great product - lousy name

This is a place for users to discuss Altap Salamander. Please feel free to ask, answer questions, and express your opinion. Please do not post problems, bug reports or feature requests here.
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jis
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Post by jis »

I like proposed name change for Servant Salamander: Altap Salamander.
Altap Salamander fan since 1998
Tomcat
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Joined: 28 Apr 2006, 17:21

Post by Tomcat »

I would also say that Altap Salamander is an improvement. For me Servant has a negative touch.
The term Salamander is still a bit long for a product name, but that's the heart of your brand. In addition the logo would become useless without the Salamander portion.

Some other ideas that you may want to consider:

In press releases for v2.5 you could use an 'unofficial' abbreviation like Sala for this procuct. This way you could try to control the 'street name' of your product. Sala is a short, nice sounding and totally meaningless term, so it would be perfect for any product.

You could try some sub-branding, e.g.
ALTAP Salamander
THE Windows File Manager

This would create the link between the product and its purpopse.

Some people (like me) don't like company names in product names. I call that an inelegant attempt to make the company known. This disadvantage could be toned down by calling it Altap's Salamander. This would also shift the focus even more onto Salamander, while keeping a two-word product name like now (you mentioned your conservative users). Add some size difference in the logo and not before 3.0 most users would call it Sala(mander).
JR

Post by JR »

Since I'm from the home country of ALTAP, I can not well judge about the expedience of 'Servant Salamander' name, but after years of using it, I'm simply used to that name. But I'd be also quite fine with the proposed substitution of 'Servant' with 'ALTAP' tho (as long as 'Salamander' stays in there; it is being used as sort of call shortcut for the program name anyway).
Also, 'ALTAP Salamander' could just coalesce & unify more nicely with naming scheme already in practice (having 'ALTAP Self-Extractor' in mind).
Keff

Post by Keff »

I love the Salamander part, it's very distinct and cool. So I am for Altap Salamander, better than servant and no nasty shortcut (except from french Salamader d'Altap alas SA :)).

Anyway guys, thanks for The Software that is running most of the time on my machine, you're geniuses :). Good luck in making your marketing better, it's hard to look down at soo much poor people not knowing about Salamander.
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Mem
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Post by Mem »

Keff wrote:Anyway guys, thanks for The Software that is running most of the time on my machine, you're geniuses :). Good luck in making your marketing better, it's hard to look down at soo much poor people not knowing about Salamander.
OT: The same here! So what about adding some plugin for distributed computing or some sort of that? :-)
daern
Posts: 25
Joined: 31 Dec 2005, 13:31

Post by daern »

Jan Rysavy wrote:A question for native English speakers: what about proposed Altap Salamander?
As a long term SS user (errr, 5 years plus now, I suppose), I can confirm that the silly name makes it a hard sell to colleagues.

ALTAP Salamander would be a better name, without losing the brand identity.

Looking forward to a non-expiring AS 2.5... :-)

Daern
rogo
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Joined: 21 Feb 2006, 02:21

Post by rogo »

I'm a long time Servant Salamander user myself, and got used to the name. But I also believe that changing the name to Altap Salamander would be an improvement, even if only marketing wise.
Looking forward to a non-expiring AS 2.5...
Same here :)
Waldemar

Post by Waldemar »

Well since I first get Servant Salamander(pre 1.5 era) into my hands my life has changed. There simply wasn't anything better than Servant Salamander! And that I don't even start with 2.5 which is like a gold on my desk.

Now it is true that people look strange at you when you say that you are using Servant Salamander -> it's simply a strange and hard name to say and even if I simply love the name Servant Salamander -> Altap Salamander sounds more serious and much more professional and it would probably be much easier to sell.

Now about the SS thing -> the Altap Salamander sounds nice, but it has a shortcut AS, which sounds as ASS. And we all know what that means.

Now let us look at some names: Opera, The Bat, Nero Burning Rom,...
These names are all different. And that's what it is. They are different for different people or even better for people that want to have control over what they do.

We have to be true to our selfs -> Servant Salamander is "different" as it has an unbelievable power over your computer. And a lot of people don't like it just because it's too powerful -> they say they will delete something or whatever strange excuse. And because of that they use Explorer which is simply a program that it should be erased from the earth surface, but it's just what the common user needs -> a simple tool that needs 100x more time to do anything than Servant Salamander.


So for my part I love the different name of Servant Salamander as it shows that it's different, but in todays marketing where psychology plays an important role Altap Salamander would be an easier way to present your selfs.

So I give my 2p on Altap Salamander, even if it will be hard to part from good and faithful servant. :)

Peace
Waldemar
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jis
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Post by jis »

Waldemar wrote:Well since I first get Servant Salamander...
You said it all, very nice and clever opinion. Thanks :)
Altap Salamander fan since 1998
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Georgd
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Post by Georgd »

Hello all!

> i do like the 'Salamander' though and don't really see that as a name.

There's a shoe store chain in Europe called Salamander (see http://www.salamander.de/). Without any additional word. The name can't be that bad when used by big enterprises (>200 stores, 1 billion € turnover) and very unique (9 out of 10 Germany know the company). Moreover, the name was kept and even extended when the company was bought. BTW: They gave (still give?) away small comics with adventures of the Salamander Lurchi and his friends, beloved by the children and forcing parents to stop by every 2 months (and, at the same time, allowing parents to shop without nagging kids as they're reading). Later, they sold even Salamander puppets etc. Maybe a Servant Salamander mascot may be sold? ;-)

> main product named Salamander in nice greenish hues,

I strongy discourage this as the above mentioned enterprise has a green logo as well and might sue (like the German Telekom did with all pink and even some reddish logos, in several countries they were very successful). As Altap is a small enterprise, they will have difficulties to stand a long lawsuit.

I think the yellowish theme is fitting perfectly fine. Reasons: 1) many salamanders have yellow parts in their skip pattern 2) The mythical salamander ... makes its home in fires, the hotter the better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamander

BTW, this could be used for the slogan / sub-brand, something like "XYZ Salamander - the hot file manager" or the like.

> I just call it Salamander dropping the Servant part so that doesn't bother me at all.

I do the same. Salamander is not ambigous and usually short enough so no abbreviation needed.

> Altap's Salamander. This would also shift the focus even more onto Salamander,

Agree, better than "Altap Salamander" while keeping all advantages (top in alphabetical lists etc). And "Salamander" as the common short form and THE ONLY spoken form. Why? The two s following each other force you to have a longer break as usual while speaking, thus it's not sounding like _one_ unit / name but ripped apart. Not that nice. As acronym I suggest AlSa as "AS" spoken reminds too much to "ass", so is no good acronym.

Anyhow, I like "Servant Salamander" as this program of course is my servant in a certain sense. I prefer this
> come up with some sort of mythology behind the name to justify it. A parable, a fable, an "old wive's tale"
over renaming, but in case the sales department experiences difficulties when approaching enterprises then rename it to promote it's use :)

my 2 cents :) Georg
LioMajor

Post by LioMajor »

i used windows commander , the name changed to total commander...
i realy hated that. bcuz changing its name, i looked for a new product.

servant salamander , that was the name when i heard about it.
actualy my friend introduced the OLD servant salamander to me.

i tested it, now i use it every day.

next is:

- hopefully soon working unicode support.

- a better queue to copy files would be nice.
like in ftp, collecting first a bunch of files, then start the progress.

- storing configuration -> ini file , no registry !

- fixing bugs

thats important for me !

i don't care if someone thinks SS is a big no-no , who cares.

well, if servant salamander changes the name to altap salamander...

for me, it will forever be SERVANT salamander.
so i will just change the link name back to its former name !
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karel
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Post by karel »

Congratulations for yours work, SVS is the best file manager.

Hi. Sorry for my bad english, is very poor. Somebody has said that it is brief it like SALA then, that word means ROOM in Spanish.

The name Servant Salamander is fantastic for me. It is distinguished with facility, unlike other programs that are called Win....., Commander..., Navigator..., etc, words of which the internet is full.
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karel
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Post by karel »

Sorry, the other day forgot to me to say that an alternative name to use it colloquially not commercially could be S-mander. Mander is the abbreviation simultaneously of commander and salamander.
Guest

Post by Guest »

Dropping the name would be a huge mistake.
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donsuhr
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Post by donsuhr »

Personally? I like the current name, and I'm a native speaker of English.

As someone eluded to earlier, when I talk about the program, I call it Servant Sally. It's very friendly, and syllabically short enough to roll off the tongue.

I would be more worried that Altap Salamander "AS" would be the butt of jokes, considering it sounds like "AsS".

Branding can be very important in making something appeal, but it can also be very tricky.

I could see "Sally" becoming a cute salamander mascot for Altap. Maybe run another contest to see if someone can capture cute/friendly and useful in a yellow stylistic salamander?

I like that. Sally the Salamander. It could work. Heck, Geico did it with a gecko.

(If this turns out to be really useful, I could always use more licenses...) :D
Registered Servant Salamander user since March 2002!
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