You’ve heard of FOMO, Fear of Missing Out. You may have even heard of FOBO, Fear of a Better Option. But have you heard of FOSO?
In the world of naming, FOSO means Fear of Standing Out. And Zinzin coined it, because we’ve observed this decision-making phenomenon in our industry time and again.
[Read more…] about FOSO: Zinzin’s top naming tips to topple your company’s “Fear of Standing Out”
At Zinzin, we love to name drop. Especially, when it’s a name we created for our fabulous client, Antimatter, doing sassy new things in the world of software as a service (SaaS).
That’s right; we said it: sassy.
Let’s take a look at two seemingly unconnected dots: the B2B SaaS infrastructure company, Antimatter, and why the word “sassy” is more than our attempt at being cute with SaaS. Zinzin believes both characteristics — serious and sassy — can successfully co-exist in a name when it maps true to its brand positioning.
Aside: We freely admit that we love to play with language. It’s part of Zinzin’s naming process. And it’s often how Zinzin brains make the most unlikely creative connections for our clients.
[Read more…] about Tech Company Naming: Get your SaaS in gear
Call us crazy (or just plain Zinzin), but naming is in our DNA, even when we’re watching the NBA. In honor of our local team, the Golden State Warriors, and their awesome run to this year’s NBA Finals — their sixth finals appearance in the last eight seasons — we take a brief look at Warriors naming history and current player nicknames. We also included a nicknaming-nod to the Warriors 2022 Finals rival, the Boston Celtics…because we may be “Zinzin,” but we love a good (naming) showdown.
[Read more…] about NBA Finals fun: Nicknames of the Golden State Warriors & Boston Celtics
Only ten years ago, American author and lecturer, Susan Cain, wrote an article in The New York Times called The Rise of the New Groupthink. She made a strong argument against the rising tide of groupthink in our culture. It began,
“SOLITUDE is out of fashion. Our companies, our schools and our culture are in thrall to an idea I call the New Groupthink, which holds that creativity and achievement come from an oddly gregarious place. Most of us now work in teams, in offices without walls, for managers who prize people skills above all. Lone geniuses are out. Collaboration is in.”
Who knew a virus would both upend and further validate Cain’s point of view? The pandemic, especially in lockdown mode, became a catalyst for how we work. Solitude IS – or at least forcibly became – IN fashion. Even those who still worked in teams also began to work solo at home. Goodbye to offices without walls and personal space. Hello to a different way of collaboration and the exchange of ideas.
[Read more…] about How the pandemic helped liberate companies from “brainstorming” and “groupthink”
Stephen King wrote, “The scariest moment in writing is just before you start.” For many companies, the prospect of hiring a naming agency is filled with nearly as much uncertainty as the process of naming itself. We want you to feel confident with your selection of a naming agency, so we’ve put together this handy guide. Here are a few things to consider:
Our fabulous client, International Fruit Genetics (IFG), the renowned and innovative fruit breeder that changed the way consumers and retailers think of grapes, has launched the first seven of many new grapes Zinzin has named for them. Unlike typical grape-naming systems that simply reflect seasons or color, Zinzin helped IFG create a new and energizing naming architecture that depicts the essence of these new IFG-bred varieties that explode with tropical flavors, crunch like an apple, or elegantly improve older varieties that deserve some revitalization.
[Read more…] about New IFG grapes launched — named by Zinzin
From Yogi Berra to Confucius, history is ripe with wisdom and advice on our quest for knowledge. One of Zinzin’s favorite wise humans is author and motivational speaker, Simon Sinek. Specifically, he speaks about the quest for knowledge in our chosen disciplines. Where do we find it?
As it turns out, the answer doesn’t lie within. It actually lies with-out — outside of the familiarity of your home, office walls, industry publications and conferences.
We think Sinek nails it when he says, “There are things that you can learn outside of your discipline that can significantly contribute to the problems you’re solving at work. You only know what you know. You don’t know what you don’t know.”
A 2018 Ford Mustang test mule, replete with razzle-dazzle camouflage, and Velcroed front grill and rear end disguise. Photo: AutoMotorBlog / Spy Photographs.I recently came across the term “development mule” in an article at Jalopnik, and several Ford Mustang “mules” were featured in director David Gelb’s A Faster Horse, which documents the design, production, and development of the 2015 Mustang. I was fascinated with the term, so I did a little research. According to Wikipedia, a development mule, test mule, or (simply) mule in the automotive industry is,
a testbed vehicle equipped with prototype components requiring evaluation. They are often camouflaged to deceive competitors and thwart a curious automotive press.
So what is the difference between a “prototype” and a “development mule?”
Humphry Slocombe is a unique, “adult oriented” ice cream shop in San Francisco’s Mission District that makes quite possibly the best ice cream on the planet. If you’ve ever had their “Secret Breakfast” flavor ice cream, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. Humphry Slocombe is an ice cream pioneer, mixing unusual flavors to great effect. They use ingredients such as bourbon and toasted corn flakes (the aforementioned Secret Breakfast), Huckleberry Crème Fraîche, red wine, and Coke (Jesus Juice), or Boccalone Prosciutto. Above all, they have over 100 flavors that rotate every day, sometimes 2-3 times throughout the day.
[Read more…] about Humphry Slocombe: a brand name with character for an ice cream with attitude
Whatever you think about their music, past or present, the band Pink Floyd has an amazing, enduring name, with a subtle power that reveals itself gradually over time. The name was created on the spur of the moment by early member and “crazy diamond” troubled genius Syd Barrett, by combining “the given names of two blues musicians whose Piedmont blues records Barrett had in his collection, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council” (Wikipedia). The unique combinations of strangeness and familiarity, modern (“Pink”) and retro (“Floyd”), young and old, have led to this being an enduring name still vital nearly 50 years after it burst upon the London music scene in the mid-1960s. Contradiction and simplicity combine to form one of the greatest band names of all time. And it only works because “Pink” can be a name and not just a color, which is only the case because “Floyd” is a name. Note, for instance, how much less interesting is the contemporary band name Pink Martini.
[Read more…] about Pink Floyd: contradiction and simplicity in an enduring band name
This project began with modest ambitions: a casual examination of some band names that have inspired us over the years, along with their origins or creation myths. As we dove into this treasure trove of nomenclature, however, the scope escalated into an deep investigation of over a hundred years’ worth of band name etymologies. The first dozen or so entries are not band names per se, but stage names, nicknames, and pseudonyms of seminal artists that have shaped the course of music and the manner in which bands and musicians are branded.
For no rational reason, I stumbled upon this particular Robert Frank photograph, below, from his famous 1955 book, “The Americans.” Ordinary Americans drinking soda at a Detroit drugstore soda fountain in the mid-1950s. But I was struck by the incredible display of advertising overkill going on for a drink called “Orange Whip” — only ten cents a glass! The air is thick with Orange Whip signs, and the man in the foreground seems to be enjoying a glass of this marvelous elixir:
Brand Mascots: Procter & Gamble’s Mr. Clean (AKA Don Limpio, Maestro Limpio, Monsieur Net)
CONCEIVED: 1957
CREATORS: Harry Barnhart (concept), Ernie Allen (art direction)
AGENCY: Tatham-Laird & Kudner, Chicago
CORPORATE OVERSEER: Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati
AD SPEAK / SPIEL: “Mr. Clean leaves a sheen where you clean”
TAGLINE: “When it comes to clean, there’s only one Mr.”
[Read more…] about Brand Mascots: Procter & Gamble’s Mr. Clean
Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Monolith with apesI had the privilege to know and work with the artist John McCracken (1934–2011) as an undergraduate art student. McCracken began making his famous leaning “plank” sculptures and freestanding “monoliths” in the mid-1960s, before Stanley Kubrick’s famous monolith appeared in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
[Read more…] about Reflections on the Monolith: Kubrick, McCracken, Zeppelin, Nothing
Hakuin Ekaku, The Sixth Patriarch’s Rice Mill, Edo period (1603–1867 AD)Bodhidharma left his robe and bowl to his chosen successor; and each patriarch thereafter handed it down to the monk that, in his wisdom, he had chosen as the next successor. Gunin was the fifth such Zen patriarch. One day he announced that his successor would be he who wrote the best verse expressing the truth of their sect. The learned chief monk of Gunin’s monastery thereupon took brush and ink, and wrote in elegant characters:
The body is a Bodhi-tree
The soul a shining mirror:
Polish it with study
Or dust will dull the image.
[Read more…] about Zen in action: no tree, no mirror, no dust