I confess I grinned when I spotted Ewephoria among the artisanal cheeses at my local fancy schmancy grocery store. It’s a sweet Dutch Gouda made with sheep’s milk (of course, as the name cleverly conveys. But is the brand name a good strategic choice for this cheese? If you’re already sold on cheeses made from sheep’s milk, the name will certainly catch your attention and is probably likely to appeal. If you’re not already sold on sheep milk cheeses (and that would be moi), the name...

Amazon started in 1995 with the tagline “Earth’s biggest bookstore", but they quickly outgrew that and shifted to “Earth’s biggest selection." More recently, their tagline was “And you’re done," but it seems like they are no longer promoting that one either. So, I’d like to submit a new tagline for their consideration: “Burn baby burn." Why? Because they are pyromaniacs. It’s official now. It started with the Kindle, followed by the Kindle Fire, then the Kindle MatchBook...

Microsoft has thrown its hat into the smartphone virtual-assistant ring. Introducing, Cortana, the Siri-like digital assistant that debuts with Windows Phone 8.1. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Cortana is a character—a virtual assistant, in fact—from the video game mega-franchise Halo (made exclusively for Microsoft’s Xbox). “Cortana” began as the code name for the phone-assistant project because of the similarity to the Halo character, but after an extremely positive...

I love watching TV.  This has carried over to my laptop where I stream some of my favorite shows: MadMen, The Good Wife, House of Cards, Downton Abbey, Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Homeland, The Americans, and Hart of Dixie (although I hate admitting to that one).  I told you I loved watching TV! And, I’m not alone.  The tech companies know this, so the last few years have seen the launch of a plethora of streaming media players, including Roku, Chromecast, and Apple TV. ...

When product or company naming, I can’t tell you how many times a client will ask us for a brand name that’s as short as possible. One or two syllables. Six letters or less. Whatever. And while occasionally there are circumstances where brevity might be called for (unusual packaging constraints, for instance), sometimes (in fact, lots of times) longer is better. Not longer alone, mind you. But if the choice is between a memorable long product name or company name—or a forgettable short...

This week it was announced that Facebook bought the virtual reality wunderkind Oculus VR for 2 billion dollars. Oculus VR makes the Oculus Rift, an immersive, 3D gaming headset currently only available to game developers.  And though Facebook has stated that Oculus VR will continue to operate largely autonomously, Mark Zuckerberg has much more ambition for the Oculus Rift headset than just videogames.  As he wrote, “Imagine enjoying a courtside seat at a game, studying in a...

It couldn’t be more fortuitous: just as the FAA lifts restrictions on the use of electronic gadgets during flights, JetBlue launches Fly-Fi, its satellite-based Wi-Fi system. Fly-Fi is hyped as the fastest in-flight Internet service ever, with “exponentially more bandwidth than any other product in commercial aviation”—as good or better than what you can get on the ground. And it uses satellite technology, for gate-to-gate connectivity. (By contrast, the majority of U.S. airlines use...

The word “coin” as part of product names has been popping up recently in the technology and financial media. Bitcoin, a decentralized virtual currency, has led the discussion around cryptocurrency from news headlines to the Federal Reserve. And they’re not alone. Although the first out of the digital currency gate, Bitcoin has paved the way for a slew of alternative currency networks: Litecoin, Peercoin, Novacoin, FeatherCoin, PPCoin, Namecoin, and more…notice a pattern? Why...

The latest airline to offer extreme luxury seating is JetBlue, and they have christened their new sub-brand “Mint.” You know, mint as in pristine, mint as in the sharp, crisp flavor of toothpaste, mint as in what the housekeepers leave on your hotel pillow, mint as in what you need to own to afford the service… Okay, I’m mostly kidding about the last one. Mint as a name is pretty good—it’s short, sleek, and sexy. And while it doesn’t fit exactly with JetBlue’s current naming...

Apple surprised the tech world by naming its new tablet the iPad Air. This gutsy naming choice pulls from the company’s established naming lexicon while emphasizing the product’s main selling point: its thin and light design. However, there are some risks to this naming strategy. It’s a great short-term solution that will work long-term only as part of an evolving naming system. By analywsing the trade-offs involved in this kind of short-term solution, we...