As a hearing professional, I’ve seen some weird names for hearing aids in my time.
Audibel called one of their hearing aids the Zōn, oddly choosing to use a strange non-English line over the ‘o’ which is an odd choice for an all American hearing aid company competing in a market of European brands.
But in recent times the name that has really annoyed me is the Phonak Spice. I know nothing about the aid specifically, but it just doesn’t sound serious with that silly name.
I wonder if anyone can think of a more stupid name for a hearing aid, past or present?
I thought Starkey had the Zon with the funky o. ReSound is no better, with the Pulse, Azure, dot, Ziga, Metrix, Live, Alera, etc.
Eh, Starkey / Audibel, can’t remember, in any case an American company that has the marketing benefit of being able to arouse patriotic buy American sentiments and they blow it with some European sounding name. It’s like Ford making a car and calling it La Vitesse!
I think the “Wows” have a name that is so lame I’d never even consider trying them. Can you imagine…“hey, what hearing aids are you using?” “These are WOWS!” Completely ridiculous…as if we don’t have enough problems being taken seriously. They should fire their ad agency/PR team.
I think the “Wows” have a name that is so lame I’d never even consider trying them. Can you imagine…“hey, what hearing aids are you using?” “These are WOWS!” Completely ridiculous…as if we don’t have enough problems being taken seriously. They should fire their ad agency/PR team.
Agree with you on all counts!
@ZCT said:
But in recent times the name that has really annoyed me is the Phonak Spice. I know nothing about the aid specifically, but it just doesn’t sound serious with that silly name.
Very silly name indeed. I asked a Phonak rep about it and was told it had to do with their ability to “spice up your hearing”. Personally I think he didn’t know what to say and was just being witty. lol.
However, I have a funny story about these aids… Engineers often use a circuit simulation software program called SPICE (it’s actually an acronym for Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis). Right as this aid was released, a friend called and informed he had a SPICE file for the new hearing aid and had emailed it over to me. I immediately asked him where he got it, and he replied from a manufacturer representative. I was blown away as I just couldn’t believe that a major company would actually release a SPICE file for their hearing aid!! I’m sure you’ve already got the punch line, but after racing over to my email, I found a .PDF file for a (then) new hearing aid called Spice. I still laugh about it every time I hear Spice and hearing aid in the same sentence. LOL.
… Engineers often use a circuit simulation software program called SPICE (it’s actually an acronym for Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis). …
Funny, that’s the same SPICE I thought of when I first saw the name…
There was a period where foreign-looking letters were sprinkled over everything to make them “exotic” and “cool”. Thankfully, it has mostly passed.
It’s surprisingly hard when you have a global marketplace to find words which are memorable, easily spelled, do not contain phonemes (letter pronunuciation) that are impossible to any of your major markets (think avoidance of r and l sounds in Cantonese China where they are literally interchangeable), are not the same name as any other product produced anywhere by anyone and do not mean anything naughty, dirty or embarassing in any language (think “Flirt” lemonade, “Plop” sauce, “Lil’ Tugger” cleaning materials, “Decap” cleaning materials, “Nickers” Snicker knock-offs) and you don’t want it to have connotations that will connect it to another product (Durex is a brand of sticky tape in Australia and condoms in Europe and I think USA).
You don’t want it to sound “adult” or boring or nerdy or like a food…there really aren’t a lot of words left over. I guess one reason why some companies stick with “i380s” and such unimaginitive product number names.
But I would certainly offer Phonak’s “Inspiro” transmitter as a name too embarassing to utter, and the UK health service’s “Reflex” - sounds like it’s going to shock you or something. Succeed by the “Impact” which is a bit less embarassing but still sounds a bit like a slap in the head. Phonak’s health service range is called “Nathos” which is a contraction of “National Hospitals”, which makes sense and sounds like a real name.
Northern Virginia
