X in general, which makes me feel like someone in Apple's marketing department is some huge fan of the original X-Men movie visually, and I still want to find out who chose the name Bonjour and ask them just how high they were. Gag.

You wouldn't believe how I used to push the Rendezvous tech -- it's about as close as I come to being an evangelist -- but now can't bring myself to say its name aloud and even typing it before was painful. It's just so... ghey. And you know, I love their iPod marketing -- the whole silhouette thing is genius. A major problem with advertising is that people need to:

  • Identify with who they see using something

  • Want to bang whoever they see using something

  • Want to be whoever they see using something

Normally, Apple's product marketing seems to swing between two absolute extremes: Bourgeois and what they think will impress a 15yr old or what they think a gamer will think is cool. Sorry, I'm still shuddering at the memory of that PowerMac G5 commercial. The silhouette thing is such genius because you just come away with an impression or feeling; if you want that, you have to get an iPod. It means they don't have to have separate commercials for adults and teens and guys who like asparagus.

Just brilliant, and you almost wonder if the ad agency responsible for them is even looking at the rest of the stuff they do. Anyways, a lot of thought often goes into a name. Basically, when it comes product naming, you have four choices:

  1. Something descriptive, which lets someone know right away what it does. Something like Mail.app or Microsoft Word is a good example of this. Something like Apple's Pages.app is an example of where this is attempted but can go horribly awry. This isn't very exciting, however it's completely obvious to someone and there is little confusion.

  2. Something completely out there where, which via branding, you build mindshare/brandshare around that name. Monster.com is a great example of this, where if you dropped someone into the world from 1995 they'd be clueless as to what it was. So is Microsoft's Excel, which is synonymous with spreadsheets, or even the iPod.

  3. Combine descriptive words, and something like NewsMac would be an example of this. You know its for news, and you know its for the Mac, and about the only way it could be more descriptive is if RSS or Atom or Syndicated were in the name.

  4. You pick something that gives a certain feeling while conjoining it with something that still gives people an idea of what it does. MarsEdit is a good example of this, as are things like iTunes or iPhoto or even Delicious Library. The key word is evocative.

In the case of an edition of a product, as I wrote about earlier, you keep having to top yourself, to denote its obviously an improved version from what came before, and after awhile that gets difficult to do because you are somewhat reliant on how what you pick is associated in your audience's minds. Which is why everyone was trying to crib 'extreme' and 'titanium' and 'X', because once you already have the regular, and 'Pro' doesn't fit, where do you go...

You also have a problem in that when it comes to marketing, too many cooks often end up spoiling the broth, and really goofy stuff happens the wider your market gets and the more people have to have a clue. When you're a huge company, you might come up with something perfect for the USA, which ends up meaning "I'm going to bang your sister" to someone in Bangladesh, so you often end up with is this lowest-common-denominator end product. (Gag, Bonjour)

'Vista' is solid, and probably better than solid, and I'm sure they spent a whole lot of time coming up with it, considering they'll be spending hundreds of millions to market it around the world. (Note to Microsoft: More commercials with those chalk things building up and less flying people)

I'm sure a bunch of people are going to make fun of it for a variety of reasons, and probably a big thing that'll come to mind is that it doesn't seem "strong" or "commanding" which is what you'd normally think to associate with the equivalent of the last OS superpower left in the world.

However, Windows 'Vista' just kicks ass because:

  • It's short, and easy to say. There is little ambiguity, and no one saying "No, stupid, its actually '10' not 'ex', and while I'm here, its 'jag-wuar' not 'jag-wire'."

  • I'm not embarrassed to say it, and it really takes a lot to embarrass me, although what embarrasses me may not embarrass everyone. Bonjour embarrasses me, as does Airport Extreme and mini (No caps on mini, because as we learned with the iPod photo that denotes a separate product rather than a version!) is on the edge in a big way.

    I care about this because I'm going to have to type it and say it a lot over the next few years, and I talk about things with names that don't spark intrinsic revulsion more than I would otherwise, and feel shinier about them when I do.

  • It's a word most people have heard, or rather have associations with in their brain, and fairly broadly across cultures. You may not be able to write out the exact definition, and depending on what you've been exposed to may make you think of different things,

  • What you may associate it with in your brain are generally what Microsoft wants you to associate the product with, and they're all generally good connotations. You think of a beautiful view, or looking over the horizon (This will be used for jokes, too, as someone will say "What, where Mac OS X is?"), or towards the future, or a long but enclosed view.

Trust me, this could have well been 'Windows X2™' to capitalize on the dual-core hype, or 'Windows V™' with some marketing to associate it with visuals instead of the 80s TV movie about aliens that eat people, or 'Windows HTX' or "Windows Thoroughbred' or something, and I'm perhaps somewhat inappropriately grateful.

The one weird thing is that 'Vista', in French translates to, well, Vista, which means there is some very strange run on French words for marketing terms.

[update:] This was originally titled "On Windows Vista, and French names", but I was informed by readers that 'Vista' is actually Italian. What's sad is I actually checked this in Babblefish, and saw no translation, and since I know the French are insane (And even French-Canadians) about having a 'native' word for everything, I assumed...]

yummy alcohol posted button Posted by drunkenbatman
    July 22, 2005, at 01:08 PM


Comments (66)




Post a comment



Anonymous comments are allowed, but please enter something for a name.

And do endeavor to appear sane.









Remember personal info?