What's In a Name?

We get asked all the time, “where did you guys come up with the name Cazbah?” Believe me, it wasn’t something that we just stumbled upon. We put quite a bit of research and thought into our brand, which is what good branding requires.

First, we picked Cazbah because it represents exactly who we are! The Cazbah, (or Kasbah -proper spelling) is generally the center of the North African towns where you go to get everything that you need. Likewise, it is also where you will find the marketplace. This juxtaposition of the centering influence and market access is who we are for our small business customers, bringing together everything that they need to be successful on the web.

Second, we wanted a brand that was familiar but not obvious. Now what-in-the-world do I mean by that? Cazbah is familiar to different people for different reasons. For the younger generation there is the song by the Clash (vintage 80’s rock actually, albeit still popular), “Rock the Kasbah.” We’ve never made direct reference to that classic line (nor will we ever) in our marketing efforts because, that would be a total rip-off.




For the more mature crowd there is Ingrid

Bergman & Humphrey Bogart in Casa Blanca. “Rick’s,” where most of the action in the film occurs, is located in the Kasbah.


A classic movie line that many people remember is, “Come with me to the Kasbah. We’ll make beautiful music together!” That line actually came from the film Pepe’ Le Moko, a French film from the late 30’s that was remade in Hollywood in the 40’s, about a French gangster that hides out in the Kasbah.


An interesting side note is that Pepe’ LePew (Chuck Schultz cartoon) is based on this movie. Who could forget the over-sexed skunk of Saturday morning cartoons, so unaware of his odoriferous nature? Pepe’ (the skunk) takes many of his lines from the film, including the, “come wis me to da Kasbah… (sp).

Third, you will notice that Cazbah is constructed in a (roughly) consonant – vowel – consonant – vowel sequence. This wasn’t by accident. The most successful brands follow this form. Brands like ebay, Microsoft, Intel, Google, Coca Cola, Samsung, DuPont, etc. Note also that most of these are “made-up” words or adaptations of other words or names.

Fourth, we subscribe to the branding methodology outlined by Al & Laura Reese in their excellent book, “The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR.” Al and Laura posit that in creating a brand you must; Define a new category, Give it a name and then, Dominate the category!

That is precisely what we have done and are in the process of doing.