In the UK, Directgov, the sector of the government in charge of educating the public about the government, recently launched a site to explain Britain’s government to small children. It's called "Buster's World," and it features a cute dog named Buster who leads the site's patrons through a plethora of games, videos, and cartoons with the goal of giving children a basic understanding of how the British government works. Unfortunately, when the words "Buster's World" are entered into a search engine, the top result is not a friendly dog educating you about the government, but rather a gay porn fetish site having something to do with balloons (…?). Needless to say, Directgov is in the process of renaming their website.

Hiring a professional naming service such as NameFlash would have nipped this problem in the bud. We check trademarks, domain names and common law usage of the names we recommend, and very simply, this name would not have gotten through our screening process. Few non-professional namers conduct this type of screening and the result can be a disaster that leads to bad PR and the added cost of changing the name and all the materials associated with the name. In this case Directgov had an interesting idea, but clearly dropped the ball in screening, which is a terrible shame, as Buster the dog really is quite cute!

Can Your Brand Pass The "10 Second" Test?

Aflac, the company that uses the duck as its advertising icon, has started a new "You Don't Know Quack" campaign.

Their new campaign challenges NASCAR driver Carl Edwards to explain in 10 seconds how Aflac policies help protect people. Carl's response, obviously scripted, was "If you are sick or hurt, Aflac pays you cash – fast – to help pay for things major medical insurance won't cover – things like car payments, mortgage and more."

Genius!

When I worked in Brand Management, I always tried to reduce the brand's selling proposition to the "elevator speech." In other words, if you only had the length of time involved in an elevator ride to sell your brand, what would you say?

Aflac, with tremendously high name recognition and a unique advertising icon, has used the "elevator speech" technique in its latest commercial. While I am sure the advertising agency creative team hated the idea, it is one of the clearest expositions of a selling message you will find in advertising these days.

Brilliant! Kudos to Aflac!

Why aren't more people doing this?

Here is the press release for the Aflac campaign:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/10-seconds-to-define-aflac-84216102.html

Google is using names of sweets for its codenames for Android Operating System versions. Listed alphabetically the names thus far are: 1.5 (Cupcake), 1.6 (Donut), 2.0/2.1 (Éclair) and now, 2.X –to be named Froyo (which means Frozen Yogurt).

Am I the only one who finds this amusing? Some bloggers are actually attacking Google, saying that their codenames are sending the message that "sweets are good for you." Give me a break!

I once used the names of the Seven Dwarfs as codenames for the new products of a cold remedy product. Most of them were logical, such as Sleepy for the non-drowsy variant and Doc was the multi-symptom product. But the President of the company got mad when I named his pet project Dopey (it was a really stupid idea after all).

A few weeks later an internal memorandum was issued on the development of codenames and the requirement for top management approval. So much for creativity in codenames!
 

HEY EVERYBODY!  Our Pizza Tastes Like Cardboard! 

Trash Talking Your Own Product

Um…well…yes it does actually, and your sauce tastes like ketchup.  That’s why I haven’t eaten your pizza since my daughter's 10th birthday when it snowed 3 feet and you were the only place open.

The new Domino's Pizza ad campaign explains that they listened to consumer feedback and completely redesigned their pizza based on that information. The video clip shows some focus group feedback that is pretty painful. The obvious question is…what took you so long? The pizza had been lousy for years and I am sure focus groups (if you did them) have been telling you that for years!

Nevertheless, the ad begs the question…is it smart to throw rocks at yourself? Competitors have been throwing rocks at Domino's for years…why reinforce that negative image?

The big risk is that your current consumer base obviously likes your pizza, so why radically change it? If you check out some consumer feedback about the new pizza, you will see that many fans of Domino's are not happy by the spicier sauce and garlicky crust.

Will the ads create a ton of interest in trying the "new" pizza? Obviously that is the hope of Domino's. And I am sure some marketing geek has produced a model that shows the benefits outweigh the potential downside.

In this case, I think it is a pretty good move. You cannot stay stagnant in this environment, and Domino's has to continue to grow. You must improve your base product because you can only introduce things like "Breadbowl Pasta" once in a while. I think the general response from non-users of Domino's will be "the pizza can't be any worse that it was." But will it get them to try it?

Is it smart to throw rocks at yourself?

Stephen Colbert's take on this topic! http://bit.ly/7pIn8A

This falls into the category of "you can't think of everything when naming…can you?"

Something that will crack me up and usually leave others staring at me is what store signage can spell when the bulbs in some of the letters in the names have burnt out.  My personal favorite is from a Lone Star Steakhouse and Saloon where somehow the only letters that remained from “Steakhouse and Saloon” were “HO SALOON.” No comments please from people who work at Lone Star as I am not implicating anyone; just thought it was funny!

I’m not saying that you need to evaluate all possible scenarios for burnt out letters in your storefront name—but let’s just say that you might want to keep a large supply of extra light bulbs on hand and check your exterior signage frequently!

A few weeks ago I posted a Twitter Poll (Follow me @NameFlash) to gather opinions on Anti Monkey Butt Powder…Good Name or Bad Name? The results indicated that about 70% of people thought Anti Monkey Butt Powder was a bad name.

However, the real learning came from the comments I received about the post. The people who thought it was a bad name were making fun of the name and talking about how they would never buy such a product. The people who thought it was a good name were people who suffered from what might be described as a “chafed butt” due to extended horseback riding, motorcycle riding, or truck driving. Some of the people who responders were actual consumers of the product and were very defensive about the name—they thought it was perfect!

So what is the lesson on branding? I think the owners of Anti Monkey Butt Powder did a terrific job of connecting with their target market—the problem of having a “chafed butt” is not one that everyone has, but if you do have it, you understand what Anti Monkey Butt Powder is designed to do. If you don’t have this problem, then it really doesn’t matter what you think about the name, because you will never buy this product.

I chose Anti Monkey Butt Powder for the Good Name Bad Name poll because I thought it was a fascinating name, and when the passionate responses came in from people who identified with the product, I came to love the name even more!

So the owners of this store probably think they have a terrific name for their business: “Kids Exchange.” Well I beg to differ. First of all, what is a kids exchange, anyway? What do you do here? Swap your kids out when you get tired of them or turn them in for cash like those gold-buying places that seem to be cropping up everywhere? A naming professional could have helped prevent this confusion.

However, this picture goes one step further—why did they not put a space between the words “Kids” and “Exchange”? Proper capitalization would have been helpful as well. Not sure why this is a problem? Look at it a bit more closely…there it is. These 12 letters could just as easily spell…Kid Sex Change. I don’t think that’s what the store is about, but who am I to judge? Either way, it’s obvious that not only the name, but also the logo and signage could have benefited from professional help.

The photo below pretty much says it all.

Assitalia is one of the biggest insurance companies in Italy. I am sure the company developed its name without thinking about international considerations. In Italy, the name is probably fine. But if they ever wanted to expand to an English speaking country…well, let’s just say there might be a problem.

Most companies for which I develop names for insist that I do some sort of name verification to ensure that the names I develop have no problematic connotations in the major foreign languages. Clearly, Assitalia never thought of that!

During this time of year you see a lot of use of Xmas as a substitute for Christmas. Now I will stay out of the religious debate that claims Xmas is the work of the devil because it essentially “X”s out Christ. While there are some references that indicate X was a substitute for Christ as far back as the 15th century, there does not appear to be any evil intent. Words such as Xian for Christian and Xmas for Christmas were commonly used as abbreviations to cut down the printing cost. Most derivations of Xmas come from “X representing the Greek letter Chi” the first letter in Χριστός (Christos) “Christ.”

Nevertheless, why do we use Xmas?

Are we lazy? Is it really too much trouble to spell out Christmas? When you talk you say “Christmas” not “Xmas.”

Has Xmas crept into common usage to the point where it will eventually substitute for Christmas everywhere except the Oxford English Dictionary? Will Christmas be like “Ye” or “Olde” and used only when referring to something ancient?

Do we need something shorter for our Twitter updates?

Most style guides will say that Xmas is unacceptable for all except the most informal uses.

I guess that means you can still Twitter Xmas!

Every Sunday I go through the circulars in the paper looking for new products.  I usually spend a lot of time with the ads from the national drug store chains (Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid).  Recently, I observed that each chain seems to have a radically different philosophy on store brand naming.  And while this observation isn’t earth shattering, it exposes the marketing strategies (or lack thereof) of each chain.

For example, check out the allergy section.  The big brand names like Benadryl®, Claritin® and Zyrtec® all have store brand/private label competition.  Walgreens naming protocol for its store brand is pretty straightforward and seems to be designed to help a consumer find the Walgreens knockoff of the branded product.  You can buy Wal-dryl, Wal-itin, and Wal-zyr, and the packaging is color coded to make it easier.  This is a very consistent strategy that is designed to make life easier for the consumer and also designed to build the “Wal-“ prefix as a brand.

At CVS, you have to be a well-informed consumer or a doctor to get it right because CVS attempts to align symptoms with branding.  For example, the CVS version of Benadryl is called Allergy, while the CVS version of Claritin is called Non-Drowsy Allergy Relief (non-drowsy being a key benefit of the active ingredient in Claritin), and the Zyrtec knockoff product is called Indoor/Outdoor Allergy Relief (Zyrtec is the only brand with indoor/outdoor allergy claims).

At Rite Aid, you almost have to be a pharmacist to get the right brand.  The first branded product to go generic was Benadryl and Rite Aid called the knockoff Rite Aid Allergy Medication.  When the next generation allergy drugs went generic, Rite Aid had to improvise and so now you need to know the active ingredient to get the right brand (Rite Aid Loratidine and Rite Aid Cetirizine for Claritin and Zyrtec respectively). 

How about gastrointestinal products?  Looking at four big brands, Zantac®, Metamucil®, Pepto-Bismol®, and MiraLAX®, and their knockoff brands at the drug chains show inconsistency at all three chains:

Branded: Zantac; Metamucil; Pepto-Bismol; MiraLAX
Walgreens: Wal-Zan; Wal-Mucil; Soothe; SmoothLAX
CVS: Acid Reducer; Natural Fiber Laxative; Stomach Relief; PureLAX
Rite Aid: Acid Reducer; Natural Fiber; Pink Bismuth; Laxative

So what is going on here?  Walgreens, which appeared to be building the “Wal-“ prefix as its store brand champion, seems to have abandoned that philosophy in some parts of the store.  CVS, which had been focusing on product benefits, gets dragged down into generic category descriptors in gastrointestinals.  And Rite Aid is all over the place.

Doesn’t anyone worry about having a consistent branding strategy for the store brand?  It sure would make life easier for us confused consumers!  Hey Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid…if you need some naming help, I’m available!

- Mark Prus (mark.prus (at) nameflash (dot) info), NameFlashSM (www (dot) nameflash (dot)info)