I am happily addicted to caffeine – until I skip my normal morning dose. There follows an inevitable sluggishness and an afternoon headache. As this is immediately cured by a cup of coffee I haven’t seen much reason in the last few years to quit. Scientific findings oscillate between praise for coffee’s health benefits and the risks or detrimental effects on the body. I usually stick to reading the good findings, but this recent article in the NY Times provides a nice synopsis.

Product branding is starting to pick up on the “good for you” aspects of coffee that attempt to shift the beverage from an indulgent vice into the medicinal cure-all. Some relatively new products highlight coffee that incorporates supplements or that is specially roasted for unique health benefits. The product branding of Caffe Botanica communicates the health of the harvest and is infused with calcium while GanoDerma draws on the Latin name of the Reishi mushrooms that are included in its special recipe (and perhaps unintentionally, that it is good for the skin). Caffe Sanora gets the roots of its name in “sano” which means healthy in Spanish. This Boulder, Colorado roasting company, claims its roasting process keeps anti-oxidants in beans that will help keep you young while getting what you need to get through the day.

For now I’m happy to take my coffee with milk and no mushrooms, but you never know which new branding gimmick is going to catch on next.

Tags: Brand Naming, Branding, Company Naming, Food Branding, In-the-News, product branding
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The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center is in the market for a new name after being affectionately and famously known as SLAC for 46 years. The Energy Department, which funds SLAC, wants a name that can be trademarked (and which will better reflect its new emphasis on particle astrophysics and photon science) — but Stanford University won’t allow the use of its name in the trademark.

Some critics of the change compare it to a “major mid-life crisis,” and even wonder if SLAC will soon be referred to as the “center formerly known as SLAC.” Researchers are worried that a new name will be less attractive to prospective scientific talent and confuse the general public that has grown accustomed to the name for the huge facility. Others say there hasn’t been any accelerator activity there for years, and it’s about time for a name change.

What to do? SLAC’s staff members have been asked to contribute suggestions for the new name, which must be approved by Stanford’s president and the Department of Energy. One of the most obvious solutions is to replace the word “Stanford” with another word that starts with an “S” (such as nearby “Sand” Hill Road), thereby retaining the acronym SLAC. Or, simply eliminate the expanded form of the acronym altogether, as in the case of SRI International (the former Stanford Research Institute).

Getting a professional naming firm in on the action probably wouldn’t be such a bad idea. But you can also submit your name change suggestions to the SLAC community here.

Tags: name change, naming
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Not long ago, it would have been far-fetched to consider a Safeway brand synonymous with “certified organic.” But the last few years have seen a mainstreaming of organic products across the board, and in-store brands are finally getting a little panache – right down to brand name creation.

Two of Safeway’s store brands, O Organics and Eating Right, found immediate success from their debut. These product brands speak to people who are looking for healthier foods that are still good deal. (And who isn’t these days?) O Organics sales reached $150 million when it launched in 2005 and increased to $400 million in 2008 while Eating Right is expected to bring in $200 million this year. In a highly unusual move, these brands soon will be showing up in competitive supermarkets, as well, in the hopes that Safeway can further expand revenues.

In-store brands are generally cheaper than outside food brands, because of lower marketing overhead. But in this case, a little added branding focus has gone a long way. O Organics, for example, is an excellent product brand name. The O, like the numeral for zero, is a transparent communication of purity, telegraphing natural, unprocessed food. Eating Right is also effective in its straightforwardness. We all know that we’re supposed to be “eating right” and the name for this line of products communicates an easy way to follow this common advice.

It will be interesting to see if other grocery stores follow in Safeway’s footsteps — increasing their naming and branding efforts, more effectively competing against national brands, and then broadening their sales scope to include other grocery chains.

Tags: Advertising, Brand Naming, Food Branding, naming
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Catchword recently named a new bottled water from Canada (Eska). Like most of our names, this brand has an interesting tie to the key differentiator of the product: namely that the water is filtered by an esker into super-pure drinking water. But enough about the name…

What’s really cool is that the company was just featured in the New York Times and has recently launched a new, really informative web site that challenges many of the common assumptions in the water business.

The water is only available in Canada right now, but I know I’ll be checking it out once it hits the States.

Tags: bottled water, bottled water branding, bottled water naming, Eska, Eska name, Eska naming
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Yet another embarrassing article on baby naming fiascos. (If you don’t want to read the article, here’s the gist: dad (Mr. Jones) names new baby “Dow” while mom is sleeping after giving birth. Previous child, Indiana, thinks it will all work out fine.)

I’ll at least give these folks credit for spunk. Still a mound of demerits for abusive behavior. And do you really want to be married to a guy who, on a dare, does something so stupid and so permanent while you’re still recovering from labor? File for the name change, then file for divorce.

These people are seriously making me rethink my second rule of baby naming (”don’t tell people what names you are considering before the child is named”). In this case, PLEASE, tell someone so they can talk you out of it. Then, get a clue. Or hire a naming consultant — maybe in that order.

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So putting aside the atrociousness of the name (seriously, this could be the worst company name ever launched), this new “Google-Killer” is not ready for prime time. I had to check it out, what with all the publicity it has received. Alas, the folks at Google can still rest easy. The folks at Cuil aren’t going to threaten their dominance any time soon.

Best part for me: the search for “naming” revealed two hilarious search results –

1) An old press release about Catchword hiring Mark Skoultchi in New York. The result itself was not so funny (if a bit out of date — Mark has been a partner in the firm now for several years). But the photo that they paired with it … priceless. IT’S NOT MARK. In fact, it kind of looks like George Stephanapolous. Random.

2) A reference to my old company, Master-McNeil (who wisely reserved “naming.com” an eternity ago). Again, the reference was not so funny, but the photo that went with it was a screen shot of SnarkHunting (another naming company’s blog site). Whoops. How does that happen?

A few friendly words of advice from your neighborhood naming consultant: Change the name, then change the algorithm and start all over again. Can’t do any worse than the first time around, on either count.

Tags: Name Launch, search engine, technology naming
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Maybe I should change my role at the company to be the baby-name-blogger. Just too much good stuff in the news these days. Check out this article on the wackiest baby names ever. Naming babies seems much more fun than naming companies or naming products.

I have to give the parents credit. Even a naming specialist like myself would never have come up with Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii (those wacky Kiwis). Best part for me: her friends call her “K”. Nice.

Parents, once again, I beseech you. Have some respect for your children. If you can’t come up with something clever AND appropriate, hire a naming consultant to help you.

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Saw a report in this morning’s news about a guy who plans to name his kid after a radio talk show host in return for a $100 gas card (see “Sex, Blood, and Baby Names”). So wrong, in so many ways. First, any of you who are regular readers know how I feel about baby naming. It is not to be taken so lightly. Your kids have to live with this for the rest of their lives. But this case is particularly bothersome (perhaps even more so than some famous actor coming up with yet-another-ridiculous name). A hundred dollars? Are you serious? C’mon. At least hold out for a month’s worth of gas. Heck, a hundred dollars won’t even fill the tank of the father’s (assumed) monster truck. A hundred dollars won’t even cover the fees associated with the kid’s name change in a few years.

I guess I should say this kid got off easy. At least his parents didn’t name him after a semi-retired football player (see previous post). Dixon Willoughby is certainly better than some. But seriously folks, have a little more respect for your kids.

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This is old product naming news, but I forgot to blog about it until just now. At the end of last year, Chrysler (formerly DaimlerChrysler, formerly Chrysler Corporation) showed off a new concept car, the Dodge Avenger Tuner - Stormtrooper (shown at left, all white and shiny and spiffy).

Scott Anderson, designer of the car, posted this at the official Chrysler blog:

When I began to design the Dodge Avenger Tuner – Stormtrooper, I wanted to do more than create a cool-looking custom ride. Granted, the Star Wars™-influenced aesthetics has gotten great feedback (and mentions on non-automotive blogs like c-net). However, I was mostly concerned with creating something that was as futuristic inside the cabin as it was in its styling.

The visual influences are apparent. I was a big Star Wars fan as a kid, so the styling was heavily influenced by the George Lucas aesthetic. When we started working on the fascia design and applied the bright pearl white paint coat, the project totally took on a life of its own — we had a Stormtrooper, menacing grin and all.

So while I respect his Star Wars-geekism, I have to say that the level of aggressiveness in this car’s name really bugs me. You already have a fairly testosterone-y name in Avenger - and hey, I’m a comics geek, I respect the Avengers and especially Iron Man as played by Robert Downey Jr., and that Hulk movie was pretty good too. I think an Avengers movie will be awesome! But we’ll have to wait till 2011 for that, or so the Intarwebs have it. Who do you think should play Captain America? All I can say is that they better cast someone who can ACT.

Well, I seem to have wandered a bit. So, yes, Avenger. But Stormtrooper? I suppose that the resonance of the Nazis and World War II just hasn’t entered the consciousness of the Younger Generation. Although the Stormtroopers of the Star Wars universe have become iconic, I doubt that George Lucas meant to strip the word “stormtrooper” of its evil, terrifying connotations.

But who knows? Maybe this whole thing is a set-up to tie in to the Captain America movie! In 2011 they’ll have a red, white, and blue car called the Rogers that kicks the Stormtrooper’s ass!

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I thought this article on renaming airports was interesting. Wouldn’t it be great fun to help name an airport? (Somehow, I don’t think Catchword will get the nod for that work.)

Tags: airline naming, airport naming, celebrity names
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