What do Viagra and Wi-Fi have in common?

The answer: both brand names were created by the same branding firm.

In 1999, the newly-formed organization that would come to be known as the Wi-Fi Alliance was still called the “Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance” — because of course the name Wi-Fi had not yet been created. It was decided it would be best to hire some branding experts to come up with a consumer-friendly name for a new technology that was currently called the ugly mouthful “IEEE 802.11b High Rate Wireless Local Area Network”. But who should be hired to help with this branding?

A company called InterBrand had some impressive credentials: in their portfolio of prior branding efforts they touted their successful branding of the drug Sildenafil as “Viagra”.

It seemed that any firm that could give an erectile-dysfunction drug an aura of vigor and vitality must be pretty talented. InterBrand was hired, and in the summer of 1999 they presented a set of alternatives to us — one of which was “Wi-Fi”.

Read more about the history of Wi-Fi in Beyond Everywhere.