A quarterly report on the strategies & tactics of naming, produced by
Rivkin & Associates LLC, a marketing and communications consultancy |
 |
 |
 |
|
You Can Differentiate Anything – Even Salt
|
 |
“There is no such thing as a commodity,” Harvard Business School guru Ted Levitt once opined. “All goods and services can be differentiated.”
Morton Salt proved that premi... |
 |
|
Naming a New Brand vs. an “Enhanced” Brand |
 |
Let’s say your brand has a significant and genuine improvement, and not just a cosmetic change. Most marketers agree that the new product deserves its own brand name and separ... |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
Getting Employees on Board with a Name Change |
 |
So you’re changing your company name. The old Stafko Products Corporation is now Simplex Corporation. You’ve thought about Wall Street, your customers, your suppliers.
What... |
 |
Promoting the New Name: A Primer on PR |
 |
Adopting a new company name isn’t enough. If an organization is really proud of its new moniker – and it ought to be – then promoting the new identity with all its important c... |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|
Woolworths Caught Sleeping with “Lolita” Beds |
 |
“Unbelievably bad taste.” “An alarming level of stupidity.” “How much encouragement does the pedophile community need?”
Those were just a few of the comments in the British... |
 |
|
Flowerbomb? What Were They Thinking? |
 |
Perfumers in Amsterdam debuted a new fragrance named Flowerbomb. Their intent was to evoke a “floral explosion” – a sweet profusion of flowers peppered with hints of or... |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
Super-Sizing a Name |
 |
The Hefty trademark for plastic trash bags goes back to 1968. This brand might have been called Mighty or Dense or Prodigious, or some other synonym for “large and stro... |
 |
|
BID, BUD, EAT, HOG – Stock Symbols with Flair |
 |
Who says corporations have no sense of humor?
When it comes to stock symbols, most are chosen specifically to reflect the company name. Presumably, that logical approach m... |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|
Name Recognition Tops Taste Perception |
 |
Brand names taste better. That’s the conclusion from a savvy study of peanut butter and consumer choice.
The details were first reported years ago in The Journal of Con... |
 |
|
Creation of New Names Slows Slightly |
 |
The introduction of new names by U.S. companies has slowed slightly.
According to our 2004 survey, 81% of companies introduced a new name for a product, service, company or... |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
Trademark Trends: Q&A with Glenn Gundersen |
 |
Trademark applications can be a crystal ball of branding. New applications provide a glimpse of the buzzwords and themes that marketers believe will appeal to tomorrow’s consu... |
 |
|
Siren Songs in Licensing: Q&A with Jack Trout |
 |
One of the current siren songs of marketing is the opportunity to earn some extra money by licensing your brand name.
Someone comes up to you and offers you a deal you can... |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The Making of a Name |
 |
| By Steve Rivkin & Fraser Sutherland |
 |
| The secrets of successful brand names— who makes them; why they’re made; and how they’re compiled, bought, sold, and protected |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|