Amazon invented a new category last year with its iPod/iTunes-like Kindle and digital bookstore. Now Barnes & Noble is jumping into the fray with its own competitive offer…an e-bookstore aligned with the Plastic Logic eReader.

From a brand-naming perspective, the two products underscore a key concept I discuss in Branding Like The Big Boys…what makes a great brand name? A great brand name is simple, memorable, connotative and “sticky.”

“Kindle” has all this going for it. “Plastic Logic eReader” does not.

Time will tell whether the BN offer catches on. There are many pricing, distribution and brand-affinity issues that will influence the product’s success. The quality and usefulness of the product itself, as well as the variety of books in the digital store will matter. The name alone will not be the determining factor of whether eReader lives or dies.

But you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Consider:

Kindle: spark a flame, light a fire, “candle,” kinder, kindergarten, fire the imagination. The word provides a platform onto which Amazon can build all kinds of associations and emotional hooks and handles. It’s simple, quick, easy to say, easy to remember. It’s likeable too. Kindle has great brand thinking going for it.

eReader: well, read a digital book. Other than that it just lays there. Hard to build much emotional content or “stickiness” onto a word that’s so pedestrian and descriptive. Also, a bit undifferentiated from Sony’s “Reader.” (A Big Boy like Sony ought to do better than that!)

Plastic Logic: what the hell is that?

Nascent categories such as the electronic book marketplace make wonderful learning labs for all of us watching the development and deployment of new brands. More excitement will follow.

We’re all prepared to launch Branding Like the Big Boys into the world on August 6 at the Capital Hotel in Little Rock. Join us for for a cold beer and warm conviviality in this charmer of a Southern Hotel. We’ll be gathered in the Capital Bar & Grill watering hole (cash bar–sorry, unless you’re J.K. Rowling or Stephen King, authors don’t make any money) and spilling out into the lobby. Order your copy now on our site. Pick it up Aug 6 and get it signed. See you at the Capital.

As we speak, the book is at the printer and is well on its way through the first printing. Branding Like The Big Boys is a practical guide for success with brand-driven marketing in the small and middle-market business.

The fact is, this work is not brain surgery. It is, however, a discipline that requires consistent application, good instincts, a clearly defined position and some regular inputs of human and financial capital.

In Branding Like The Big Boys, I help you understand the theory and practice of effective brand development and activation. I give you tools for applying it in your own business. I point you toward some useful resources. And I give you sufficient basis that–even if you can’t do it all yourself–you are clear about the objectives, process and results you can expect.

You can download the first four chapters for free right now to get a sense of what’s in the book. Give it a shot and see how some of the largest, most successful companies can teach you some practical lessons in competing and winning.