PROJECT: Create a new company name for Medical World Conferences, providers of continuing medical education (CME) for primary care professionals.

THE NAME: A cure for the common name.

POSITIONING: The new name had to be warm, human, distinctive, eye-catching, memorable, and yet map back to medicine and the core service of continuing medical education. It also needed to work outside of the medical sector. Antidote is positive, proactive, unique and remarkable in the world of CME providers, and works on several levels for both the CME audience and future audiences. Antidote is also the remedy for medical professionals who dread the thought of compulsory CME. Further, because Antidote literally conveys “cure” and “remedy,” it is an aspiration shared by all medical professionals – indeed a big benefit of CME is to learn about new cures and treatments.

VISIT: Antidote

PROJECT: Name a new advanced-technology hearing aid and audio products company.

THE NAME: An interjection that’s an expression of wonder, and a play on “sounds.”

POSITIONING: An early appearance of Zounds in Shakespeare’s King John (1623), act II, scene 1, line 466: “Zounds! I was never so bethumpd with words since I first call’d my brothers father dad!” That certainly maps to an advanced hearing aid product that allows the hearer to process words in a crowded room in a way they were never able to before. Zounds is an exciting name that is by definition an “expression of wonder,” that when combined with the obvious play on “sounds” and the oblique allusion to German hi-tech engineering, makes it the perfect name for this company.

VISIT: Zounds

PROJECT: Naming a breakthrough new “open MR” product. Open MR devices are not fully enclosed, and therefore are more comfortable for patients (less noise and confinement); open MR devices also have a greater imaging range than traditional, “closed” systems.

THE NAME: Emphasizing comfort, a refuge from the tumult of the usual MRI experience.

POSITIONING: The positioning goal was to highlight the idea that this device, rather than being a source of patient discomfort and physician frustration with scanning limitations, is instead a refuge from such drawbacks of the past, a haven where the physician can more accurately diagnose a patient’s medical problem without causing the patient to suffer more discomfort in the process.

VISIT: Oasis

PROJECT: Guidant’s cardiac surgery division (now owned by Maquet) needed to name their breakthrough new proximal seal cardiac surgery device.

THE NAME: Tug at your heartstrings.

POSITIONING: The name needed to be as elemental as the new product, and help the company dominate the market. The assignment was to come up with a name that would achieve common, default usage. The Heartstring device is a coiled string that is used in place of a clamp when making a graft to the aorta during “off-pump” (beating-heart) open heart surgery. Besides being descriptive, Heartstring has a secondary emotional meaning (“tug at heartstrings”), and when the procedure is complete the surgeon literally “tugs on the Heartstring” to uncoil and remove it from the aorta.

The Heartstring device is a coiled string that is used in place of a clamp when making a graft to the aorta during beating-heart open heart surgery. Or, more technically,

The HEARTSTRING Proximal Seal System allows you to achieve clampless hemostasis during CABG proximal anastomoses while suturing with your own hand. It’s an easy-to-use advance in patient care and helps reduce the release of emboli that can potentially have neurocognitive consequences for patients post-surgery.

Besides being descriptive, Heartstring has a secondary emotional meaning (“tug at heartstrings“), and when the procedure is complete the surgeon literally “tugs on the Heartstring” to uncoil and remove it from the aorta.

VISIT: Heartstring

PROJECT: Name for the the operating software controlling Hitachi Medical’s next generation magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines.

THE NAME: The beginning of an accurate diagnosis.

POSITIONING: Hitachi has a great reputation for reliability and customer support, and they were looking for an easy to remember name that positioned the product to stress their excellent image quality, speed and performance, along with efficient, easy operation, reliability and strong ROI. Origin speaks to its primacy as the beginning of the MRI process, of being integral to the analysis of the MR images, and the “origin” of the diagnosis that leads to healing the patient.

VISIT: Origin

PROJECT: Name a new cardiac pacemaker.

THE NAME: A rousing, life-affirming chorus.

POSITIONING: In July 2009, a New York woman became the first American recipient of a new generation of wireless cardiac pacemaker that monitors the patient 24/7 via WiFi Internet connection, and that pacemaker was Anthem. An Anthem is a rousing, joyous rallying cry of a song that many people can sing together, just as the Anthem pacemaker “sings” its patient data to the Internet, allowing doctors to monitor patients and catch future heart irregularities before they become critical.

VISIT: Anthem

PROJECT: Re-name a biotech startup.

THE NAME: Completing the circle of drug discovery.

POSITIONING: The biotechnology startup company Nuvios had name was generic and unmemorable, as well as a disconnect from their mission statement/tagline, “Improving life from the inside out.” To compete, they needed a better name. The company is a leader in the discovery and development of drug therapies for treating and preventing osteoporosis and metabolic bone diseases. The name Radius, maps directly to the tagline and advances the concept of the company as elementally essential and scientifically elegant. The “radius” is also, of course, one of the major bones of the human skeleton. The name Radius also helps to position the company as distinctly different from the most biopharma companies with anonymous, invented names, and completes the circle that begins with initial drug discovery efforts and ends with improving patient’s lives.

VISIT: Radius

PROJECT: Name a next generation magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine.

THE NAME: A successive troop formation, a hierarchical level of authority.

POSITIONING: Hitachi Medical has a great reputation for reliability and customer support, and they wanted an easy to remember name that stressed the positioning of excellent image quality, speed and performance, along with efficient, easy operation, reliability and strong ROI. The name Echelon maps well to both the physical nature of the machine (repeated scans of areas of the human body) and to its important place in the hierarchy of diagnostic tools available to the physician.

VISIT: Echelon

PROJECT: Name name a new double electric breast pump.

THE NAME: A soft, close connection.

POSITIONING: The name had to be warm, approachable, and map to the harmonious nature of pumping two breasts at once, as well as emphasize the close connection between mother and baby. Affinity aptly conveys both the literal and emotional cues that represent this product, as well as acknowledging the great affinity between the company and its loyal customers. The soft sound and similarity to “infinity,” the symbol for which is curvy and breast-like, add to its resonance.

VISIT: Affinity

PROJECT: Re-name Riley Genomics, a bioscience company specializing in rheumatoid arthritis diagnostics and treatment.

THE NAME: Building to a climax.

POSITIONING: Riley Genomics needed a new name to differentiate it from the pack of surname-saddled biotech company names and to support the brand positioning of capturing the excitement of “building momentum” toward better treatment and eventually a cure for the terrible disease that is rheumatoid arthritis. The name Crescendo to perfectly conveys the sense of power and the upwelling of hope and joy that is the great promise of their new approach to solving the scourge of rheumatoid arthritis and other rheumatologic disorders.

VISIT: Crescendo

PROJECT: Re-name a family of cardiac surgery products.

THE NAME: A nimble contortionist, strength and flexibility.

POSITIONING: Guidant, whose cardiac surgery division is now owned by Maquet, was determined to replace its failed Axius brand name with a warm, human, memorable name that also mapped to the product function and stand out from the competition. The name Acrobat conveys the powerful combination of strength plus flexibility these cardiac surgery tools provide.

VISIT: Acrobat