C'mon over to our new website and blog... we'll be waiting for you. All of the same posts are there so you won't miss any of the fun.
C'mon over to our new website and blog... we'll be waiting for you. All of the same posts are there so you won't miss any of the fun.
Posted at 04:13 PM in * Client Testimonials, * Tips on Naming, *Best Names & Taglines, About Eat My Words, After Hours, Biz Books, Branding, Clever Names, Competitors, Funny Names, Head Scratchers (Name Shame Hall of Fame), Hot Dish, I Have a Bean, Make Mine a Million, Mark My Words, Money Making Marketing Method, Name Boy, Name Contests, Named After Obama, Namer Tests, Names in the News, Naming Firms, Naming Mistakes, New Hires, Our Newest Clients, Out of the Office, Parties, Pet Names, Press, Rebranding the Pit Bull, ROI, Signs You're in Ghana, SMILE & SCRATCH Test, Speaking Engagements, Spoon Me, Sports, Taglines/Slogans, Tasty Tidbits, Trademarks, Tweet My Words, Unfortunate Names, Videos, Web/Tech, Wordplay | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: Brand Name Suggestions, brand names, business name suggestions, business names, clever names, company name suggestions, company names, company names, cool product names, corporate names, funny names, how to name a company, how to name a company, name a business, name company, Name company, name contests, name ideas, name product, name suggestions, Naming agencies, naming firm, Naming firms, naming mistakes, naming your business, new company name, new product name, Product name suggestions, product namer, product namer, product names, Product Naming, professional namer
Posted at 11:14 AM in * Client Testimonials, * Tips on Naming, *Best Names & Taglines, About Eat My Words, After Hours, Biz Books, Branding, Clever Names, Client News, Competitors, Funny Names, Hot Dish, I Have a Bean, Make Mine a Million, Mark My Words, Money Making Marketing Method, Name Boy, Name Contests, Named After Obama, Namer Tests, Names in the News, Naming Firms, Naming Mistakes, New Hires, Our Newest Clients, Out of the Office, Parties, Pet Names, Press, Rebranding the Pit Bull, ROI, Secret Processes, Signs You're in Ghana, SMILE & SCRATCH Test, Speaking Engagements, Spoon Me, Sports, Taglines/Slogans, Tasty Tidbits, Trademarks, Tweet My Words, Unfortunate Names, Videos, Web/Tech, Wordplay | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: Brand Name Suggestions, brand names, business name suggestions, business names, clever names, company name suggestions, company names, company names, cool product names, corporate names, funny names, how to name a company, how to name a company, name a business, name company, Name company, name contests, name ideas, name product, name suggestions, Naming agencies, naming firm, Naming firms, naming mistakes, naming your business, new company name, new product name, Product name suggestions, product namer, product namer, product names, Product Naming, professional namer
Recently we were tapped to work on a highly controversial project... to rebrand America's most demonized breed of canine, the Pit Bull.
All of us here at Eat My Words are dyed-in-the-sheep wool animal lovers with many dogs, cats, goats, chickens, Chia pets, Pet Rocks, and one very angry goose sharing their lives with us. (Not in a one-bedroom apartment, thank godness.) Therefore, we are predisposed to love our furry and feathered friends.
However, we admit to buying into some of the myths and misstatements about the Pit Bull and committed ourselves to get educated about this proud beast, which was once known as "Americas family pet."
Our preliminary research has resulted in the following positive findings:
All kidding aside, we have learned a lot of positive things about Pit Bulls and have changed our views. Pit Bulls have only gotten a bad rap because of their association with dog fighting and popularity with MTV gangstas. The good news is that the gangsta thugs we have spotted lately in the hood are all sporting itty bitty Chihuahuas ala Paris Hilton.
Like the breed, the new names needs to be friendly and approachable. Our 5 favorite new names so far:
Rockwell Terrier
(ala Norman Rockwell)
American Spirit Terrier
(Americana, sounds like a top breed)
Emperor Terrier
(a Pit Bull type dog was given to a Chinese emperor)
Gettysburg Terrier
(Americana)
Relay Terrier
(they exceed in flyball which involves relays)
We'll keep you posted...
----------
*Pit Bull is not a breed but a description of several dogs with similar characteristics including the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier and Sarah Palin.
Posted at 09:43 PM in About Eat My Words, Branding, Hot Dish, Our Newest Clients, Pet Names, Rebranding the Pit Bull | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Keep an eye on our blog to find out what we named "Pete's coffee."
Posted at 03:48 PM in * Client Testimonials, About Eat My Words, Money Making Marketing Method | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted at 09:08 PM in About Eat My Words, Head Scratchers (Name Shame Hall of Fame), Hot Dish, Naming Mistakes, Press, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted at 11:09 AM in About Eat My Words, Head Scratchers (Name Shame Hall of Fame), Name Contests, Naming Mistakes | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
Imagine
never having to spend a dime on advertising or PR because your brand
name was so magnetic that people were instantly drawn to it. And your
name was
so infectious, your customers were
excited to tell other
people and generate buzz for you. We've seen this happen over and over
again with names we create. The frozen yogurt
franchise we named Spoon Me. The commercial cleaning company we named Eat My
Dust. The iPod clock
radio we named Moondance. The
laundromat we named Stuff a Sock In
It. The ice cream store
we named Frigid. The home cleaning robot we named
Neato. The charity reward program we named Angel
Points. The dips for
kids we named
Monkey Dunks. And of course our own name, Eat My Words.
How likable is your own brand name?
Do people smile when they hear it?
Do they say, "I wish I thought of that!"
Do they say, "I can't believe that name wasn't taken!"
Do they say, "My friend was just talking about that!"
Do they ask, "Where can I buy the t-shirt?"
If you answered "yes" to any of the above, you're in great shape (and chances are, you are an Eat My Words
client).
Posted at 11:15 AM in * Tips on Naming, About Eat My Words | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Our annual Fallapalooza cocktail party was a huge success, with nearly 80 guests at the Eat My Words party pad, including Eat My Words' Gina, Rena and bartender Tina. Held on a warm fall evening, the outdoor patio was the perfect place to marvel at Chef Ciado cook his delicious paella and sip homemade Sangria. Guests included clients and friends from Landor, Perspective Branding, Deutsch Design Works, OnRequestImages, USA Today, Aerielle, Smart Design, Firewood, Sandbox Suites, and Wunderman
Posted at 03:19 PM in About Eat My Words, After Hours, Competitors, Parties | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
We love Project Runway, so when Alexandra was asked to share her naming style to the fashion trade, she stitched together a stunning ready-to-wear tailored collection....
How To Create Brand Names That Stick
Posted by Guest Author on Nov 5, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Today’s guest entry is written by Alexandra Watkins, CIO of Eat My Words . After writing advertising copy for 20+ years, including five years at Ogilvy and Mather -where she flogged everything from Microsoft to Mighty Dog- Alexandra got hooked on naming when Gap hired her to create cheeky names for their first line of body care products. Since then she’s generated thousands of names for snacks, software, sunscreen, social networking sites, sportswear, shoes, sugar scrubs, serums, and seafood -and that’s just the S’s!
Click here for full post.
Posted at 08:29 AM in About Eat My Words, Press, SMILE & SCRATCH Test | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
We didn't name Tightwad Bank, but we kind of wish we did.
Especially these days, depositors might opt for a fiscally constipated bank. Granted it is one small branch at the moment, but what fun to brand it for the next stage. They are already selling shirts, hats and mugs. That's great, but we think they could make bank with branded Tightwad Visa cards.
This name hits all cylinders on our SMILE & SCRATCH Test.
SMILE - qualities of a powerful name
Simple – one easy-to-understand concept
Meaningful – your customers instantly "get it"
Imagery – visually evocative - creates a mental picture
Legs – carries the brand, lends itself to wordplay
Emotional – empowers, entertains, engages, enlightens
It also follows our EMW=ROI formula.
We believe that a name is an investment that should promise many happy returns for years to come by producing Return On Investment in the following ways:
So, we were pleased when the TheStreet.com gets the Eat My Words way and reported on the strength of Tightwad Bank name in their words as a " media magnet and marketing engine, resulting in a flurry of new accounts".
We're opening our account tomorrow.
Here is the article in its entirety:
It's a bank without a Web site (although it plans to offer online banking by the end of 2008), and its 112 accounts already exceed the town's population of 63. Passing the town's name on to the bank was the draw for Don Higdon, the entrepreneur and chairman of the bank, when he purchased the then-shuttered building last year.
Indeed, the unusual name has acted as a media magnet and marketing engine, resulting in a flurry of new accounts. However, the last thing Higdon intends to do is open Tightwad Bank branches cheek by jowl across America.
Instead, he'll consider a few additional Tightwad branches while maintaining his current focus on leveraging the power of the name to encourage tightwads across the country to open accounts at the two branches he presently chairs.
"It's a difficult name to forget," Higdon says. "You typically have two reactions: One is 'What? What is your name?' You're not going to get that customer. And the other [is] there's a smile on their face and they're just dying to open an account. I think that's the kind of excitement from a name that a lot of companies want to have."
He says any reaction to a name, good or bad, can help a business.
"When you can get a measurable reaction simply from a name, your challenge of converting them to a customer is diminished substantially; then all you have to do is talk about price or size or location, and location just isn't an issue anymore."
Higdon, a career banker, his wife, and his business partner Jeff McCalmon decided to pour all of their collective personal assets into purchasing Reading State Bank in Kansas in 2000. They purchased Tightwad Bank as a second branch in 2007, and opened it six months ago. At the same time, they changed the name of Reading State Bank in Kansas to Tightwad Bank. Since Tightwad Bank opened, the bank's deposits have grown from $11 million to $13 million at both branches Higdon chairs. The newer Tightwad assets are worth $1.7 million.
"This bank in 2000 was in a lot of ways a start-up. It was a little country bank; the town had shrunk because of technological and societal changes and demographic changes. It was only $4 million in total assets in the beginning, prior to doing the Tightwad branch conversion," Higdon says, referring to the Reading, Kansas branch when they first opened it in 2000.
"People see the name and a number of them say, "Is that a real bank, and you're FDIC insured?' We go 'yes, yes, yes' . . . so the unique name gives us opportunity that other banks don't have; the flip side of that is the credibility issue," Higdon says.
With a name like Tightwad, which has negative connotations like stinginess, Higdon says they're pushing positive interpretations of the word, letting consumers know this is a bank that's "going to deliver real goods and services in a cost-efficient manner that would be consistent with someone who's prudent and responsible with their finances."
"We're going to appeal to a fairly narrow scope of potential customers," Higdon says. "Some people just won't get it and will have no interest doing business with a bank of that name, and I would suggest to you that they're probably the more high-brow or snobby types. The others totally embrace it."
Rita McGrath is a professor at Columbia University's Business School, where she teaches MBA and executive MBA courses in strategy and innovation. She says using a different kind of name is a "strategy that's used by many firms to add an empathic or emotional appeal to their products that enhances the basic functionality of what they have to sell."
"A quirky name like this can often provide valuable differentiation for a company, particularly in a relatively commoditized (and, to be frank, boring) industry like banking," McGrath says.
She thinks it will be interesting to see whether the name becomes even more salient during these tough economic times, "when being a tightwad may well be seen as more honorable and intelligent than being a silly, credit-consuming spendthrift."
"I bet there are a lot of banks who wished more of their customers were proud to be tightwads today, for sure," McGrath says.
Tightwad isn't the only bank with a strange, name-brand appeal. There's also the Fifth Third Bank (FITB Quote - Cramer on FITB - Stock Picks), a Midwestern bank headquartered in Ohio. Higdon's heard of the bank. "It's kind of a weird name, but it sets them apart," he says. "You remember that name, unlike so many that are called first national bank or community bank and on down the list."
And there are plenty of strange town names to come by in the U.S. Many of them are geographically close to Tightwad: Wisdom and Peculiar in Missouri, and Fairplay, Colo. There are also Rough and Ready in California and Happyland, Okla.
One of Tightwad's customers is Henry Leonard, who was a career banker before deciding to take over Marthabelle's Printing and Mailing, the printing business his mother started in Kansas City, Mo. Leonard enjoys a bank with a lively name, and that sends a clear message about his "tightwadness" to his business's vendors.
"Too many [banks] are so dry anyway . . . and there is a bit of levity in sending someone a check that says 'Tightwad.' I think that part of it is fun. I tell people when they get ready to charge me, 'be easy on me 'cause I'm a poor kid,' so I hand them a check that says 'Tightwad,' and they hand it back like, 'riiight.'"
He uses the checks with vendors and for repair services to send a message that he's serious about not being overcharged. "Those are the guys who can really run you a lot of cost."
The checks are also a conversation starter. They get a reaction from his vendors and customers. "You send them a check and they're like, 'What is this doggarn thing?' and they're liable to call you up."
He even muses about incorporating the 'tightwad' theme into his business a bit more. For example, he's thought about creating a penny-pinching logo for his business. "Like a Monopoly guy running around with a bag of money. Guess I couldn't do that, though."
Tightwad Bank has great success with its own money bag logo. It sells items in the lobby after drawing anywhere from two to more than a dozen carloads of people who pull off the highway each day to snap pictures next to the large, white Tightwad sign. Available for purchase are $25 to $500 gift cards to "give to that stingy uncle," Higdon says, or a $14 ball cap, $30 polo shirt, $11 T-shirt, $9 mug or $7 cozy.
In the end, if business success isn't in the stars for Tightwad Bank, Higdon has a backup plan. Before he bought it, the building was a branch of UMB Bank, which closed in January 2007. Already equipped with the old signage, they'll call it United Missouri Beverage "and make it a drive-through liquor store," Higdon says.
While "Tightwad" on a check might not appeal to everybody, for those it does appeal to, it probably does so strongly, Columbia University's McGrath says.
"That will have second-order effects, such as making them more likely to be loyal, less willing to consider competing offers and more likely to spread word-of-mouth around about their bank."
nd more likely to spread word-of-mouth around about their bank."
Posted at 10:31 PM in About Eat My Words, Clever Names, Money Making Marketing Method, ROI, Wordplay | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)