Things that are worth talking about need names. Good, distinctive names are best. As you may recall, last year we wrote this about non-verbal logos needing names:
“Marketing types, when brand owners operate in the world of non-verbal logos, isn’t spreading the news by word of mouth more difficult without a word to bring
It’s been a little more than a week, and I still have the FUSE conference on my mind. One of the more entertaining speakers at FUSE was a futurist by the name of Magnus Lindkvist who talked about “The Attack of the Unexpected: Trendspotting, Brands and Possible Futures.” I can’t shake two impactful images from
Welcome to another edition of AlphaWatch (the next one in our queue), where we explore the reach of single-letter trademarks, this time focusing on the letter Q and the single-letter branding cues it might suggest to consumers:
Are you able to name the un-truncated version of this single-letter mark and brand?
My daughter could. The answer is below the jump.Continue Reading Taking Branding Cues from Q in the Single-Letter Trademark Queue
This post is not about candy bars or thoughts about whether the cross-section of a candy bar may function as a trademark, for that, see here.
This brief post is about a 100 Grand Super Size thank you to all of our readers, those who submit comments, those who offer suggestions, those who follow
So what is viral marketing? The simple answer is: a marketing strategy that encourages people to pass along a marketing message. Some will argue it’s a fancy word for word-of-mouth marketing. Others insist it has to take place online—through blogs, Twitter and such. But no matter how you define it, the beauty of a well thought out and executed
There is a growing interest and, quite frankly, a dogged persistence among branding professionals to select brand names that have the ability and potential to be “verbed.” This makes trademark attorney types nervous and those of the “Dr. No” variety actually become unglued.
So, why the emphasis or fascination with verbs anyway? The answer apparently can be found in the definition of a verb: “A verb is a doing word (helping, grabbing).” This feature is appealing to marketers. In addition, some argue that “verbing” a brand extends its reach through effective “word of mouth branding.” Some feel so strongly about the marketing benefit they argue that “having the public utter your company name as a verb is like going to heaven without the inconvenience of dying. Getting ‘verbed’ is the ultimate accomplishment for any brand — the marketer’s Shangri-la.”
As marketing maven Seth Godin argued as early as 2005: “Nouns just sit there, inanimate lumps. Verbs are about wants and desires and wishes.” Given that limited binary choice, David Cameron’s recent and thoughtful “Brandverbing Brands” post on his OnBrands Blog, asks a reasonable question: “Wouldn’t you rather have your brand in the latter category?”
I’m wondering and you might be wondering too, what happened to door number three? We’ll get to that, patience.Continue Reading Just Verb It? A Legal Perspective on Using Brands As Verbs: Part I