Electronics and appliance maker LG is using a legal dispute in the U.S. to get computing enthusiasts engaged with one of its products—reaching out to bloggers and journalists to help name its latest “netbook.”
The word “netbook” typically refers to a category of small and affordable notebook computers designed for portable web browsing. LG also used it as a brand name for its products in the category, but a patent dispute may make the term off-limits to all computer manufacturers except one.
Seeing an opportunity for customer engagement, LG Canada has launched a contest to name its just-launched X120-model “Whatchamacallit.”
Shawn Snobelen, director of sales, business sales division at LG Canada, said the patent action “caught just about every vendor off guard. It’s like saying I can’t use the words ‘sports car’ to describe my automobile anymore.
“We thought to create a marketing program around this and at the same time get some public feedback on what the product should be called.”
The contest, created with PR agency-of-record High Road Communications, uses the microsite Lg.ca/Whatchamacallit, where users can submit their own product names or vote for others.
Votes will determine the top 10 entries, which will then be judged by LG’s marketing team. Winners are expected to be announced at the end of April.
To promote the contest and create discussion around the new name, LG is conducting a series of brainstorming roundtables with prominent bloggers and tech journalists across Canada. The first took place last night in Toronto.
The new name will be used for the Canadian version of the X120 in two upcoming marketing campaigns—an in-cinema program in mid-May and a back-to-school program at summer’s end.
However, Snobelen said the name could be adopted in all of LG’s 30 global markets.
“I’m not thinking our objective is to rebrand the category, but to potentially create a brand name for this product,” Snobelen said. “But if we can rebrand the category, that would be truly cool.”
The dispute over the use of “netbook” is currently being fought in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Psion Teklogix, based in London, U.K. and Mississauga, Ont., claims it owns the term because it has produced “Netbook” branded products since 1999, before the term found general industry use.
Last year it issued cease-and-desist orders to competitors demanding they stop using it in relation to their own products. Industry giants Dell and Intel are fighting the claim.
