Naming and Branding Agency

Posts from: March 2004

Get out of (James Gleick’s) namespace

Yesterday’s New York Times Sunday Magazine has and interesting, extensive article on naming by James Gleick: Get Out of My Namespace.

Window dressing

Linux operating system purveyor Lindows has drawn a lot of legal heat from Microsoft for its Windowsesque name. But undaunted and still taunting, ZDNet reports that the company has slightly altered its name and all systems are operating down low:

The software company, in the midst of a wide-ranging dispute with Microsoft regarding trademark rights to the Windows name, announced on Tuesday that it is now doing business in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg as Lin- – -s (pronounced Lindash).

That’s right — the new name is “Lin- – -s,” you pronounce it “Lindash,” and you can find them online at…you know what’s coming but you’re afraid to look: www.lin—s.com. You could go there now to snap up a few Lin—s systems, but their site seems to be mired in legal trouble.

Soy joy

Silk When naming consumer products, few companies get it just right. Silk, a product brand name for soy milk from the folks at White Wave, is a category killer, meaning that competitors will never be able to find a name that is more effective. Silk is a contraction of Soy + Milk and plays into the positive characteristics of high quality, smooth, pleasurable, and sensual. They’ve taken an existing word and all of its inherent cultural and experiential qualities and transposed it to an entirely new context.

While names typically fall into one of four categories, Silk manages to straddle three of them: Descriptive, Experiential and Evocative.

Cheerios is one of the best cereal product naming results of all time and follows the same strategy. The name is descriptive, yet has the secondary meaning of a happy greeting. Both names work on multiple levels in the consumer’s mind, and are therefore very engaging and tough to beat.

Because why? The Lucky Charms leprechaun

Today’s Because Why? is lifted straight from Topher’s Castle, because it’s late on Saint Patik’s Day ans wee can barley se the keybord:

LuckyLucky was born in 1964. Lucky’s full name is L.C. Leprechaun, and he touts his cereal as being “Magically Delicious.” Lucky the Leprechaun magically changes ordinary, shapeless white marshmallows into shapes with bright colors. Originally he put the pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, and green clovers into Lucky Charms cereal. In 1975 he added blue diamonds. Purple horseshoes arrived in 1984. Red balloons were added in 1989.

In 1991 the star-in-balloon replaced both the red balloon and the orange star. A blue, yellow and pink rainbow was added in 1992. The yellow and orange Pot of Gold replaced the yellow moon in 1994. New brighter colors were introduced in 1995 along with the return of the moon, only now it is blue! And the star was changed from a 6-point to 5-point shape. A dark green clover in a light green hat replaced the green clover in 1996.

The primary marshmallow shapes, as of January 1999, became: red balloons, blue moons, pink hearts, multi-colored rainbows, yellow and white shooting stars, Lucky’s green hat with a green clover, orange and yellow pot of gold, and purple horseshoes.

As the story goes, a predatory whale swirled the colors on the marshmallows in 1986, and was subsequently “punished” by being turned into a rainbow-colored whale marshmallow for a limited time. Green pine trees were featured as an Earth Day promotion, and an annual Christmas version of Lucky Charms includes festive holiday marshmallows. Olympic “Marbits” (1996) and “Twisted” (1997) two-color shapes: Pot of Gold, Moon, Balloon, Horseshoe, and Heart have been boxed.

In early 1999, General Mills celebrated an “Around the World Event” with globally famous marshmallow shapes. These are: green and yellow torch, gold pyramid, blue Eiffel Tower, orange Golden Gate Bridge, purple Liberty Bell, pink and white Leaning Tower of Pisa, red and white Big Ben clock, and green and white Alps.

Later in 1999, they went back to their previous shapes except they modified the blue moons by giving them a yellow mouth and called them “Man in the Moon”. This promotion featured Lucky wearing a green space suit with a bubble helmet.

Come 2003, the primary marshmallow shapes were: pink hearts, orange stars, green clovers-in-hats, blue moons, purple horseshoes, red balloons, orange and yellow pots of gold, and 3-color rainbows. Bigger marshmallows followed.

Lucky Charms was the first cereal to include marshmallow pieces (technically called “marbits”). Marbits were invented by John Holahan in 1963.

WaldoWaldo the Wizard:General Mills attempted to replace L. C. Leprechaun in the mid-1970’s. Waldo the Wizard, a man in a green wizard’s cap and gown (and black sneakers on his feet), appeared on boxes in 1975. Waldo was created by Alan Snedeker, and designed by Phil Mendez. It was a test to find a replacement for the leprechaun. Officially, Waldo proved to be less popular than “Lucky” and magically disappeared from boxes one year later.

An inside source tells us, “In fact, Waldo the Wizard actually scored far better than Lucky the Leprechaun in focus group tests. The entire project started because kids (and therefore the client) got tired of Lucky. Despite Waldo’s success, which I was told was considerable; the client got cold feet.”

“Not only did Waldo beat Lucky in focus groups,” confirms another source, “it was test marketed in New England with great success”.

“They [General Mills] worried about losing the “equity” they had in Lucky, though at the time it couldn’t have been much if they initiated a new character search, produced and aired commercials, rather than just running storyboards past focus groups as a disaster check.”

Now that you have a craving for a delicious bowl of marbits, get thee to a pub!

Spalding Gray eulogy

Spalding in a Box: While running through a dress rehearsal for a revamped production of “Swimming to Cambodia,” Spalding Gray suddenly collapsed and died, ten minutes into the one man show.

Witnesses report seeing the actor clutching at a passing monologue in an attempt to stay afloat.

Seriously though, we’re sad to see Spalding Gray throw in the towel. John Perry Barlow wrote a nice eulogy for his friend back on January 16, soon after he vanished.

Scotch tape defense against chemical and biological attack

Magic Tape: Last year Tom Ridge sent millions of Americans scrambling to Home Depot when the Department of Homeland Security advised us all to cover our butts with duct tape and plastic sheeting. As a public service and in true Consumer Reports fashion, we’ve been researching some cost-saving measures for saving your life, and we discovered that the Scotch tape collecting lint in your kitchen junk drawer is also a great defense against chemical and biological attack, at about a tenth of the cost of duct tape.

Here is a 60-year-old 3M ad, offering comfort and security through the magic of Scotch tape:

Scotch tape wargas

Here’s the text copy of the ad, straight from a war of another era but cheerfully ready to lend a helping hand in our own war de jour:

If War Gas falls from the sky…

HE’LL BE READY!

Months ago, foresighted Chemical Warfare Service and Quartermaster Corps engineers designed a protective covering to guard our soldiers against blister gas. It’s a tent-like cloak big enough to completely cover its wearer, pack, rifle and all. Made of special gas-proof cellophane, it stops the searing splash of deadly vapors which burn through ordinary clothing, shoes, and skin. Even its seams are gas-proof — they’re sealed with your old friend “Scotch” Tape.

Stopping penetration of destructive chemicals, man-made or natural, is one of “Scotch” Tape’s commonest war jobs. It is used as a gas-proof, water-proof seal on scores of vital supply cartons used by our armed forces.

Naturally war needs have first call on “Scotch” Tape for the duration. We hope that if you miss its convenient help around the house, you’ll remember it’s still working for you wherever it is. When these war jobs are done, “Scotch” Tape will be available again for home use…better and handier than ever before.

Just be sure not to let the searing splash of deadly vapors land on your exposed Prada loafers or Manolo Blahnik pumps when you’re out on the town — otherwise, have a great day.

It’s like Microsoft Office for the rest of your life

iLifeCozy up to an eternity of Office: Apple, usually one of the most astute companies at branding, has a strange campaign going on right now to promote its iLife software, centered around the tagline, “It’s like Microsoft Office for the rest of your life.”

Apple’s intended meaning of “the rest of your life” is that part not spent working, and they want you to imagine that iLife is as omnipresent as Office. However, there’s another meaning that this tagline unfortunately conveys: that using iLife is akin to spending the rest of your life grinding out Office documents, which is surely to give even the hardiest Microsoftie the creeps, not to mention the Mac users the campaign is aimed at.

Apple’s iLife page offers this further expansion on the theme:

Just as Microsoft Office has the tools you need to create an outline, a budget or a presentation, iLife offers all of the tools you need for your work outside the office. When you’re ready to kick back and create something spectacular, there’s no better resource than iLife.

Though of course, you’ll still be “kicking back” in front of a computer monitor, or, you could say, putting the “i” ahead of “life.”

What’s most striking here is Apple voluntarily aligning itself with its arch-nemesis/necessary partner in an attempt to elevate itself by comparison to the Redmond Giant. One can only wonder if Apple feels the need to spend precious marketing capital promoting Office for the Mac in a preemptive strike aimed at dissuading Uncle Bill from dropping the Mac platform from future Office development.