Just to prove that money can’t buy branding sense, two examples from Microsoft:

• IE.Next
  Apparently, IE 8 is going to be called IE.Next. Question: What’s the version after 8 going to be called? IE.After.Next? Next.IE.Next? IE.360? Maybe the guy responsible figures he’ll have been promoted by then and the problem will be for whatever schmuck comes after him.
• PlaysForSure
  Microsoft recently stiffed several “partner” companies — and at least twice as many consumers — when they set the world on fire with their Zune music player and its closed, incompatible, and (apparently) much more important (to Microsoft) DRM technology. Now, they’ve “rebranded” PlaysForSure as “Certified for Windows Vista”. I kid you not. It would be funny if it weren’t true. Even funnier is Nokia still releasing PFS devices.

Postscript: The “PlaysForSure” disaster should be a warning sign for the marketing kids at Microsoft. The cruel irony alone of using such a confident name (plays for sure…until it doesn’t) and then unceremoniously axing it should be enough to give them pause and consider the exit strategy of whatever new brand names they’re conjuring up.