We featured the launch on FoodBev.com at the end of last year, and then I thought the brand sounded more familiar than that, so I checked FoodBev.com and I was right … we’ve featured a ‘Neo’ before.
In March last year, we announced the launch of Neo Energy from Neo North America. Different company, different brand. And then I remembered that we’d featured a Neo brand way back in 2007 – the first beauty drink from Russia’s Wimm-Bill-Dann. Different everything, including market.
In the summer of 2009, we reported that Coca-Cola was test-marketing a carbonated milk drink called Vio in New York, and made the observation that Coke was already using the brand name in Germany as a still water from the Apollinaris stable. One dairy based carbonated soft drink and one bottled water, but still Vio.
Just last week, I reported that PepsiCo had tested a new premium bottled water called Qua at the Golden Globes event, and that it seemed rather similar to Danone Narang’s established Qua water brand in India. Both positioned as premium waters, but one is in the US and the other in India.
So, Neo, Vio and Qua? Three-letter brand names just seem to work and I remember Richard Hall writing about the subject back in 2009. But two brands with the same name? If they’re in different markets then maybe it’s fine, and maybe it’s only people like me that even spot the link. But in an increasingly global industry, and with Google and more enabling anyone, anywhere, to look for their favourite brands, dare any serious brand owner risk confusion?
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