Aaron Keller’s keen branding and naming points yesterday — prompted by his recent encounter with a physician by the name of Dr. Cure, are well taken. Building upon that +5 naming scale theme, with a surname like Trim, especially if it is Will Trim, you might expect a personal trainer at one of the local health clubs,… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Naming
678 Ways to Leave a Motel Franchise?
Posted in Advertising, Articles, Branding, Contracts, Infringement, Marketing, TrademarksThere must be an infinite number of possible names for someone tasked with re-branding a motel, yet on a recent trip to Iowa City to interview an amazing pool of law students, I captured some photos of what has been — for as long as I can remember – a Motel 6, and is now all ”trade-dressed” up as… Continue Reading
Re-Branding Can Be A Painful Experience
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Squirrelly Thoughts, TrademarksThis roadside sign near exit 115 on Interstate 94 in Wisconsin was hard to resist capturing. My first thought: I hope more care goes into the tattoo removal process than it took to create the cold, basic sign shown here. And, hearing how painful tattoo removal is, the stark blood red letters don’t demonstrate an interest to calm… Continue Reading
Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time…
Posted in Branding, Food, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Trademarks—Mark Prus, Principal, NameFlashSM Name Development Naming contests. Sounds like a good idea, right? A company needs a new name and it decides to engage its employees to come up with a new name. What could go wrong? Well, you could end up with a name like Mondelez. Just to be clear, I’m a professional… Continue Reading
7 Parenting Tips I Learned from Branding
Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers—Ellen Sluder, Director at CoreBrand, LLC Working in the brand strategy industry for the past eight years has irrevocably changed the way I view the world. It is nearly impossible for me to hear a company name, see their logo, or view their marketing messages without a critical eye. But I never really imagined the… Continue Reading
Incongruity in Advertising?
Posted in AdvertisingMy post from a couple of days ago, commenting on Chick-fil-A’s EAT MOR CHIKIN slogan and the associated Cow Campaign and advertisements, neglected to discuss an issue – one so important — that I’m compelled to raise it now, as it appears to have disturbed my otherwise healthy cognitive system. It has disturbed me as much as one of my amphibian-loving sons was… Continue Reading
Visa Branding: A Combined Alpha & Brand Verbing Alert
Posted in AlphaWatch, Branding, Marketing, TrademarksWe have been following the truncation trend to single-letter branding symbols for some time now. Visa appears to be heading in this direction with the relatively new V logo: Based on trademark filings at the USPTO, it appears Visa began using this single-letter V logo by itself back in 2008 with the launch of a… Continue Reading
Unintended Irony in a Business Name?
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Marketing, TrademarksCommon sense probably dictates that if you take the time and effort to create, build, and position signage to help sell what it is you’re selling, the sign should be visible, right? Especially in these tough times, when you’re selling real estate, and this is the view from the road: Then again, maybe not, especially if you’ve adopted a business… Continue Reading
How Do You Know?
Posted in Guest Bloggers—Mark Prus, Marketing Consultant at NameFlashSM I received a lot of terrific feedback on my recent Duets Blog post “When Should You Change Your Name?” Consider this Volume 2 in the series. After you have decided to change your name, “How Do You Know When You Have Identified a Great Name?” This could also… Continue Reading
What’s Up with Dogs?
Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Trademarks—Karl Schweikart & Susan Hopp, both of 45 Degrees/Minneapolis I bet you’ve noticed this long-time naming trend: Having the word “dog” in the names of brands that have nothing at all to do with dogs or pets or even animals. What gives? A quick Google search of the term “black dog” turned up these… Continue Reading
When Should You Change Your Name?
Posted in Guest Bloggers—Mark Prus, Marketing Consultant at NameFlashSM In my NameFlashSM name development business, I sometimes get asked by clients, “Should I change my brand name?” From a purely selfish standpoint my answer should be “YES!” because I get paid to generate names! But the reality is that there are times when you should not change your… Continue Reading
Good Name, Bad Name? It Depends.
Posted in Guest Bloggers—Mark Prus, Principal, NameFlashSM Name Development There is a local furniture store in Pittsburgh called Colonial Modern Furniture. Its slogan is “It’s Colonial. It’s Modern. And everything in between.” This demonstrates one of the biggest mistakes people make in picking a name—developing a name that tries to speak to everyone. I’m sorry, but apart from… Continue Reading
The Night (Some of) the Lights Went Out at Sears
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Sight, TrademarksSorry, I couldn’t resist snapping this photo tonight at the local Sears appliance store: Could Sears be going green and saving some electricity? Could Sears be suggesting it is ready to carefully listen to your requests and/or complaints? Or, has Sears found a creative way to promote its sale of Ultimate Ears earphones in the dark? More seriously, this… Continue Reading
Apple Tee’s Off its New Social Networking With Ping
Posted in Advertising–Susan Perera, Attorney Well, it appears that yesterday’s guest blogger, Andrew Miller, and I are on the same wavelength as I also prepared some thoughts on the new iTunes Ping social networking platform. I guess such is the case in the world of social media where current events can be discussed ad nauseam in a matter… Continue Reading
El Pollo Loco Goes Loco on Minnesota Restaurant Name
Posted in Mixed Bag of Nuts, Sight, Trademarks–Sharon Armstrong, Attorney Whenever I return from a trip from California, I am always surprised at the number of people who ask whether I visited the palace of hamburgers known as In-N-Out. I’m not much of a burger fan, so my trips to that establishment are rare. I try, however, never to miss a trip… Continue Reading
Mastering Your Domain
Posted in Branding, Domain Names, Guest Bloggers, Trademarks—Nancy Friedman, Chief Wordworker at Wordworking; and author of Fritinancy “All the good ones are taken!” Without fail, that’s the lament I hear most frequently from my naming clients. They’re not complaining about legally available trademarks—they’re talking about Internet domains. They want short ones: five letters would be nice. (Uh-huh.) They want “clean” ones: no… Continue Reading
Pitfalls in Naming the New
Posted in Branding–Sharon Armstrong, Attorney I am currently in my home state of California, a place known to some as “the land of fruits and nuts.” (Although, “the Left Coast” is my favorite of these playfully derisive names for California.) California is indeed the fruit basket of the United States, producing 51% of the nation’s fruit. And amongst… Continue Reading
The Color of Confusion
Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers, Product Packaging—Mark Prus, Marketing Consultant NameFlashSM I do a lot of branding and naming work…and so when I see an issue that confuses me, I usually assume it confuses consumers as a whole. In this case, having done some work in the artificial sweetener category, I can assure you that people are confused. The artificial sweetener… Continue Reading
Name Development Faux Pas, a.k.a. What Were They Thinking?!
Posted in Guest Bloggers—Mark Prus, Marketing Consultant at NameFlashSM As a professional name developer, I am often amused by the decisions companies make when naming products. Here are just a few of the naming faux pas I have observed. 1. Poor Visual Communication – Naming is an emotional decision and you often get caught up amongst the trees… Continue Reading
What Has Happened To Car Names?
Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Trademarksby Mark Prus Marketing Consultant at NameFlashSM As a professional name developer, I think about names all the time. One of my favorite times to think is when driving. No, I am not “texting while driving.” But when I pull up behind a car at a red light, I notice the name on the back… Continue Reading
The Long and Short of Name Development
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Guest Bloggers, Keyword Ads, Marketing, Search Engines, Social Networking, Trademarksby Mark Prus of NameFlashSM Some of my name development clients are fans of long, keyword-rich names. Obviously the appeal of a search engine spotting your website is driving this approach. Some of my naming clients are fans of short names that can be easily shared on Twitter. Which approach is better? I will confess… Continue Reading
Name That (Zombie) Brand
Posted in Guest BloggersLosing a trademark challenge is bad news, right? It’s costly, it’s embarrassing, and it can damage a brand’s reputation. And yet in one well-known instance, losing a trademark challenge didn’t hurt a brand at all. In fact, it ensured the brand’s immortality. The product name I’m thinking of existed for just three years in the… Continue Reading
Naming the Store Brand
Posted in Guest BloggersEvery Sunday I go through the circulars in the paper looking for new products. I usually spend a lot of time with the ads from the national drug store chains (Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid). Recently, I observed that each chain seems to have a radically different philosophy on store brand naming. And while this observation isn’t… Continue Reading
Describe Different
Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Search Engines, Trademarks"What am I?" Every invention begs this essential question of identity. The answer is found in the product’s descriptor. A descriptor defines a thing, categorizing it, framing it, positioning it and signaling its intended future. A product that doesn’t claim to break new ground adopts its category’s standard convention. For example, a new, run-of-the-mill digital… Continue Reading
Duets Blog Authors
Steve Baird
Just so you know, I'm all about brands and the law, both professionally and personally. I regularly annoy family and friends in retail stores by focusing on product labels—not to buy the product, but to read the fine print and ask, "Who owns these brands" and "Did they really register those marks?" More...
Brent Lorentz
Although I wish I could say my path to the law was the result of a lifelong dream or calling, it was more the result mere curiosity and an affinity for leather-bound books. More...
Tiffany Blofield
Although my initial career path was to be one of the Supremes (not the musically talented ones with platform shoes and sequins, but rather, the nine wearing sensible shoes and pressed black robes in DC), I will likely stay in Minnesota as I have never lived anywhere else. More...
Brad Walz
My law career started on the ice…as a defensive hockey player (we’re not talking professionally…and if I were, I probably wouldn’t have gotten into law). More...
Derek Allen
In hindsight, writing about creativity and the law may have always been in the cards for me. I began training for a career in litigation at an early age by finding ways to disagree with pretty much anyone about pretty much anything. In my longest-running “case,” I argued with my middle school math teacher, Mrs. Jabs, for the better part of four years over whether, even if I got the right answer, I had to show my work to get full credit. More...
Martha Engel
Although my interest in gadgetry and my aptitude for math eventually led me to become an engineer, my ad executive father and artistically gifted mother fostered an appreciation for the creative from a young age. More...
Anjali Shankar
When I was in elementary and middle school, I loved writing short stories. Creativity and imagination seem to come naturally to people when they are young. More...
Timothy Sitzmann
I have always considered myself to be a creative person. Full disclosure: I'm not claiming that I've created anything good, merely that I have created things that exist.More...