The Pollywog Blog

The Star Tribune reports on a feud between the Susan G. Komen “Race for the Cure” and small nonprofit also dedicated to fighting breast cancer. In a formal opposition to a trademark registration, Komen claimed that the Minnesota-based group’s name–“Mush for a Cure”–was confusingly similar to its own registered trademark. The all-volunteer sled-dog race fundraiser was only one of dozens of groups earning Komen’s enmity because their name contained “for a cure” or “for the cure.”

Ultimately, Komen dropped its opposition to “Mush for a Cure” and a New York group named “Kites for a Cure” after their stories garnered national attention on NBC News. The USPTO has seen fit to grant “Mush for a Cure” a trademark registration.

What can we learn from this story?

And that last point is good advice for all organizations–for-profit and nonprofit alike–because a shorter, distinctive and creatively unexpected name performs better in a crowded marketplace than a longer descriptive one.

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Animal welfare advocates agree: The best way to reduce the heartbreaking volume of animals euthanized by overcrowded shelters is to prevent unwanted litters.

But when times are tough, a lot of pet owners can’t afford to neuter their animals, which ultimately results in more unwanted litters.

To address this problem, the Animal Humane Society (AHS), the leading animal welfare organization in the Midwest, teamed up with a local veterinarian to introduce a subsidized spay/neuter service for low-income pet owners, delivered by way of two mobile surgical units. Pet owners can sterilize their dog, cat or rabbit for a fee ranging from $35-$100–a substantial discount over regular veterinary costs.

AHS asked Pollywog to lead the naming of this new service. Because sterilization surgery is key to saving more animals–and because the service is made possible through the generous donations of strangers–we recommended “Kindest Cut.”

Logo and brand identity were created by our friends at Sussner Design.

We count it a privilege to work on such an important cause and look forward to partnering with the Animal Humane Society on future projects.

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From the It’s Nice To Be Noticed Department comes this—a thoughtful (and completely unsolicited!) response from someone who really understands what the Sprockets brand can do for the community:

Mired in a series of budget cuts, union issues, declining enrollment and a persistent and staggering gap in achievement between student groups, the Sprockets “power name” provides a very strong platform and hopeful ray of sunshine that the strife-ridden local education environment can use as a flash-point to spark a fresh approach to things.

Let’s hope that in addition to engaging and inspiring struggling students in our urban education environment, the vibrant, value-add of the Sprockets brand can give a much-needed extra-curricular boost to the tone and essence of the struggling district leadership as well.

Katherine Emmonds is a Minneapolis-based writer who specializes in civic engagement, education, science, the arts, innovation and creativity. Thanks for the kind words, Katherine!

You can read the rest of Katherine’s blog post here.

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How do you increase high school graduation rates by more than 90%? Get kids to keep learning, even when they’re not in school.

And how do you do that? By offering them such a wide range of learning opportunities, they can fill their out-of-school time with activities they love–and in so doing, find out what they’re really good at.

That’s the idea behind a new initiative from the City of Saint Paul. The program coordinates the city’s many existing resources to offer kids hundreds of free or low-cost activities and programs, from art to basketball to reading to music to math tutoring.

Key to the initiative’s success was its brand, which had to be youthful (but not too young), fun (but not flippant), and somehow communicate the idea of an interconnected network (without being complicated).

Pollywog led a diverse group of influencers and decision-makers–including the Mayor’s Office, school board, library system, parks and recreation department, Youth Commission and students themselves–through the branding process to give this innovative program the energetic, youthful name it deserved, along with an aspirational tagline.

Sprockets. Find out what moves you.

The brand identity–and this cool little spot–were created by our friends at Peggy Lauritsen Design Group.

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What makes some movie titles work and others fall flat?

Read this interesting interview with movie marketing specialist, Matthew Cohen, and you’ll discover a lot of common ground with traits that make brand names powerful.

It should come as no surprise that what works in a brand name also works in a movie title. That’s because the human brain processes information the same way, regardless of industry. Jane the movie-goer has the same brain as Jane the grocery-shopper and Jane the executive decision-maker.

Yet too often, brand creation is restricted by artificially constructed silos, and marketers believe that brands in certain industries must have a certain type of name.

Packaged goods have one type of brand name. Nonprofit organizations have another. Law firms have their own prevailing naming convention. And B-to-B services have yet another.

Certainly there will variations in tone and personality, depending upon audience makeup in these various industries. But the broad concepts of what makes a name powerful hold true across all of them.

Why? Because only in the movies do people have more than one brain.

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Pollywog founders John Stucker and Devon Thomas Treadwell appeared this week on Business Radio AM1570′s Peter McClellan Show. Among the topics covered: What makes a brand name powerful? And why does today’s competitive market require a new approach to naming and branding?

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A generation ago, South Korea was an impoverished nation whose economy relied primarily on agriculture. In 1960, Korea’s per capita gross national product was less than the Sudan’s and not even one-third the size of Mexico’s.

Today, Korea enjoys the world’s 13th largest economy–a transformation so dramatic it has been called “the Asian miracle.”

Initially, Korea scrabbled out of poverty by imitating the technological advances of other nations and selling me-too, low-cost products. But its recent explosive growth is attributable to a systematic, sustained and government-supported focus on innovation.

Korean innovators often receive financial aid from public sources, but now many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) say what they need more than money are the intangibles, including branding.

Miga Medical is one such company. It developed a product that purportedly reduces the size of the human waistline and named it, “N-Body.”

As reported by JoonAng Daily, “the company took six years to develop the product but only spent six minutes to pick a name for it.”

A Miga Medical executive ruefully admits, “We put tremendous effort into developing the product, but were neglectful in naming the brand. Promoting the brand name was a mess. Even employees here don’t really know the meaning of N-Body.”

Miga Medical sought the expertise of Seoul branding agency, whose president Kim Wang-gi says that this is not an uncommon problem among SMEs.

“So many SMEs have been developing outstanding products, but have failed to commercialize them because of poor brand names. That’s the reality of SMEs today,” Kim said.

“A brand name that intuitively and easily tells the product’s functions is crucial.”

Unfortunately, branding also gets the short-shrift from many U.S. entrepreneurs in their rush to market. Many mistakenly believe that naming should be easily handled in-house because, after all, they’ve successfully named their children and pets, so why not their brand? (Apparently they have not yet wandered in the trademark jungle in search of an effective name that’s also available for trademark.)

Others may consider it an intangible that’s not worth paying for. They’ll spend thousands on a Web site that will need to be overhauled in a few years, but won’t invest in a name that will affect their business for the life of the brand.

Branding is an investment, and an effective brand will deliver ROI for years to come. A weak or meaningless brand will be a drag on business forever.

Small- and medium-sized businesses in Korea are figuring this out. We hope more American innovators will too.

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One of Pollywog’s big differentiators is that unlike other naming agencies, we don’t create meaningless, nonsensical names, even though they would be easy to sell.

Meaningless names are usually available for trademark and often sail through onerous corporate approval processes. There are no meanings to object to, after all.

But going to market with a meaningless name puts any brand at a disadvantage. Instead of alluding to a brand promise and helping to predispose a customer to a sale, a meaningless name requires explanation. Companies have to spend time and money on educating customers to what their brand name means–a ball and chain for any business on the race to profits.

A far more effective brand name connects to ideas that are already in a customer’s mind, because they’re familiar with the word or phrase.

And in our perspective, the type of name that performs most effectively is the evocative name, which uses a metaphor to connect to the brand promise.

Metaphors are rich in meaning. They’re a powerful form of shorthand–and a crucial tool for new brands especially–because they can convey in a single word a multiplicity of ideas and elicit an instant emotional response.

Without being educated on the product’s benefits, I can infer that “Full Throttle” is strong, “Amazon” is huge, and “Blackwater” is dangerous.

The power of metaphors as a branding technique is the result of metaphorical thinking, a process hard-wired into the human brain. At a recent TED conference, professional aphorist James Geary explained how powerful and pervasive metaphors are in language and culture. It’s worth a look:

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Today’s New York Times features an expose of brands with fictional or highly embellished histories–what Yale linguist Laurence R. Horn aptly calls “etymythologies.”

Among the culprits: Keds’ “sneakers,” Hershey’s Kisses and Cracker Jack.

Missing from the story is one of my favorite offenders, Jamba Juice. At one time, Jamba Juice asserted that its name was derived from an African word meaning “to celebrate.” The company published this specious claim on its Web site, raising the eyebrows of linguists who wanted to know which of the 1800 languages spoken in Africa was the original source. In Umbundu, “jamba” translates to “elephant.” In Swahili, it means “to fart.”

Further digging revealed that the name originated in a brainstorming session held by the company’s founders. The brand name’s “etymythology” has since been removed from their Web site.

The lesson for branders: Don’t attempt to revise your history. There are too many people on the Web with too much time on their hands, and your little fib will grow into an embarrassing anecdote amplified by the New York Times and hundreds of little bloggers like me.

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Sales are brisk for Pollywog-named Scent of the Missing, a new memoir by Susannah Charleson, named by Pollywog and released this month by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Scent of the Missing chronicles the author’s adventures with her golden retriever as members of a Texas-based canine search and rescue team.

Since the book’s release on April 13, Susannah and Puzzle have been making the media rounds, talking to reporters curious about the inner workings of canine search and rescue and remarkable abilities of SAR dogs. Susannah says, “Across a baker’s dozen interviews in the past 10 days, I have been called Suzanne Charleson, Susannah Carlson, Susannah Charleston, and Shewanna Charleson. That said, the book’s title has always been correct.”

Canine search and rescue is a fascinating subject that appeals to a wide swath of readers, and the writing itself is top-notch. But we also know that the book’s title has helped propel its success: We learned that Houghton insiders, when presented with a list of upcoming books to peruse on their Kindles, selected Scent of the Missing because the title intrigued them.

See also the official Scent of the Missing Web site.

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