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Author: Krikor

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By Posted on Posted in Why This Blog No Comments

Dear Surfers & Visitors,

this blog had 2 different names before getting to Krikor.info.
It started with NamingBlog.com, then moved to Brandeos.com and now effective September 21, 2006, officially my blog is called Krikor.info

Krikor.info is all about branding and naming issues, topics, resources, successes, marketing, management, books, news & views, advertising, companies, products, brands, websites, or “anything branding” and of course from time to time some life issues.

It has been some time, I am into “the branding & naming game” for fun, myself, friends, colleagues and the whole world. We woke up every morning with millions of brand names around us, from our morning shower gel, toothpaste, car we drive, food we eat, cloth we wear and so on and on and on. Branding and Naming are now sciences, mixing anything: fonts, colors, icons, letters, words, languages, abbreviations, syllabs, synonyms, prefixes, suffixes and of course mainly your imagination to be creative.

You are welcome to comment anytime on any given category.

By Posted on Posted in Why This Blog No Comments

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Visitors,

Effective September 21, 2006 Brandeos.com blog has moved to Krikor.info, where you can always discover new postings, brands, products and some life issues shown from my angle.

You are kindly requested to update your bookmarks and feed readers.

Thank you for your continuous support.

Enjoy Krikor.info !

By Posted on Posted in Losers No Comments

Yes you do !!!! Wanna know why ??? I will tell you why.

It all started when I had a free account on Flickr some time ago, then few days back, when I needed to upgrade my account to the pro level, I got shocked.

When I got to the payment page, flickr informed me that all their payments are done through paypal, and I did not have a paypal account, well no problem, I said let’s have one to pay flickr, then I discovered that paypal does not accept customers from the country where I live, which is Lebanon.

I tried to go through another option, which is using the US postal address of an express courier service company, which paypal accepted and I went all over the procedure, when suddenly paypal informs me on the screen saying: we do not accept credit card from the country where this card is issued, which is also Lebanon.

I can not understand how can a compay like flickr, operating under the yahoo umbrella, limit itself to another company? How can a company in the Web 2.0 era, say : “Sorry we dont want you to be our customer, because our payment system does not accept payments from your country”. How can a company like yahoo leave behind millions of customers worldwide? Maybe they have enough cash for not caring about new clients ? Who knows.

Yahoo & Flickr people, have you ever heard about www.2checkout.com, an online payment service provider, which accepts payment from all over the world.

I guess there are lots of why and why and why …. but who cares about your company, as long as you dont care about me and my country. There are plenty of photo-sharing websites out there and are eager to have new customers and service them the right way.

Caterina & Stewart, i am really sorry for you and for the company you found.

Here is my deal for you, you buy me a 2 years pro account through your account and I will send you the money by snail mail, hoping that in the coming 2 years, the site will be accepting worldwide payments, but I really doubt, because if you did not care since day 1, why would be caring after all these years ;-)

By Posted on Posted in Products No Comments

I stumbled across this feed called Hello! Drinks from Brand Infection through my feed readers yesterday night and I was so eager to discover what is this all about, as myself I am always excited when it comes to new products launching and business ventures. I discovered it to be a smoothie brand.

A smoothie is a blended non-alcoholic beverage made from natural ingredients, usually fruits and juices but sometimes other natural flavors such as chocolate or even green tea. Smoothies and juice bars started becoming popular throughout the United States in the 90’s where Jamba Juice is the largest smoothie bar franchise, with 533 stores and sales reaching $345 million in 2005.

After visiting their blog I found the following initial posting by Jürgen Alker the creator of this new brand:

“After working all the years in the communication and marketing business and a lot of brand builing experience I want to start my own brand. I have had dozens of business ideas in the last years. Now I have chosen one that I want to implement. I needed something simple, something that does not require hundred thousands to start.I always liked fresh juice and asked myself why there is only all this crap in german stores. In February I visited London and was amazed by a juice brand. To be precise a smoothie brand. I heard about them already 2 years ago. But didn´t expect them to taste that good. This was what was missing: the final “hint” for me to start something. This was it.

A smoothie brand. Product development is not too complicated. And I know how to do all the marketing. So why wait?“

So I wish you all the luck and success in your new venture, hoping we will see it growing globally soon !But I would like to comment on two issues after visiting their website:

1- The Website: I went through it and i got trapped into Deutsch language all over, even the front page shows some english words (i.e. check out our blog, stop, order here) while their blog is in full english.
After going deeply through the blog, I understood that at the launching stage they will cover only the german market, I fully understand this issue, but the internet No.1 language is English, so please consider having your website in English from day one, so surfers don’t let you behind after their first visit.

Another issue regarding the site, well you can not see any logo refering that you landed safely in the page you want except that bottle showing the brand name, while I visited their competitors: Fruchtbar, Grand Choice, b2b smoothies (listed in their blog) to discover more comprehensive and eye-catching design websites, but unfortunately also in German, all of them.

2- The Logo Design: I like the name, it can go global easily one day, but oops … have not we seen this somewhere before?


Next time I am in Germany, I will try to catch one of your smoothie.
By the way, you are now on my blogroll.
Hello! Happy Drinking !

By Posted on Posted in Software No Comments

Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, whose main intention was to develop a piece of software which would revolutionise telephone calls. Allowing users to speak to each other via computers promotes the use of the Voice over Internet protocol and the use of computers in the technologically advancing world. Users are able to talk for free, an incentive to future and present member.

The auction site eBay began talks with Skype in September 2005. On 12th September 2005, it was announced that eBay would purchase Skype in a deal worth approximately USD$2.6bn, in up-front cash and eBay stock. The transfer of ownership began and eBay officially acquired Skype on 14th October 2005.
Skype is available in 27 languages and currently has 100 million worldwide users.

Last month, Skype launched a promotional campaign in Tallin, Estonia, with full tram branding called “The Skype Tram”, where you can ride for free and of course talk on Skype for free also.

By Posted on Posted in Web 2.0 No Comments

How can such a start-up become in seven years the biggest giant of the internet, consulted 250 millions times every single day.

Founded in 1999 by Larry Page & Sergey Brin, 2 Stanford University students, Google had to wait 7 years and without spending a penny on advertisement to get to the big day, answering to 250 millions request every day in 35 languages.

Listed in Wall Street Since 2004, Google was pain-in-the-ass to the major big players of the internet era, including Microsoft, Amazon.com, Yahoo! and eBay.
Everybody is looking to Mountain View in California where Google launched the what-so-called Web 2.0 !

With a portfolio full of products also with many coming out of the lab, google covers almost everything a surfer need online, Google news for internationa news under one roof, Froogle for online shopping, Google Creator for webpages, Google Ride Finder for taxi, Google Local for Mobile to get directions, Gmail the 3GB inbox, Google Video for TV programs and videos, Google Talk the online messenger, Google Earth to explore the world, Google Picasa for photo sharing, and so on and so on ….

Without forgetting the Ad-words technology that generates billions in revenues for Google, with 400,000 worldwide clients registered, in Europe only Google manage ads on 55,000 websites.
The top 5 advertisers on Google are: eBay ($180 Millions), Amazon.com ($162 Millions), Expedia ($90 Millions), Hotel Reservations Network ($27 Millions) and LastMinute.com ($9 Millions).


What scares the BIG Boys ???Microsoft: Google partnered with Dell the biggest personal computers manufacturer to include some of its softwares in the default page.Amazon: Google Print & Google Books makes official the search goliath’s project to digitize the world’s books.

Yahoo: Google Search with more searching capabilities and a wider search options can beat any other engine.

eBay: Google Froogle the smart shopping guide and Google Checkout that makes online shopping & selling faster, safer and more convenient.