by Devon | Jan 25, 2018 | Naming
(SPOILER ALERT) Almost 50 years ago, Rival Manufacturing acquired a new product design: an electric crock, which they unimaginatively named the Crock-Pot. As descriptive names tend to do, “Crock-Pot” became the go-to word for all similar products, even...
by Devon | Jan 24, 2018 | Branding Debacles, Naming, Testing
After the firestorm last year following the release of beauty products with offensive brand names, you might think cosmetics makers would reel it in a tad. Instead, Wycon Cosmetics doubled-down by releasing nail polish with a name so repugnant, it has to be masked out...
by Devon | Dec 5, 2017 | Branding, Naming, Rebranding, Small Business
Do you ever get the niggling feeling that you need to rename your business? Think back to when you were starting up. You were probably focused on developing your products and services, researching the market, looking for office space, and the thousands of other...
by Devon | Sep 29, 2017 | Naming
The brandscape of financial advisories is crowded with self-named practices — advisors who started business under their own name. But as financial advisors become more savvy about branding and marketing — and major franchisers like Ameriprise relax their co-branding...
by Devon | Aug 28, 2017 | Branding Debacles, Naming, Trademarks
Oh, the pains of legitimacy! Marijuana producers’ decades-long flaunting of the law has come back to haunt them now that their product is legal in some states. The industry’s under-the-table branding has historically borrowed liberally from pop culture,...
by Devon | May 22, 2017 | Humor, Naming
Metaphors are powerful. As James Geary explained in his Ted Talk, “Metaphorically Speaking,” we get a more vivid understanding of something because of all the analogies triggered by its metaphor. In branding, metaphors create expectations by linking the...
Recent Comments