A is for Amazon, B is for Bank of America, P is for Pandora

Phonetic Alphabet: Google Instant style. You know the NATO or Western Union phonetic alphabet: Alpha for A, Bravo for B, Charlie for C etc? With Google launching it’s “Instant” service where it auto-fills based on what you type, I wondered what brands owned their letters. This is a powerful proxy for brand power and awareness as these should be the leading search terms by letter. Note Google is optimizing results for my location in San Francisco so I substituted #2 for #1 when there is an * as noted below to put the national brand first. Where the first result is an acronym I put #2 #3 result after the "/". Try these the next time your on a call with an airline or help desk. My name (Larry): “L as in Lowes, A as in Amazon, R as in REI, REI, Yahoo!” Congratulations to all for making the list and a special tip of the hat to Joe, Tim and the Team at Pandora.

A Amazon
B Bank of America* / BART
C Craigslist
D DMV / Dictionary
E Ebay
F Facebook
G Gmail
H Hotmail
I iPHone
J Jet Blue
K Kayak*/Kaiser/KTVU
L Lowes
M Mapqest
N Netflix
O Orbitz* / Outside Lands
P Pandora
Q Quotes
R REI / Ross
S Skype
T Target
U USPS / UPS / United Airlines
V Verizon
W Weather
X Xbox
Y Yahoo!
Z Zillow

• for “B”, BART- Bay Area Rapid Transit was 1st result. Substituted #2 (Bank of America) to override local result
• for “K”, Kaiser, hospital/health care organiztion was 1st result, KTVU local TV affiliate was 2nd. Substituted #3 (Kayak) to override local result
• for “O”, Outside Lands was 1st result. Substituted #2 (Orbitz) to override local result


Very surprised about Target beating Twitter. I’d expect that one to change. Also Amazon beating Apple. What surprises you?

A special thanks to Drew Marcus for inspiring this list when he called me to let me know that Pandora was the first on the list when you type a P.

Here’s the phonetic alphabet tables for NATO and Western Union