Americans are currently adding 30 million PET water bottles to our nation's landfills – everyday! To help get the message out, Eat My Words created this new slogan for our client SIGG, makers of the coolest water bottles on the planet. (See next post...)
HeliumReport was a website devoted to helping millionaires take the guesswork out of high-end purchases (fractional jet,
anyone?). They came to us for a new name that was more reflective of their business and
affluent audience. The final contenders were The Gravy
(alluding to the good life and rich information) and Halogen Guides (illuminating information and shedding light on luxury
purchases). The client chose Halogen Guides,
a smooth and
natural transition from HeliumReport. Halogen maintains the continuity
of an element from the periodic table, starts with the same letter, yet
is
much more sophisticated and deeper in meaning and wordplay. The tagline
we developed, "Your life. Well spent." is
emotional, evocative and
empowering.
The frozen yogurt chain we named "Spoon Me" is enjoying phenomenal success... check out how wildly popular it is...
The secret to powerful, unforgettable and sticky brand names
is simple,
"A name should make you smile,
instead of scratch your head." We evaluate every name we create based on this no-brainer philosophy - and now you can too with the new Eat My Words SMILE and SCRATCH TestTM. Run
your own product and company names through the test and see how they hold up.
It's not as easy as it sounds. Most names fail because they are
spelling-challenged, hard to pronounce, and meaningless to customers
who don't know Latin (which is just about everyone except for
Alexandra's
mother). So cancel your focus groups and use this criteria any time you're trying
to objectively evaluate a name. You'll instantly be able to see if you have a winning name or if you should scratch it off
your
list.
SMILE – the qualities of a powerful name
Simple – easy to spell, say, and understand
Meaningful – your customers instantly "get it"
Imagery – visually evocative - creates a picture in your mind
Legs – carries brand, rich wordplay, brand-extensions
Emotional – empowers, entertains, engages, enlightens
SCRATCH - scratch if it has any of these deal-breakers
Spelling-challenged
Copycat – similar to competitor's names
Random – disconnected from the brand
Annoying – hidden meaning, forced
Tame – flat, uninspired, non-emotional, boring
Curse of Knowledge – only insiders get it
Hard-to-pronounce
All of our names pass the test: Spoon Me, Neato, Monkey Dunks, Cake Financial, DayTipper, Dizzywood, Dash, and countless others. Do yours?
We're huge fans of Metromint, so we were thrilled when they tapped Eat My Words to create a multi-purpose tagline for their new Chocolatemint
water.
But how would it taste? (Considering some people think Metromint tastes
like mouthwash, we weren't sure what to expect.) Luckily, Alexandra was
immediately hooked. Sherry decided to save hers for dessert and put her
bottle in the fridge to chill. When she was out walking Burger, her
husband
John came home and spotted the Chocolatemint in the fridge. Not knowing
it was her one and only top secret product sample, he took a swig,
loved it,
and started to chug. Sherry walked in before he guzzled the
whole bottle. It was no surprise that she loved Chocolatemint too. It's simply magical,
which is what inspired the tagline... "We've turned water into chocolate."
It's hard to believe that
something that tastes so naughty is actually good for you and has no
calories, preservatives or sweetners. It's just pure water with cocoa
essence
and
real mint. Look for it in hip stores and at our next party.
We're not usually fans of invented website names, but when Rocket Paper Scissors asked Eat My Words to name their new virtual
world, we jumped at the chance to make up a fun word. Like the website,
the
name had to inspire
a
sense of
imagination, discovery, exploration, and most of all, fun. (The client's original name was Zoodaloo,
which is cute but hard to spell and too similar to other names with Zoo
in them.) We knew we could come up with a distinctive name that made this magical story-driven world sound like a fun and
entertaining place for kids. And we did. The winning name was Dizzywood.
This is an excellent example
of an
invented name because it combines
two familiar words into a name that actually sounds like a real place.
And unlike 99% of invented names, Dizzywood is easy to say and easy to
spell,
which is
critical for customers to find you on the Web, especially when your audience is comprised of 8-12 year olds. TASTY TRIVIA: Our
runner up name, RubySneakers, got dinged because Turner Networks, who own the rights to the Wizard of Oz, is highly litigious over
the use of Ruby. Talk about a wicked witch! Dizzywood is currently in Beta testing and you are welcome to try it out at www.dizzywood.com.
For months we've been waiting to officially let this name out of the vacuum cleaner bag... Eat My Words is pleased to announce, Neato - a sexy little home cleaning robot from Neato Robotics, formerly known as Home Robots. The word "Neato" is fun and playful. The word "Robotics" is serious and sci-fi. They balance each other beautifully. And you thought Roomba was a good name. Ha! We'll let you know when it rolls into a store near you.
While we are usually annoyed by the obnoxious product placement on our
favorite TV show, Top Chef, we freaked out (in a good way) when our new
Glad
Simply Cooking Microwave Steaming Bags took center stage. These super space age bags are perfect for
steaming veggies -- just fill, zap and
serve.
No waiting for water to boil, no messy pots and pans to clean. And according to the Man from Glad in this painfully cheesy video demo, you can even use them make
"tasty omelets and
fluffy desserts."
We were
asked to create a tagline for a new investing service called Portfolia, which doesn't exactly stand out in a sea of Wall Street websites. So
we convinced them to let us rename the company. This easy-to-use site lets you check out the
actual portfolios, watchlists and real-time
trades
of top
investors and your family and friends. Plus you can see how you stack up against
others, which is fun unless you suck in the market. And you can do it all safely, securely and anonymously. For free. It's
cake. And that's what we named it - Cake. If you're an investor, check out the
alpha version of this "social investing revolution."
We just named a new frozen yogurt chain Spoon
Me.
And the first store is launching in Salt Lake City. How cool is that?!
Spoon Me is fun, evocative, memorable and has unlimited potential for
promotions and merchandise. (Spoon Me pajamas anyone?) In fact, our
client is sure they will earn
more selling Spoon Me merchandise than yogurt. In addition to pj's,
t-shirts, and bumper stickers, we suggested they revive spoon bracelets
and
sell them online with
custom engraving. What high school girl wouldn't want a "Spoon Me,
Babycakes," bracelet
from her boyfriend?
We always get asked if we only create playful names. While those certainly are our favorite kind of names and the ones we feature in the Eat My Words portfolio, we occassionaly do more straight-forward corporate names. For instance, Landor refered Marcus Associates to us to help them rename Areva, a West Coast transformer company. In 3 days. While our recommended name was Tesla, after Nikola Tesla, the wildly popular (and hot!) Serbian inventor (who incidentally was born during an electrical storm), the client chose a more conservative name, Pacific Crest, to reflect their Southern Oregon roots. Sorry, Nikola. Oh well, at least you have a hair band named after you.
If you shop at Safeway or any of their sister stores, you may have noticed their sexy new house brand, Eating Right, created by the package design geniuses at Anthem. They hired Eat My Words to come up with a phrase for the system of color-coded spots on each package that feature the dietary benefits and nutrition facts. We coined it "Spot Your Needs." We also wrote packaging copy for 150+ SKUs from frozen entrees to cereal. (Don't you ever wonder who writes all the copy on the cereal boxes you read?)
Sherry and I can finally let the cat out of the grocery bag on our first big project for Del Monte... Bloom Energy launched this week in four test markets around the country. In addition to naming Bloom, we coined the name Sonic Bloom for the "try it with vodka" version. We'll be serving them at the next party.
"Quench your body & mind," is the new tagline wecreated
for Zenergize "drinkable nutrition" fizzy drink tablets. Out of 50+ taglines to choose from,
the client picked our favorite. We love when that happens.
I can finally let the cat out of the bag on the new line of Mani Pedi hand and foot care products that we named. (In case you are wondering, yes, those are MY manicured feet in the photo - Yasawa Islands, Fiji, circa 2003.) But back to the products, launching nationally later this year, the super cheeky names include:
HARDER, FASTER
fast-drying top coat
SMELL MY FEET
anti-fungal foot spray
PEPPERMINT PEDI
exfoliating sugar scrub
FIRM ALLY
hand firming serum
DIM SUM
sunscreen for hands
BACT STABBER
anti-bacterial hand gel
NIP CHIP
nail polish protector
CAFÉ AU CLAY
coffee-scented mask
CALLUS MALICE
callus remover gel
FOOT WORSHIP
intensive foot cream
HONEY, I’M PARCHED
intensive hand cream
SOAP IN A BOTTLE
liquid hand soap
SILK THAI
cuticle softener
These names practically flew through legal, which is
remarkable considering how saturated this category is. I know I've said it before, but in case you missed it, the
trademark attorney, Angela Wilcox of Vanek, Vickers & Masini in
Chicago said, “You should be very excited about these results -- I NEVER see a success ratio like this for full legal screenings!!”
I have lots more fun new names and taglines to post, but until I come up for air, you can see it all in our updated Dog & Pony Show PDF, which unlike most dog and pony shows, actually features two real dogs that Sherry and I named. Download this extremely amusing presentation from our About Page...
We can finally let the cat out of the bag on this one... our new tagline for Oregon Hazelnuts is "Indulgence in a Nutshell." We worked on this through Schiedermayer & Associates in Portland, the same ad agency we work with on Alaska Seafood and Boyds Coffee.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry... two times in the last 72 hours, two different clients have told us that a few of the names we've submitted "sound like retirement homes." (One assignment was to name place where they raise animals that we eat, the other project was to name a $12 wine from New Zealand, a country where I've traveled for nearly 2 months.) The following sentence is verbatim from the "animal farm" focus group report; "The name 'Harmony Estates,' was ridiculed for sounding like a mental institution, rest home, or even a cemetery." Both clients had hundreds of other non-ridiculed names to choose from, so we're not quitting our day jobs.
Austin brownie baker and caterer, Joel Haro asked Eat My Words to rename his line of Texas-size brownies - talk about a dream job! Formerly called Bombs," e.g. Toffee Bomb, Chocolate Bomb, Tejas Bomb, the brownies, which are "best served warm," are incredibly delicious but the names weren't as appetizing. The new brand name, tagline and flavor names that we created are much more fun...
MUDPUPPIES™
happiness is a warm brownie™
FLAVORS:
Who Cares About Dinner, MINT™
You MOCHA Me Crazy™
Wake Up & Smell the TOFFEE™
There’s Something About CHERRY™
PEANUT BUTTER Nutcase™
Make Mine a DOUBLE CHOCOLATE™
Hunka Hunka BURNING LOVE™
(made with with ground guajillo peppers)
The gift box of mixed flavors is called MUTTS.
Austin caterer and MudPuppies man Joel Haro, also hired me to come up with a creative name for his business, which is currently called Haro Kitchens. He wanted a name that was short, hip and communicated affordable food. PINCH Catering was his first choice. My party caterer fell in love with the runner up name, SCRATCH Catering, which I happily gave to her. These are placeholder logos that I used in my party slideshow. Stay tuned for the real ones...
Man's best friend may be a dog, but my best friend is an art director named Ron Werthmann. When he brought home a rescue dog, he was nice enough to let me submit few hundred name ideas. Since little Miss Thing has a whole-lotta-shakin' going on, the name Ron chose was "Hula." I like it because when she's naughty and runs away (which is like, all the time), he can yell, "Here Hula girl, here Hula."
Torani's new breakthough product, Pure Flavor, "gives chefs, bartenders and baristas the freedom to create with sophisticated flavors." Unfortunately, package designers don't always give me the freedom to write volumes of copy. So here are the 23 words that I wrote for the back of the bottles: Create sweet and savory sauces, soups, dressings, desserts and beverages with Torani’s Pure Flavor, a concentrated infusion of fresh herbs, spices and botanicals.
Square One Organic Vodka asked me to create drink names for three of their new honey infused martinis. While they didn't go for "Honey, I'm Drunk" or "Honey, I'm Horny," the winning names are stilll really fun to order from a cute bartender or to buy for someone you fancy. Kudos to owner Allison Evanow and publicist Kimberly Charles for choosing these cheeky names:
HONEY, I'M SEXY (orange-fennel)
HONEY, I'M FRISKY (lemon-rosemary)
HONEY, I'M SPICY (ginger-lemongrass)
Cackling Hen's cookies split from the agency I was working with, but they kept my tagline, "The World is My Cookie," which was inspired by the backstory of the Cackling Hen traveling the world in search of the best ingredients.
Salmon is the new tuna, so this ad for Alaska Canned Salmon is targeted at couch potatoes who eat Starkist and Chicken of the Sea. The headline reads, "You would be healthier too if you swam thousands of miles a year." It will appear in Southern Living Magazine. It's printed on card stock and the back of the ad features delicious copy and recipes.
There are certain things women are allowed to fake. Imitation crab is one of them. The headline on my latest ad for Alaska Seafood Surimi (fake crab) reads, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." The ad is printed on card stock and features recipes on the back. Look for it in Cooking Light and Sunset.
