Branding Archives

October 4, 2023 By Holden Jurisich

Pre-Workout Names: Pretty-Wacky Nonsense

Grinning bodybuilder wearing sunglasses, explosions of fire and smoke fill the frame behind him. — What the average pre-workout user sees in the mirror.

Sigh.

I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this. I had hoped I’d be able to resist the temptation to sully our dear readers’ innocent minds with an entire blog post dedicated to a shady industry and a product of dubious safety, efficacy, and fundamental logic.

But alas, here we are. This is the blog post all about pre-workout names — an idea I alluded to in my previous post, How Do You Do, Fellow Kids? Gen Z-speak in naming and branding — because they’re just so gloriously insane, I can’t help it. (The two mentioned in that previous post are very mild compared to what’s ahead.)

June 26, 2023 By Ali Sell

Fletcher’s Corny Dogs: A brand name on a stick that stuck

In America, a traditional state fair food staple goes by two names: corn dog or corny dog. If you know this golden fried goodness by the later name, you must be from Texas. And if you’re from Texas, you likely don’t even call it a corny dog. You simply call it a “Fletcher’s.” And you say it with childlike excitement, almost with a giggle. Because that’s how good it is. That’s the fond memory it evokes. And that’s the lasting power of this brand name.

June 5, 2023 By Zinzin

The real risky business of naming

When naming, companies often make a fundamental mistake about the nature of risk. The faulty assumption is that a company needs a descriptive name in order to “describe what it does,” or what its product does. Or an experiential name to refer as closely as possible to the experience that the company, product, or service wants you to have. This is often because leadership says they “don’t have a huge marketing budget” to do this describing. In other words, an “edgy,” evocative name that doesn’t describe what they do is considered too “risky.”

This kind of thinking is prevalent across all industries. It’s also completely wrong.

May 11, 2023 By Ali Sell

The Mother of All Brand Names

What inspires a great brand name? For Zinzin, it’s getting outside of ourselves, our specialty, our industry. Sometimes, stepping outside of our familiar spaces sparks unexpected connections and other mind wanderings. For instance, we’re big fans of poetry, great literature, artists, and films.

On the other hand, sometimes inspiration for a great brand name lies closer to home. Very close to home. Ok, I’ll cut to the chase: it’s your mom.

Well, not your mom. But the “royal mom.” Is that a cheeky, new nosism? According to Wikipedia, the royal we (pluralis majestatis) refers to a single person holding a high office, such as a monarch, bishop, or pope…or mom, this Zinzin-namer (and mom) attests.

May 4, 2023 By Zinzin

Brand naming advice: Be difruhnt, but not that different

If your name is different for the sake of being different, then it’s likely doomed. The most powerful names are those that best support the brand positioning, no matter what. Depending on the circumstances, a name might be “extreme” or it might not. If your name is trying too hard to be different just in order to stand out, it won’t. It will blend in with all the other names that are also trying too hard, and failing, to stand out.

In good company

That is a long-held tenet in Zinzin’s naming manifesto. That’s why we were thrilled to see Lana Tlemat’s March 2023 article in Fast Company. It’s called “What do Lyft and Krispy Kreme have in common? This– and consumers hate it. Here’s a hint: Tumblr is another one.”

December 1, 2022 By Ali Sell

Holiday scents & nonsense: evocative candle names

Ahh, the cozy, inviting scents that fill our homes over the holidays — cinnamon, gingerbread, spruce, cedar, and…broken rosary, or old books?

Believe it or not, these are some of the holiday candle scents available this season. What does a broken rosary smell like, you ask? Apparently, it’s woody and floral (with a hint of Catholic guilt?), and it can be yours for $44.

Within recent years, scented candle names took a distinctly evocative turn. They went from being merely descriptive to evoking emotions, memories, and experiences. And as the holiday shopping season approaches, they’ll be everywhere. Traditional ones, like Yankee Candle’s basalm & cedar or peppermint pinwheels, are still around, of course. But Zinzin’s finely tuned naming noses sniffed out some doozies. So, let’s follow the holiday scented trail of this candle naming trend — will it wax or wane?

November 4, 2022 By Ali Sell

American brand names & Indigenous cultures: changing the narrative

The FX Series Reservation Dogs is changing the narrative.

Zinzin believes that language is alive and on the move. It’s like a living, breathing organism – always changing, morphing, evolving. Cultures change too, and names come and go over time. But some don’t. Why has one naming practice, in particular — brands named after different Indigenous cultures — lasted so long in America? And how is it changing? Let’s take a look at some American brand names derived from Indigenous peoples and cultures.

October 24, 2022 By Zinzin

Evocative names make the most powerful brand names

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.

October 13, 2022 By Zinzin

Marketing the past: the psychology of nostalgia in naming and branding

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.)

October 10, 2022 By Zinzin

Naming made-up, coined, invented brand names

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 of invented brand names, as this case may be.

What’s an invented name?

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.

October 4, 2022 By Zinzin

Authenticity in naming: when brands keep it a little too real

Grinch Get Real meme — 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.

September 14, 2022 By Zinzin

Harry Shearer’s Amtrak renaming/rebranding (renominalization) — plus railroad nicknames

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.

“Amtrak New Brand Identity” renominalization sketch — by Harry Shearer | Oct. 21, 2001

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).

August 30, 2022 By Holden Jurisich

How Do You Do, Fellow Kids? Gen Z-speak in naming and branding

It’s not enough for brands to just control your life. They want you to know that they’re one of you, too.

The social media era has ushered in a new kind of culture commanded by Generation Z. And with it, a new class of corporate vultures desperate to keep up, swooping in to scavenge morsels of relatability. This is, of course, a game they cannot win. Companies are almost always behind the curve, and even when they get closer to the curve with especially “quirky” or “edgy” strategies, their Gen Z audience typically remains skeptical and cynical.

To be clear, we’re not declaring any of the following names and branding choices “good” or “bad” per se. Such subjective decisions are up to you, the consumer, and will vary on an individual basis. However you feel about them on a surface level, though, I hope we can all appreciate the silliness of the broader dynamic that is the corporate appropriation of “Gen Z-speak.”

August 29, 2022 By Zinzin

Naming gone wrong: the Five Fatal Flaws that may be killing your brand

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:

Flaw 1: Your brand has a boring, generic, descriptive name.

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!

Flaw 2: Your brand name is an invented mash-up with no meaning.

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.

August 17, 2022 By Zinzin

Frisco: a name origin story that’ll blow your stack

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.

Branding

In good company

What’s an invented name?

“Amtrak New Brand Identity” renominalization sketch — by Harry Shearer | Oct. 21, 2001

Flaw 1: Your brand has a boring, generic, descriptive name.

Flaw 2: Your brand name is an invented mash-up with no meaning.

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