Effective company naming requires tweaking common themes/ideas/concepts so they present themselves as current, modern and relevant. For example, the rage now is all things green, environmental and eco-friendly — and many companies and products are named accordingly. So when a Malaysian based, energy conservation company came looking for a good company brand name, we knew it would require some extra bright thinking to stand out. (Fortunately, we’re wired for that.) Their former name had been Empower Controls. That’s a good name with both a literal and double meaning. The problem with words/names such as “empower” is that they are very popular. It’s tough to get trademark clearance on these types of one word names — especially when they are closely related to the industry’s terminology (i.e. empower… power… energy, etc.)

This particular firm has a technology that can stop the insidious electrical drain caused by all sorts of electronic devices on “stand by.” It’s the energy equivalent of having a leaky faucet in each sink of your house. In our discussions the word “trickle” was used to describe this slow leakage, and the new technology would be able to shut it off with the touch of a button, saving huge amounts of energy if implemented globally. We then took the word “Trickle” and married it with another word associated with energy… “Star.” Not only does star represent energy, it also represents leadership. To be “TrickleStar” is to be the leader in the reduction and elimination of needless electrical consumption. The idea stuck and the .com domain name was available.

TrickleStar… “Conserving Energy. Improving Life.”

I expect to see some big things from this company as their products are sorely needed. They have both bright minds and bright ideas, and we here at Tungsten think that’s brilliant!