Susan Hopp

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– Susan Hopp, Partner, 45 Degrees/Minneapolis

I recently stopped at Shuang Hur Oriental Market (my go-to store for Vietnamese coffee) on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, and came away with an interesting branding experience.

As I passed the fresh meat counter with pork hooves and other un-named animal parts, I was reminded that I’m not their primary target audience – I like that – but I always feel welcome and I know the younger staff speaks English. I trust the store.

On the way out, my eye caught an entire aisle of instant ramen noodle soups! Wow. I had never even tried one and now here were literally hundreds of options from China, Thailand, South Korea, and more. I thought this could be the place to find an authentic product with the best texture and taste.

Well, I quickly realized this might not be a quick grab and go because I had nothing to base my selection on. This is something that does not usually happen in America. We live in a highly advertised and branded world and since we grow up immersed in this culture, we naturally know how things relate to each other. So it was interesting and surprising and, yes, a bit frustrating to walk into an environment where I see that products are indeed highly branded, based on something each company feels is important, but the brands didn’t mean anything to me. I was not emotionally connected to any of them.Continue Reading Trying Something New

In many contexts of our life experience, "fine" sadly seems to have drifted toward embodying mediocrity.

Consider this all too common dialogue: "How are you?" "Oh, I’m fine."  Or, perhaps, "Just fine."

Translation: "O.K.," "average," "acceptable," "passable," "satisfactory," "I can’t complain," "I’ve been better," or maybe "could be much better" . . . .

After all, how interested or excited does someone sound with their "fine by me" response to your generous invitation or suggestion? Especially when accompanied by emoticons or real-life eye-rolling body language?

Whatever happened to the leading dictionary meanings of this orally over-used four-letter-word?:

"Of superior or best quality; of high or highest grade: fine wine."

"Choice, excellent, or admirable: a fine painting."

Outside the context of wine, art, food, china, jewelry, dining, and perhaps blogging, extolling fineness does nothing to draw me in.

Perhaps this recognition is consistent with why the term appears in less than 1,500 live marks on the USPTO database. In fact, there are more dead marks including this term than live ones. In addition, it appears less frequently in the USPTO database than other laudatory terms like "best" or "choice" — by considerable margins. And many of the live marks that do exist lead the adjective with another one (i.e., SuperFine Bakery, Veryfine Juice, or Damn Fine Tea) — futher evidence the f-word seems emotionally weak standing on its own.

I’m left wondering whether the term’s meaning decline began with Toni Basil’s "one hit wonder" from 1982 entitled "Mickey," with the ad nauseam lyrics: "Oh, Mickey you’re so fine, you’re so fine, you blow my mind, hey Mickey, hey Mickey." Just a thought.

Having said all that, I’ll have to admit, I’m still definitely a sucker for quaint red neon signs appearing in frost-paned country windows reading "Fine Dining," even when the exterior of the establishment might speak otherwise or even beg to differ. My family certainly can attest that these dining adventures have led to mixed reviews over the years.

In the distant world of comic book grading, a "fine" grade is only a 6.0 on a 10.0 scale, according to CGC. Worse yet, a "fine" designation using the Sheldon Scale of Coin Grading yields a meager 12 out of a possible 70 score.

I’d love to hear from our expert naming friends on the question of how and why the word "fine" has lost its "superior" meaning, at least in so much of our day-to-day common English usage.

Now, when it comes to the context of lawyering, "fine" can mean something much more negative than mediocre: As in, you better read the "fine print" in the contract!

References to "the fine print" also can have negative or controversial connotations in the world of advertising and marketing, as in the context of deceptive or misleading advertising.

So, in my humble effort to rejuvenate the "superior," "excellent," "highest grade," and "admirable" meanings behind the four-letter-word "fine," below the jump you’ll find twelve of my favorite and mighty fine guest posts from a diverse collection of our fine guest bloggers during 2011.Continue Reading When it Comes to Guest Blogging: Fine or Just Fine?

—Karl Schweikart & Susan Hopp, both of 45 Degrees/Minneapolis

We all know that branding is about managing expectations – what a person’s expectations are for a brand experience, and whether they are met or not. Pretty simple.

When you see the name Git ‘N Split on a sign outside a gas and convenience store in…