[TYPO3-marketing] TYPO3 Brand Name

[Kasper Skårhøj]

Hi Nicolas,

What I know about brands is that you should not mess with them. If  
they are well established, it requires a tremendous effort to change  
them. How do you suggest a possible route to change awareness  
_everywhere_ that "TYPO3" is now called "SuperCMS". How will you get  
this deeply into the minds, hearts and language of people both inside  
and outside the community?

Further, you are the first ever to suggest this is a barrier for a  
native english speaker. We have asked native speakers in UK and US  
multiple times why they think TYPO3 has a hard time penetrating, not  
a single one has suggested the name was the problem AFAIK. And I  
don't suspect them to be shy to speak out.

- kasper



On Nov 9, 2006, at 10:31 , Nicolas Schudel wrote:

> Hello Marketing list,
>
> Allow me to briefly introduce myself. My name is Nicolas and I am a
> TYPO3 user from Switzerland. I recently completed my studies in
> Australia where I researched "Designing Brand Identity in Free/Open
> Source Software Projects". While researching, I also took a closer
> look at the TYPO3 rebranding and interviewed Rasmus Skjoldan on the
> topic. During the analysis of the TYPO3 brand I found a problem,
> which is the reason I am writing to this list.
>
> I think the brand name has a serious flaw. The word 'typo' in english
> means 'spelling error'. While most of the TYPO3 community is in
> europe, this problem may seem irrelevant. In german, for instance,
> the word hints another meaning: 'typo' is short for 'typography'.
> However, the name may be a hinderance for a newcomer to the project
> from any english speaking country. SPELLING-ERROR3 may give the wrong
> first impression. I have no proof that this is the case for newcomers
> and would have to back my claim with the results of a survey. At the
> moment it is a 'gut feeling' and may explain why TYPO3 is soaring in
> Europe but not anywhere else.
>
> I would therefore suggest that the project considers a change to the
> brand name - one that works in the english language. Now would be the
> correct time, version 5 is being recreated almost from scratch. Maybe
> the brand name should be updated with it.
>
> Regards, Nicolas
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- kasper

"Necessity is the mother of invention"
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