How Car Companies Decide You’ll Ride a Mustang or Catch a Tiguan<br />Mr. Pyrah is an outsider in the insider-intensive automotive industry,<br />but his research, delivered to companies like Toyota, General Motors and Volkswagen, is crucial when it comes to naming — and selling — a vehicle.<br />And when a model doesn’t quite meet expectations, its replacement in the lineup often gets a new moniker: The<br />Tiguan’s bigger, older sibling — the Touareg — has been replaced in the United States by the new Atlas.<br />When he worked with the electric-car start-up Atieva, Mr. Placek said, the first sentence in his brief to the client was, “We can’t look or<br />sound like a car.” Mr. Placek came up with Lucid, an adjective meant to convey intelligence that would also “sound” smooth and simple.<br />U.V., we want the name to target 30-somethings with two children.’”<br />Mr. Pyrah and his team will come up with about 30 available names, then meet with the manufacturer’s marketing team<br />and product planners to trim the list, which will be presented to senior management.
