Ok, I admit it’s kind of an awful idea, but I can’t believe they passed up the opportunity to call this the “Exprescalator!” Will keep a running list of other missed portmanteau opportunities spotted out there in the wild. Send me any you see.
[A version of this post was first published on FutureBrand's FBlog.]
FutureBrand Singapore is a regional hub, meaning we service clients not only domestically but also in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. That means a fair bit of travel for most of us, although sadly it’s all too often the kind of travel that involves less time site-seeing, meeting people and getting to know local cultures and more time on planes and in airports. (And in cities like Jakarta, Manila and Bangkok, a lot of time on the ground is spent in traffic.) But even with all the running around, there’s still plenty to see, do and photograph. Here are ten photos from around Southeast Asia—mostly shot from my phone, while on the go—all demonstrating some aspect of brand strategy. Check out the slideshow first and then read more about each photo/idea below.
As if it wasn’t brilliant enough to package and sell assembly-line mishaps, the American jelly bean makers Jelly Belly have gone the extra step of coming up with a great name for the product. “Belly Flops” is at once descriptive, funny, evocative of the brand’s personality (fun and silly), and a bit daring (because a belly flop is a painful thing). And if Belly Flops really are Jelly Belly’s mistakes, it’s a win-win for company and consumer—incremental revenues for them, and for us, a fun, novel (presumably discounted) way to enjoy a favorite candy.
Can you think of any other companies that have managed to package and sell their mistakes?
[Thanks to Lauren for reminding me about this great name, and for the pic!]
[This post was originally published on FutureBrand's FBlog.]
Once upon a time, before the likes of Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry roamed (infested?) our airwaves, a startup television channel named MTV used to play music videos. And not just from 3 AM to 8 AM, as seems to be the case today. A look at MTV’s current programming schedule shows just how much has changed since “Video Killed the Radio Star.” While the focus on teenage viewers is abundantly clear—with shows like “When I was 17,” “16 and Pregnant,” and “That 70s Show”—there are few clues for unfamiliar viewers as to exactly what that big “M” stands for. In fact, MTV officially dropped the line “Music Television” from their logo last year.
I offer this MTV parable only as counter-example to
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Dear Pizza Hut,
The money you spent on this ad (concept, production, media) might have been better spent trying to invent a time machine to go back in time and name your restaurant something besides “Pizza Hut.” (Note: that won’t work for your China operations, since time travel has been outlawed there.) And no, dropping “Pizza” from the name now, after 50+ years, will not have the same effect. Alternatively, you could’ve spent the money trying to improve your pizza, like Domino’s did. Or you could’ve used it to run ads that focus on a strength we already associate with your brand, like pizza for families (not frat houses), or the in-restaurant dining experience (brick walls, arcade-game tables, and pitchers of icy root beer).
Because all this ad does is a) remind me that your pizza was never really that great, b) show that you’re not focused on improving the pizza, and c) make me think you probably set a similarly low bar for all this other food.
Hut’s Chicken Steak? Clearly, the naming troubles run deep.
Sincerely,
Rob
I recently attended a meeting in Singapore as preparation for a new role (!) I’ll be stepping into with FutureBrand later this month. As pre-work, all attendees were invited to write a quick “five things you need to know about,” in the style of Campaign Asia-Pacific’s regular column of the same name. Limiting it to five things and 300 words made it an interesting exercise in self-censorship. Here’s what I wrote:
Naming is a process. Generating product names is a creative exercise, but there is an accepted process for finding strong, available product names, and there are people who make a decent living doing nothing but making up names.
Sleep on it. There’s a very long list of brand names that sound fine now but must have sounded crazy once: Snickers, Macintosh, Virgin, Google, Gap, etc. Names that seem strange, ridiculous, or even offensive at first can be the best candidates, so you should always take a few days to reflect on the options.
Context matters. We often evaluate name candidates in isolation, but they’ll rarely be experienced that way.
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