What's in a Name?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2018
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is keen to accelerate its path towards membership of the European Union. But there are obstacles too. Top of the list for the Balkans nation is resolving a dispute with its neighbour Greece over what the country calls itself. Our reporter Tanya Beckett has travelled to the capital Skopje to find out what's at stake. We also hear from the founder and chair of the UK Branding consultancy BrandCap, Rita Clifton, who tells us about some high-profile naming battles to secure corporate names and trademarks, reflecting on the sometimes extraordinarily high price companies will place on defending their named identity.
PHOTO: Greeks protesting against Macedonian name. Credit: EPA
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Ed Butler and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:09.4 | Coming up, a politician gets serious, really serious, over what is people call themselves. |
| 0:15.9 | It involves very sensitive issues. |
| 0:18.3 | It's like giving up our soul or selling our soul to the devil. |
| 0:23.1 | And what is the point of joining EU if we don't exist? |
| 0:27.2 | Yes, today we are looking at the value of names in politics, in music, and at the consumer brands |
| 0:33.9 | that have successfully changed their official titles. |
| 0:37.3 | Google started out as back rub. Pepsi Cola started its life as being Brad's drink. |
| 0:43.1 | Datsun and Nissan. It can be done. |
| 0:46.4 | Do we take this name thing a bit too seriously, though? Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:54.5 | So what is in a name? |
| 0:56.6 | The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is keen these days to get into the European Union. |
| 1:01.6 | There's apparently a lot of money involved. |
| 1:03.4 | But there are obstacles as well. |
| 1:05.6 | Top of the list for the Balkans nation is resolving a dispute with its neighbour Greece |
| 1:09.3 | over what the country calls itself. |
| 1:12.0 | Greece has long had its own region, also known as Macedonia. |
| 1:16.2 | Rather an important one, in fact, the legendary Alexander the Great was born there close to 3,000 years ago. |
| 1:21.2 | So, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, born just 25 years ago, now needs to come up with a different title, please. |
| 1:29.0 | The Greeks feel pretty strongly about it. How strongly? Well, listen to this demo of tens of thousands |
| 1:34.3 | of people that took to the streets in February. |
| 1:42.0 | Yep, it sounds like they really do care. |
... |
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