If writers love sentences, then namers love words. We study and play with them. Laugh and sneer at them. Sometimes we break them apart, and other times we invent new ones.
We delight in the challenge of distilling a message or emotion into one or two words that truly evoke a brand position. So, it’s only natural we love the original lover of words: Philitas of Cos, or simply, Philitas.
[Read more…] about Disorderly words: the Coan and the Koan of Philitas of Cos
‘Tis the season of giving, so we turn our naming spotlight on the one, the only, the legend: Robin Hood. This name is immediately synonymous with a heroic outlaw who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. Aside from his affinity for Lincoln green tights, what Zinzin finds most extraordinary is how this character from ancient English folklore has endured in company and product naming well into modern times.
Every once in a while, Zinzin comes across a name that turns our heads. Usually, it’s because the name sounds, looks, or otherwise seems unusual or interesting — like marine algae Heterosigma Akashiwo, paint color Dead Salmon, or eyewear brand Warby Parker. This time it’s the slime mold Physarum Polycephalum, otherwise known as The Blob.
[Read more…] about One seriously slimy name: Physarum Polycephalum, or The Blob
Your company or product name is the first and most elemental point of audience contact with your brand. In many respects, your name is the brand. It sets the tone. It’s the handshake, the introduction, the first impression (formed within a matter of seconds) for everything your brand is about.
Your name is the cornerstone of your entire brand identity to follow — logo, tagline, advertising, website, etc. That’s why it’s vital to get it right. And in our experience, evocative names pack the most powerful brand punch.
[Read more…] about Evocative names make the most powerful brand names
Imagine a software company that makes a sophisticated and complex product. Presumably, it has a marketing department and an engineering department. Now imagine the employees of each department giving each other specific advice on how to perform their jobs. Having trouble imagining that one? Yup, us too.
The employees in the marketing department would never dream of telling the engineers how to program the company’s software, and the engineers don’t meddle in the company’s marketing business.
However, when a company decides to name (or rename) itself, dynamics can change quickly. Seemingly everybody, from the CEO to the security guard’s second cousin, wants to weigh-in, haggle, argue, condemn, and second-guess the company naming process and proposed names.
[Read more…] about Brand naming road bumps: bikeshedding and yak shaving
Everyone has nostalgia now and then — that warm and fuzzy feeling of fondness often from a familiar aspect of our past. Maybe it’s inspired by a specific place, a song, or even a scent. But what about brands and brand names? Can they evoke nostalgic feelings? The answer is a resounding yes, judging by pop culture trends, cycles, loops, and pendulums. (The Nostalgia Pendulum — it’s a thing; more on that later.)
The business of nostalgia is big, and we here at Zinzin are curious about it. For instance, is “the nostalgia loop” (it’s a thing too) a 20, 30, or 40-year cycle? There seems to be arguments for each scenario, so imagine this blog post is an Oldsmobile station wagon … climb in “the way back,” and join me on a road trip to discover more about nostalgia and naming. (Cheesy? You bet. But if you’re feeling nostalgic all of the sudden, we’re probably in the same decade of life. And perhaps you also geeked out over the Netflix original series Stranger Things.)
[Read more…] about Marketing the past: the psychology of nostalgia in naming and branding
Plato, you saucy philosopher, you really get us namers, don’t you? We don’t usually wax Socratic here at Zinzin, but it warms our creative hearts to know that way back in 375 BC a great thinker understood the connection between creative invention and great need. In his famous dialogue, The Republic, Plato wrote, “Our need will be the real creator” — a proverb more widely known today as “Necessity is the mother of invention”…or invented names, as this case may be.
An invented name falls under the category of brand names that includes purely made-up, morphemic mash-up, unknown foreign words, and abstract names with no inherent meaning. Some call them fabricated or newly coined. At their best, invented names can be poetic, rhythmic, and ripe for investing with the soul of a brand (think Google). On the other hand, bad invented names, often suffering from “morpheme addiction,” litter the cultural landscape, and should serve as a cautionary tale when going this route.
[Read more…] about Naming made-up, coined, invented brand names
The Grinch Get Real Meme by KingBilly97 on DeviantArt.In savage economic times, a company’s bottom line is on the line. External factors beyond a company’s control affect its performance, including customer buying habits. However, one thing that is within a company’s control is branding. And we’ve noticed that more and more top brass realize how important it is to get branding right. Usually, it all starts with a great name.
So, in naming, how does a company stay competitive and connected with customers in an economic environment that seems so unreal?
The answer, it seems to many, is to “get real” — really real, as in using the word “real” in a company name to communicate authenticity, which leaves Zinzin reeling. As we see it, to be truly authentic, a brand name must demonstrate, not explain its realness.
Check out this very real naming trend we call the “Get Real” movement and why it’s really gotta go.
[Read more…] about Authenticity in naming: when brands keep it a little too real
Naming agencies like Zinzin are a relatively new breed. We exist as a specialized creative service within the realm of branding, tucked within the wider world of marketing. However, back in the day (post-WWII, let’s say), it was more common for company or product naming to land on the desk of a copywriter at an advertising agency.
While naming is a unique creative process unto itself, this professional lineage makes sense. Arguably, naming is the shortest form of copywriting there is. Both practices require the ability distill big picture concepts into bite-sized bits of information that connect with people in a blink, to put it simply. But “simple” is what some copywriters love best.
[Read more…] about Hooptedoodle! Elmore Leonard’s 10 rules of writing
Most companies want a great name. As they should! A name is the first and most elemental point of audience contact with a brand. In many respects, the name is the brand. It tells whatever big picture story a brand wants to tell. In short, everything a brand represents, does, or ever will do begins with its name. That’s why it’s vital to get it right.
Moreover, many of the most powerful brand names have evocative names. Names that map to and support the positioning of a brand metaphorically, rather than literally and linearly. Evocative names, by definition, escape the attention filter and demand to be noticed. They are creative; they defy expectations and don’t conform to industry norms.
[Read more…] about Embrace uncertainty: overcoming fear of creativity in naming and branding
The great Harry Shearer (American actor, voice actor, comedian, writer, musician, radio host, director, and producer) gives us a fly-on-the-wall perspective of a hypothetical Amtrak renaming (renominalization) / rebranding project from his LA-based KCRW radio show, Le Show.
This sketch, called “Amtrak New Brand Identity,” is over 20 years old by now, but it’s a true classic. It’s replete with Shearer’s pitch-perfect bizspeak and name coinages, such as micro-phenomenon, image vector, name palette, idiographic potency, Railiant, meaning recipe, and, of course, renominalization.
The sketch even anticipates the video conference era to come years later when Covid-19 became the new anthrax. If you’ve ever been involved in “quasi-governmental corporation” naming or branding — on either the agency (Nomeometrix!) or client side — you might experience a little post-traumatic stress disorder when you hear this. Enjoy (or weep).
If your brand isn’t reaching the potential you think it should, perhaps it’s time for a brand audit. Specifically, take a long, hard look at the name of your brand. See if it suffers from one or more of these Five Fatal Flaws:
It blends in with a crowded field of weakly-named competitor brands. If you want people to notice, pay attention to, and care about your brand, you must not act out of fear. Don’t be ruled by FOSO (Fear of Standing Out) — be bold and unafraid!
Don’t be fooled into thinking that the semantic meaning of individual morphemes translates into real-world brand engagement. It doesn’t. Such names may technically (linguistically) have “meaning,” but, like snowflakes in a blizzard, they are not meaningful.
[Read more…] about Naming gone wrong: the Five Fatal Flaws that may be killing your brand
Wall paint manufacturers realize — with thousands of colors to choose from in each product line, it doesn’t make sense to give all those colors descriptive names. So, they create evocative names that evoke emotions and stories for the consumer. And this naming strategy is working, according to an article in The New York Times called, “We Call It Brown. They Call It ‘Weekend in the Country.'”
In a redoubled effort to capture consumers’ attention in this sputtering economic recovery, some paint companies are hoping to distinguish their brands with names that tell a story, summon a memory or evoke an emotion — even a dark one — as long as they result in a sale.
What they do not do is reveal the color.
“For a long time we had to connect the color name with the general color reference,” said Sue Kim, the color trend and forecast specialist for the Valspar paint company. “But now,” Ms. Kim added, “we’re exploring color names that are a representation of your lifestyle.”
[Read more…] about Paint the salmon misty: colorful names done right
When Zinzin gets hold of a name that intrigues us, we go all in. We dig into its past, present, and ponder its future.
Here’s a name that got our wheels spinning: “Frisco.” At first, we only thought it was a nickname that tourists sometimes use for our fair city of San Francisco, apparently cringe-worthy to the ears of all “real” San Franciscans. However, when Zinzin learned about it’s 165-year-old storied and controversial origin, let’s just say the namer-train left the station.
[Read more…] about Frisco: a name origin story that’ll blow your stack
Warby Parker is not your average brand. Nor is it your average brand name. In fact, here at Zinzin we think it’s super awesome. And we’re a hard naming-bunch to please. So we’d like to take this opportunity to highlight a brand we admire and talk a little naming-talk while we’re at it.
[Read more…] about Warby Parker: an iconic brand name with 20/20 naming vision