Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

transylvania. I can't get past that. coupled with a the word 'heart', a stake thru the heart.

if i take that out, the word 'traversia' has no meaning for me, so it doesn't matter what it is under.

lol I'm afraid that's not terribly helpful, BlueSage

Actually it reminds me of nothing becuase I have no idea of what Traversia is. So where the heart is has no meaning for me.

The logo, as you descibe it, would make me think of a home builder.

It's a vacation home rental company (see bottom of my initial post).

I'm not sure I see the problem with "Traversia" not being a dictionary word. Expedia isn't one, nor is Travelocity, or Orbitz. Or Wikipedia. Google. Orkut.

Nor are many of the biggest names in the Fortune 500 and other household names:
Exxon, Sinopec, Fortis, Pemex, Dexia, Verizon, Cingular, Valero, Aviva, Gazprom, Tesco, Nestle, etc.

Seems to me those names actually have far more name recognition than any others.

https://www.millwardbrown.com/Sites/Optimor/Media/Pdfs/en/BrandZ/BrandZ-200...

See this report on World branding. It's clear from that, that names like "World vacation homes" or whatever are not recognizable/popular brands. Whereas non dictionary, short words that don't necessarily mean anything out of context are catchy and memorable precisely for their uniqueness.

Dictionary words are WAY too forgettable, because we hear them so often. That all sounds a bit 'small business; to me, not global corporation. Bit simple(minded) to be honest. That's why almost none of those Top 100 names are recognizable dictionary words.

Hi Mcassity,

Thank you for your advice, I completely agree with what you're saying. Our company will be a sister company of a foreign company that is already a multi million dollar company, so we'll have ample resources. You're right about the destination/travel relation, but we had a hard time coming up with something relating to homes that implied vacation, so Traversia seemed like the best thing to choose.
Traversia wants to give people the impression that they're going to something better than home. We'll be offering car rentals (and probably flights in the future) through our partners. It'll be an integrated feature so that people can basically put together an entire package through our site, but the homes are the primary feature.

Traversia has 4000 homes so far, not available on any of our American competitors sites, we're just working on getting them online, and getting the system modified for American customers, at https://www.traversia.com .

We have a logo, which is as follows:

https://i1.photoblog.com/photos4/11172-1200564114-0.jpg

If you have a minute, perhaps you could take a look at it. I appreciate your (and everyone else's advice). We will certainly reconsider the tagline, but perhaps in combination with this logo, on a home rental site, it would make more sense to people? I think some of the responders didn't see that it's for vacation rentals.

Alberto got a good idea about the intention, apparently even without being familiar with the American expression "Home is where the heart is". The idea is that the phrase suggests that Traversia offers homes where you can truly feel at home, be comfortable, homes you can love, places that will remain close to your heart in memories of your vacation. As well as implying that Traversia is sincere, from the heart, personal, not big-corporation-that-doesn't-care-about-you.

Best,

Claire

I have to agree with bluesage - transylvania is what I thought of. I wouldn't ignore two honest responses to your question:

"What would you think of this slogan. What does it remind you of? (images, emotions, expressions, etc) If you see it on its own:"

And BTW, how does an honest response not help. Perhaps because you didn't like the response?

Steve: More because it didn't sound like an honest response, and (intentionally so the 'joke isn't ruined?) ignored the conclusion of the post, which 'reveals' what business it's for. If you take responses like that seriously in your business, you'd have a hard time getting any serious work done. Imagine having an employee in your company that responds to your suggestions to name your search engine 'Google' with:

"Dude that sounds like poodle!!! lolz"

Is that someone you would take seriously as an employee and not fire?

Claire,

Just to weigh in, brainstorming hits from all angles...Transylvania hits more than just one person I am afraid...no question...and yes, as the point was made before, Google is nonsensical...once it becomes part of our everyday life does it become logical...not before.

The logo is a home, but neither the name, slogan, or logo are tied together in a way that is meaningful.

"Traversia... vacation rentals, that feels like home"

of course, there are a couple of ways to hit from this same angle, I have at least tied the name to what it does/is. Keep in mind that most folks here are marketers by trade...your response to Steve above really doesn't ring true at all I am afraid. The responses have all, in my opinion, been honest and designed to get you closer to where you need to be...if you are already sold on the name and want to back it up with your OWN opinions, your uphill battle just gets steeper...we are here to help.

Mac

Hi Mac,

Thank you for taking the time respond to my post/logo.

We've been considering the slogan "Make The World Your Home" as well.

I still keep coming back to "...where the heart is" though. Everyone I've asked outside of this forum immediately made the connection with the slogan "home is where the heart is", without me hinting at it, and they loved it, so I'm not sure why some people here aren't getting it.

The connection between all three seems kind of obvious to me (Jay and Alberto on this forum also got the idea, with Alberto not even knowing the expression as a non native speaker!). Traversia = travel, to traverse. We sell home rental travel packages. The logo is a globe, with a house, thus 'homes around the world', and the slogan replaces the word 'home' with the word 'traversia' in the most famous expression relating to home in English.

Seems to me like BlueSage, who is obv not a marketing professional, suggested something that was not helpful or particularly honest. Once someone else reads that, it gets stuck in your mind. Thought by suggestion. Typical psychological response, nothing strange about that.

Certainly none of the 30+ people I asked elsewhere, who
didn't see that post, made that connection. As far as I'm concerned, it's only two people on this board, out of about 35 total, and one of them by suggestion. Doesn't seem like a 'majority' by any means.

But like I said, we're considering "Make The World Your Home" instead or in addition. Like you suggested, that way we directly connect the slogan to the image, not only by suggestion, but literally. Do you feel more positively about that one? We're thinking of doing an Adwords split test to compare them. That'll give a good majority opinion.

Thanks!

Claire

PS: I don't want to sound rude or insult people. I am just hesitant about simply discarding a slogan that lots of people seem to like because one person suggests it sounds like Transylvania (where we actually also have villas for rent!), and another person says so after having seen someone else suggest it. Seems a bit hasty.

Hi Marge!

Thank you for your response, I appreciate your opinion, and I think you're right about "Make the World Your Home" communicating the purpose of our business better.

Does anyone have any other ideas for slogans?

Best,

Claire

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your post, that has probably been the most helpful reply so far! I'll take your suggestions to the rest of the team, see what we can do! I'm not sure which direction to go in though, if we should neither go towards 'homes' nor towards 'travel'. We do sell travel packages that are built from the rental home (pick a rental home, then add rental car, flight, insurance, etc).

I agree that the idea of convenience and exotic locations, something DIFFERENT is good. We'll think more about how to emphasize DIFFERENCE in a good way. The competition emphasizes the "home away from home" angle. Perhaps we should try the opposite. But on the other hand, our main competitor is very successful with 120.000 homes or so.

It's a tough call... again something where we could perhaps test the essential concepts of home vs exotic/different in an Adwords split test, see what appeals to people more.

Thank you again for your post Chris, it's been exceptionally helpful, and really gives a new starting point for trying a different angle!

Best,

Claire

PS: As for the name, if we want use the word 'home' in, there's pretty much no way of getting a URL unless it's something way too long and laborsome. It's gotta be short and different.

I just realized though, that if we want to expand in the future, a name like Traversia may actually come in very handy, precisely because it doesn't restrict us to homes only, because it relates to all travel... our sister company is a multi billion dollar company that specializes in ALL major forms of travel, so we may end up going that way too in the future, and certainly will have travel add ons... I'm concerned that if we went with a name like "homeaway" (our main competitor) we will be restricted to houses...

PS: Chris, how did you feel about "Make the World your Home"?

(Oh, and I'll assign a 'best answer' soon to give you guys the points you deserve (can I divide them?), I'm just happy to get more responses still, and help from everyone. I don't mean to stretch it out forever lol)

Hi Pat,

Thank you for taking the time to respond, you made a lot of valuable points!
As for the name, the idea was also
Traversia
traverse
travel - sea - see

Is it harder to remember or pronounce than 'travelocity', 'wikipedia', 'orbitz'?

While older companies don't use it, very recent popular companies have grown very quickly with catchy names ending in -ia, like Wikipedia, Expedia. (alos major older company: dexia). Part of a choice for this name is precisely because it plays into the current trend of popular, widely popular internet businesses, as well as having a 'romance language' ending (most of our home are in romance language countries, which are all far more exotic than for example germanic countries, so we wouldn't want a germanic sounding name) We didn't want an old fashioned name.

A lot of people here are saying we should NOT focus on the 'home' part. And we have a meeting scheduled this week for how to approach this, with a slogan and appropriate advertising. This could very well be our 'unique angle'. Every other major vacation home bases their marketing on the idea of "home away from home" though, it's the 'standard' approach, and has been that way forever.

However, the one thing that we have concentrated on from the start, in our formula is the following (too long for a slogan I think):
"Experience the comfort of a hotel with the freedom of home"

Our assumptions are:

- Vacation homes, especially abroad, will appeal to a middle to higher class consumer, likely with higher education and more disposable income.
1. These people are most likely to feel comfortable staying in a home in a foreign country
2. to take an independent non-tour trip
3. to speak foreign languages and
4. therefore be willing to stay in a place that may not have an English speaking reception desk

- Vacation homes are less expensive than a hotel, especially with a large family or group, for an extended stay. (And for the richest groups, we have some very large luxurious homes)

- Vacation homes are safe and easy with children, unlike hotels where it may be hard to keep an eye on kids in a separate room and families will feel restrained.

- Vacation homes offer far more privacy and usually a private swimming pool

- Vacation homes offer the freedom to come and go as you like, cook local foods, and do whatever you like without hotel restrictions.

So to summarize this in a few key words:
Freedom, comfort, privacy, affordable

(but not 'super cheap', and we're marketing to families mostly, not students or teenagers, so affordable in a family way, not a 'Cancun' way)

Maybe I should make a new, separate post asking for people to help us with slogans that include those words or that direction?

Oh, and I forgot to add:

- Vacation homes let you truly experience the culture of the country you're visiting, unlike touristy hotels and downtown city areas.

- Vacation homes are quiet, peaceful, tranquil, in the country side, relaxing.

So:

Freedom
Comfort
Privacy
Tranquility
Affordable
Authentic

I'm going to close this thread so that I can finally give the points out. I'll make a separate post asking for advice on a slogan.

Thank you all for your help, I really appreciate it, and I hope you will share your expertise with me once more in a new post about the slogan.

Best,

Claire