Kindle Voyage: Navigating Name Confusion and Brand Strategy
A few weeks ago, the Kindle Voyage was introduced alongside some other new devices as Amazon’s new flagship eBook reader. The 6-inch model is not a direct successor to the Kindle Paperwhite, but serves as a premium addition to Amazon’s reading device portfolio.
There seems to be some confusion surrounding the device’s name. The eBook reader is frequently mistakenly referred to as the Kindle Voyager not only by various digital reading enthusiasts but also by a number of prominent media outlets.
A Long Tradition of the Voyager Name
Voyager is the name of a car by Chrysler or Lancia (since Fiat’s takeover), as well as a NASA space probe (Voyager 1) or the spaceship from the eponymous Star Trek series. Additionally, there are a host of other products bearing the same name, ranging from Bluetooth headsets to motorcycles, and even FTP clients.
The name is incredibly popular across all sorts of product categories, which affects customer perception. If you type “Kindle V” into Google, the suggested term is often Voyager instead of the correct designation. Google’s suggestions are based on user inputs, indicating that many interested parties are also unclear about the device’s actual name.
From a marketing perspective, these are certainly not ideal conditions, but in this specific instance, aside from the obvious confusion surrounding the device’s name, it probably won’t have any significant practical consequences. Thanks to the Kindle brand addition, it’s unlikely to cause any mix-ups, and the eBook reader remains easily discoverable across various channels.
Amazon’s Name Selection
In any case, it’s quite interesting to see that even international corporate giants like Amazon occasionally miss the mark with naming. While “Kindle” is almost synonymous with a dedicated reading device among less informed individuals, and “Paperwhite” now possesses undeniable brand recognition (after two and a half model generations), the Voyage may not achieve the same fate with its somewhat ambiguously communicated name.
Incidentally, Amazon has also begun changing the naming convention of its tablets. Instead of grouping them under the Kindle umbrella as before, the retail giant now uses the Fire brand solely for tablets following the launch of a new product generation. Initially, only the new smartphone and TV box were sold under the label, but now they are increasingly attempting to market these multimedia devices as their own brand, separate from the highly successful eBook world. It will be interesting to see whether this move will be more successful than the naming choice of the Kindle Voyage.
