The movie Snakes on a Plane has generated an unprecedented level of buzz before its release, but not because of an expensive advertising campaign or excellent evaluations by movie reviewers. In fact, the movie was not prescreened for the press. So why has the movie been the subject of so much discussion in the press and on the Internet? Most attribute it to the movie’s name. The star of the movie, Samuel L. Jackson, described his initial reaction to the movie in the following way: “ When I first heard the name, I was struck in a visceral sort of way...[the name] makes you kind of giddy.” Mr. Jackson has certainly identified two key aspects of the name that has made the opening of the movie such an unprecedented success. Firstly, it does strike one in a visceral way in that the image of snakes on a plane generates an emotional state of fear and feelings of being trapped in an inescapable nightmare. Secondly, the branding strategy utilizes humor very effectively to increase consumer awareness and attention. Humor can often be used as part of a branding or advertising strategy in order to increase its effectiveness by associating positive affect with the brand. Humor can also make potential consumers pay attention to marketing messages by, as the “Geico gecko” says, creating “entertainment”. Of course, note that Geico itself uses a very similar strategy with its “spokes-character” because the only reason to have a gecko to endorse your company is because of the similarity of the word “gecko” to the brand “Geico”. Thus, using the “Geico gecko” as the primary element of your advertising and branding strategy is humorous.

Finally, and the reason that is likely the most important factor in the pre-release success of the movie, is the name’s draw to the movie’s main target market, teenage boys. This segment, sometimes generalized as “Generation Y”, is characterized by risk-taking, extreme behavior and a disdain for authority. This group of consumers has a great affinity for extreme forms of activities and entertainment such as skateboarding, Jackass (the photo below shows a scene from Jackass 2), “ghostriding”, Southpark, YouTube, “happy slapping”, wakeboarding, Punk’d, “trainsurfing”, blogging, extreme fighting, Jimmy Kimmel Live (click here to view the video of Jimmy Kimmel being bitten by a snake; Please note that this is a staged incident), snowboarding, and “trunking”. As you can imagine, this market segment has an acutely fanatical reaction to the movie’s brand name. And it has been this intense attraction that has generated the excitement for the brand that has fueled this unparalleled level of pre-release hype, propagated primarily via the Internet.

The fundamental branding lesson of Snakes on a Plane is that it answers the age-old question of “What’s in a name…?” The resounding answer is “very potentially everything!” Your brand name and domain name are absolutely critical to the success of a small business. In fact, those first decisions about the name and domain name of a company are two of the most important decisions an entrepreneur will ever make. Approximately 80% of all small businesses fail in the first five years.  Creating an effective branding strategy can immunize your business from being included in this statistic.