Name games

Bowling Digest, Winter, 2004 by Ken Sheen

How do they come up with bowling ball names?

Many industry leaders in consumer products spend quite a bit of money for market studies in order to find brand names that hint at a product's characteristics, as well as appeal to the consumer.

I notice more bowling ball manufacturers are coming up with names that are not only improper, but offensive.

I believe the intention is to give bowlers an impression of the powerful characteristics of their balls, but such names (Killer, Savage, Inferno, Monster, Vendetta, Crash, Mutant, Executioner, to name a few) undermine the integrity and intelligence of bowlers.

Quite often, bowling is compared to golf (both physically and mentally), but I do not see this same naming trend in golf gear.

Smoking and drinking have been mentioned and discussed in a negative light quite a few times in the broad scope of the sport. But these bowling ball names are no different; they definitely will not help bowling gain more of an audience. They are also a big obstacle in the effort to feature bowling in a future Olympics.

We've come a long way in the past decade, with technical advances in lane surfacing, ball cover stock and core design, etc., and yet ball naming conventions haven't modernized along with the other progresses in the industry.

Are ball manufacturers really so insensitive, or do they simply see such names fitting in with the not-so-sophisticated, smoking, drinking, rude players in this second-rate sport?

Ken Sheen

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