Is Toys R Us the Best Company Name Ever?

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If you work in advertising or marketing long enough, sooner or later you’ll be asked to come up with a name for a new product, service or company. In the old days, you’d jot down a lot of possible names, select the ones you thought worked the best and do a quick trademark search.

Today, you’d actually start with a URL search and, since all the good URLs are taken, you’d end up with something strange or quirky like PurpleRinoExtreme or WankoMotorCars.

But before the advent of the world wide web and before the necessity of doing a URL search was even a possibility, there was a small group of people who came up with the best company name ever. Those people had the courage to break every naming convention ever developed and to go with “Toys R Us.” It was a risky move, but one that paid off in spades.

There are three things you should ask yourself if and when you develop a new brand name:

1) Is it clear?

2) Is it memorable?

3) Is it different?

It’s worth mentioning that for every “Toys R Us” that meets all three of these criteria, there’s a “Kodak” or an “Amazon” that meets none of them and is still successful. But if you’re a small, unheard of company, you need every advantage you can get. And coming up with a name that’s clear, different and memorable stacks the cards in your favor.

So, with that in mind, take a look at Toys R Us. Is it clear what they do? Well, gosh, yeah sort of. You’ve got to figure that a store named Toys R Us probably doesn’t sell hardware. Is it memorable? Yes, they’ve knocked it out of the park on that one, too. Finally, is it different?

Before we answer that question, we’d like to point out that if a bunch of Harvard MBAs were sitting in a room together analyzing naming options for a new toy store, the first thing they’d do is to throw out anything targeting children that wasn’t grammatically correct. In the unlikely chance that Toys R Us slipped through their prying eyes, they would’ve tested the heck out of it until it got tossed out because middle America didn’t feel comfortable with it.

But whoever was in the room when they decided to go with Toys R Us had the wisdom and the cajones to stick with a name that was so different, so unusual and so irreverent as to not be forgotten by anyone who drove by the retail location and saw the big, colorful “Toys R Us” sign bellowing out for their attention.

So there you have it. There are three key things to consider when you come up with a new name for a product, service or company: Is it clear? Is it memorable? Is it different? The Toys R Us name is so successful on all three of these fronts, that we believe it’s arguably the best company name ever.

What are your thoughts? What other companies should we add to a Top 10 Best Company Names list? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Time Monday, November 10th, 2008, 12:54 pm   |   CategoryGeneral Marketing  |  RssRSS feed |  CommentRespond  |  TrackbackTrackback

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  • http://beckermultimedia.com Robert Becker

    A name should be clear. But what does that mean? Clear about what? What you sell? Who you are? How you do business? Why you do business? Seems to me that you haven’t considered these questions. Your first principle is unclear!

    A name should be memorable. How does something become memorable? Does a name make it memorable, or the experience one associates with the name? We meet many thousands of people in the course of a lifetime, and we remember the names of only a few. Why is that? Because of the names, or because of what we experienced with the people who went by those names?

    A name should be different. From what? From other names? Isn’t that obvious? If Sherlock Holmes and James Bond had the same name, we would be confused. But how does Sherlock being different from James make Holmes or Bond better names? Is James Bond worse because it’s like James Cagney or Campion Bond? Obviously not. These things have nothing to do with a good name.

    Is 60 Second Marketer a good name? Well, let’s see. It’s not clear, since most products offered by the 60 Second Marketer are not 60 seconds in length. I don’t know if it’s memorable. I have no trouble recalling it, so that’s a plus. Trouble is, I only recall it when I see it in my Inbox. It doesn’t come to mind when I am browsing books on Amazon or reading the Wall Street Journal. It’s not different, since there are 60 Second [fill in the blank] things all over the place, ever since Pooh-Bah Blanchard made people believe that management occurs in one minute.

    I propose replacing your three principles of naming with just one principle: “a name should mean something.”

    Examples?

    Ralph Lauren means something. It’s the name of a designer.
    Google means something. It’s the name of huge scale.
    Marathon means something. It’s the energy you get from eating the candy.

    There is nothing that these and other great names have in common, other than they mean something and stand for something.

    By this measure, Toys r Us is not the best name, or even a great name. It is a name of a retailer that defines itself generically. The name says nothing special about the toys in the stores or how the toys are sold. A far better name in toy retailing is FAO Schwarz. For none of the reasons you cite.

  • V.

    IS it the best name “ever”?

    Ever since I first saw this name, I have been under the impression that it is a more or less witty word play on the term – THESAURUS.

    And it makes sense: it IS a “treasury” of toys.
    (Conversely, the way it is generally pronounced makes NO sense whatsoever.
    “Toys ARE US?” What does that mean?
    Is that supposed to be an all-too erudite pun on Louis XIV’s “L’Etat c’est moi”, or what? No, I didn’t think so.)

    Which is why I used to be endlessly irritated whenever I heard the “hill -billy” pronunciation – which eventually turned out to be be THE “correct” way.

    One could justifiably expect that, IF my assumption were correct, the PR people would have publicly clarified the confusion.

    Or would they?

    Still assuming that my “theory” is correct, they would have noticed that nobody had picked the allusion – which would mean that the allusion was worthless, totally “off”, from the marketing point of view.

    Furthermore, considering that people were seemingly pleased with, and accepting of, the “meaning” THEY had attributed to the name – not realising that it was probably never intended to be pronounced ALOUD – the executives would have kept their mouths shut, all too happy to play along.

    Am I right?
    Who knows.
    Anyway, analysing names it’s fun.

    If I were right, it would mean that the name was anything BUT “the best name”.
    It would mean that it was a FLUKE – a very lucky strike for the company, courtesy of the general public’s lack of erudition (or sheer common sense).

    Good for them.
    Who am I to bash sheer luck?

    But true or false, I know I will continue being profoundly irritated by its pronunciation.

  • V.

    P.S. Please, in God’s name – remove those hideous smilies from my previous comment!
    (Well, except this one: :))

    I wasn’t aware they were enabled.

  • http://www.60SecondMarketer.com JamieTurner

    Hi, V. Thanks for your thoughts and comments on the Toys R Us name.

    I don’t speak French, so what does the reference to Louis XIV’s “L’Etat c’est moi” mean? I think I can piece together “… it is me” or something like that. But what does the full statement mean in English?

    Just curious.

    All the best,
    Jamie

  • V.

    Hello again. ;)

    Curiosity is a highly underrated virtue. ;)

    I was just joking, of course, but the phrase I referred to is Louis’ famous royal motto, meaning “The State (= France) is ME (= i.e. Louis himself)”.

    Modesty wasn’t one of his virtues…
    But he WAS right. ;)

    It’s such fun discussing propaganda – isn’t it? ;)

  • V.

    P.S. I might blog this in one of the blogs I contribute to – with all the appropriate links, of course.

    I hope that’s alright.

    And again, thanks for the fun discussion. :-)

  • V.

    ” I propose replacing your three principles of naming with just one principle: a name should mean something.’ ”

    How about just: “a name should EVOKE something?”

    Even nonsensical names can work if they are evocative enough. (
    TOYS R US is a very good example of just that: a mess of a name – in my opinion – that became successful among the target public because, nonsensical or not, it is evocative enough.)

    Of course, defining the “something” that should be evoked – and then formulating just the right abracadabra – is a fine art.

    But that’s the fun of this business. ::-)

  • http://www.60SecondMarketer.com JamieTurner

    Hi, V. Yes, please feel free to blog away. Our content is your content — just provide credit where it’s due.

    Here’s a story you might appreciate, given that you’re either a Francophile, a lover of history, or both.

    I read that Voltaire was once approached by a young man at his farm. The young man said “Monsieur Bouvier would like you to join him for dinner tonight.” Voltaire said, “Ahhhh, Monsieur Bouvier. What a fine man, indeed.” The young man said, “That’s kind of you to say, unfortunately, Mousieur Bouvier thinks you’re a boor.” Voitaire was taken aback and responded by saying, “Does he? Then I suspect we’re both wrong!”

    Hah!

    Funny little story. Hardly ever get to tell it.

    Thanks for your comments.

  • http://community.bsu.edu/members/Online_Stock_Trading.asp online stock trading advice

    Your site was extremely interesting, especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last Thursday.

    I’m Out! :)

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