Motivational-research-style branding psychology produced the BlackBerry name for its strawberry-like keys.

Evidence

While no marketing expert—indeed, he had an engineer’s hostility to marketing’s influence—Lazaridis nonetheless sensed that his product’s name lacked pizzazz. He considered, for a while, calling it the “PocketLink” but at the last moment decided to consult some branding experts from California. After some analysis, in a way that might have done Ernest Dichter proud, the experts opined that the letter B conveyed reliability, and the device’s little keyboard looked like a strawberry. Out of that came the “BlackBerry.” Thus rechristened, the device finally began to feel some wind in its sails. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1036

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes Ernest Dichter’s motivational research discussed earlier in the book — psychological branding shaping product names. — connects to: A name can create the phenomenon it labels by supplying a brand identity
• CANDY: A fun detail: the BlackBerry was named because its keyboard looked like a strawberry and B conveyed reliability.

Broader Connections

• A name can create the phenomenon it labels by supplying a brand identity #exemplifies (0.85)