Certainly the brand naming of high profile social media networks, and tech startups garner media attention. Some names are happened upon by the founders, others the result of staff naming contests, while some names are the suggestions of helpful spouses or mother-in-laws. Each of these scenarios minimize one of the most important and strategic decisions [...]
Author Archive > Neil
2013 Global Brand Ranking Report Available
A new report ranks top worldwide brands based on a compilation of some of the most popular and prestigious rankings. The 2013 Definitive Global Brand Ranking Report is available as a free download from IDeas BIG a brand consultancy.
Naming Mergers and Acquisitions
One of the highest profile brand naming scenarios is a corporate acquisition or merger of corporations. In a merger of equals, which brand name should be used? Recently, such a scenario took place in our own backyard. Naperville-based OfficeMax merging with Boca Raton-based Office Depot.
Do I Need To Rebrand? | Rebranding 101
We get a lot of inquiries from companies looking to rebrand. Many times, the client doesn’t even know what they want, but they know what they don’t want, and that is their current brand. We’ve taken some great points from David Brier and expanded them to give you 17 questions that every rebrand needs to [...]
Bad Corporate Branding: Mondelez, Ingredion, AbbVie
Renaming or rebranding of large, established, successful corporations is often the result of a merger, or restructuring. In 2012 and 2013, it happens that three such corporate rebrandings occurred in my own backyard, Chicago, with less that spectacular results: Mondelez, Ingredion and AbbVie.�
Sears Needs a New Name - The Importance of Brand Naming
In a recent article from Crain’s Chicago Business, Joseph B. Cahill suggests a bold move for Sears Holdings Corporation – changing their name. Why this bold suggestion? Nothing is working for Sears. They have tried to make acquisitions, switched marketing strategies several times, tested new formats, and reconfigured stores. Sears is a 814-store chain that [...]
How Naming Can Make or Break a Motion Picture
A recent article on motion picture naming called “What’s In a Name?” came from the Wall Street Journal’s Rachel Dodes. The article gives great examples on how naming affects a motion picture, which we found similar to how naming affects any brand. Below you’ll find various parts of the article that we found interesting to [...]
Internal Naming: Why Naming Contests Suck
More often than not, companies of all sizes, start-ups to billion dollar giants, will attempt to develop a new corporate or product name with an internal team. Clearly many successful names have been developed internally, or by a legendary founder. However, companies should be aware of the many factors and issues, best practice processes, and [...]
Renaming An Existing Brand: Case Study - AfterMath Claim Science
IdeasBIG, the branding sister agency of Modern Marketing Partners, recently took on the challenge of renaming an existing brand. OBJECTIVE: Rename a corporation to achieve a compelling repositioning in a conservative (health insurance) industry and create a tagline that complements the name. BRIEF: A successful, three-year-old company was feeling growing pains with a legacy name Cannon Cost Solutions, based [...]
New Product Launch Checklist
Improving the effectiveness of new product launches is of critical importance to most companies and brands as development costs can be stratospheric, coupled with extremely high failure rates. Some estimates of new product failure as high as 90%! Certainly the new product development process is complex and multi-functional—not just marketing—but typically involving many departments such [...]