Testing Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
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...
10 Signs That You May Need to Rename Your 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...
Renaming for Financial Advisors: The Value of a Brand Name
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...
Trademark’s a Drag for Pot Producers
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, including...
Absurdly Turdly: Computers Creating Metaphors
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 brand to...
Kraft Gets Startlingly Honest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV-opIMAtD4 No parent is perfect, but sometimes you can do better. Other times you can't, and that's why there's Kraft Mac and Cheese. Honesty is powerful. Instead of delivering yet another tired promise of convenience and time-savings,...
Cosmetics Names Push the Envelope
"Orgasm." "Asphyxia." "Underage Red." "BleachBlack Dick Weed." Beauty products are experiencing the "Miley Cyrus effect"—the need to get edgier every year in order to be noticed. Some of these names clearly cross the line, earning the ire of bloggers, tweeters and...
Are Fake News Sites Tainting the .co Extension?
If you're among the 44% of the American public who get their news from Facebook, you've seen fake news. Often hyper-partisan, the headlines are deliberately crafted to enrage: "Obama Signs Executive Order Banning Pledge of Allegiance in Schools Nationwide" "Pope...
Brain Rules for Naming — #1
How many ads is the average person exposed to every day? Nobody really knows for sure, but estimates range from 3,000 to 20,000. Even at the low end of the estimate, that's a lot of competition for a customer's attention. So when you're creating a name, it's essential...
Brain Rules for Naming — Intro
John Medina has done humankind a huge favor. In his book, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, Medina synthesizes a body of scientific knowledge in a concise, comprehensible and yes, even entertaining fashion. There’s a...
Brain Rules for Naming — #2
In my previous post, I introduced one of John Medina's brain rules, and perhaps the most important one for naming and branding: "We don't pay attention to boring things." So what do we pay attention to? We pay attention to things that make us feel something, and...
The Storm with No Name
As the devastating floodwaters in Louisiana begin to recede, many are questioning why so many people were unaware of the risks. And some people are suggesting that it's because the storm didn't have a name. Instead, residents heard warnings of "heavy rain" and...
Feel the Burn
Peruse the many brands of hot sauce available in the U.S. and you'll find a collection of raucous names alluding to the potency of the sauce inside the bottle. Many names gleefully defy the safe and staid conventions of packaged goods, referring not to taste or...
Out of the Dorm Room
Tech Naming Grows Up Are technology entrepreneurs wising up about startup naming? After the silliness of Web 2.0 naming (which brought us “Doostang,” "Thoop,” “Tagtooga,” “Xobni,” "Joomla,” “Meemo,” "Sporge" and countless other brands, most of which have faded into...
Advising the Advisors
Financial services firms are typically named after their founders. When they first hang their shingle, most advisors are the sole proprietor of their business. And because it's a relationship-driven industry, they want their clients to pass their name to others. So...
Premium Blend
Small business owners have to wear a lot of hats. Not only are they their company's chief executive officer, in many cases they are also the finance director, human resources specialist, marketing coordinator and IT administrator. So when small business proprietors...
Strange Fruit
Racist brands have littered our marketplace for decades. Some, like Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben's, have made modest attempts to appear less offensive, while others (I'm looking at you, Washington Redskins) staunchly defend their brands against mounting criticism. But it...
USPTO Cancels Redskins Trademark
In Landmark Decision, US Patent Office Cancels Trademark for Redskins Football Team “We decide, based on the evidence properly before us, that these registrations must be cancelled because they were disparaging to Native Americans at the respective times they were...
Six Ways to Make People Fall in Love with Your Brand
A helpful infographic with some statistical gems. Find the full-sized image here.
A Darker Shade of Black
SeaWorld is in a world of hurt. The marine attraction is weathering a storm brought on by "Blackfish," a documentary exposing its practice of capturing killer whales in the wild, separating them from their families and holding them in captivity--which, for animals...
Why Negative Connotations May Not Be So Bad
Nothing scares marketing people more than negative connotations in a brand name under consideration. They imagine the worst: Customers recoiling from the brand. The brand launch fizzling. Ridicule from coworkers. Reprisals from management. But in reality, rarely do...
Brighter Together
The concept of medical malpractice was first articulated in 1768 by Sir William Blackstone, who used the term "mala praxis" to describe the improper, unskilled or negligent treatment of a patient that leads to injury or death. By the middle of the 1800's malpractice...
What’s Your Ritual?
Athletes can be a superstitious lot. They have "lucky socks." They avoid getting a haircut before a big game. They want special people to attend their games -- or to stay away. They do certain things in a certain way, at a certain time. Why? Because a deep belief in a...
Risky Business
Medical malpractice insurance isn't just about paying a claim--it's about making sure claims don't happen in the first place. Our client, MMIC provides a range of innovative services and resources to help hospitals, clinics, long-term care organizations and others...
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