Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with branding

What's Cooler Than Dancing in a Train Station?

Lipstick Thespian — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:55:52 -0800

What Are Some Creative Ways To Get People Interested In A Giving Campaign? I'd like to hear from the Metaverse from any marketers, non-profit superstars, or performers about how you have created interest in a campaign, performance or idea you want to get out to the public.

I'd like to hear responses that go beyond the flyers and flashmobs level, and hopefully get inspired by your answers as well.

I'm coordinating a campaign this year and am having difficulty rousing folks to the cause.

Who doesn't own their .com?

smackfu — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:42:42 -0800

What are some examples of a large company or brand not owning or using the "obvious" domain name like company.com or brand.com? Examples from the past would also be useful.

What's in a name? Is it worth money, or should I just pick another?

twiggy — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:46:45 -0800

I have a product I'm building and I found a great name for it - but the .com is taken. Is it worth purchasing, or should I just come up with something else? In your experience - has it been worthwhile to purchase a great name, or am I better off coming up with something else? I've had a really hard time coming up with a name. I'm also stuck on this idea in my head that the name needs to be simple and make sense, especially due to my imagination of literal "word of mouth" spreading of the name in conversations.

I'm currently in email contact with the owner of a domain name I really like, and feel is appropriate to the product I'm building. My initial offer of $145 for the domain - which is what was quoted by dnscoop.com as its value - was politely rejected with "could you give me some more time to think about it? I thought it was worth more than that..."

It has been a week and a half now, and I want to follow up with him, but I'm not sure what to offer. To be clear, in his "defense" - he doesn't seem to be a domain squatter. He bought the domain to do something vaguely related to what I want to do - he just hasn't gotten around to it, so the domain has been unused for the few years he's had it.

The most I can afford to pay is a few hundred dollars - for all I know he'll reject that too, but I don't want to waste my time with the offer if people feel pretty strongly that the name doesn't matter that much.

What is the hierarchy of high-end jewelry brands in New York?

L'homme armé — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:22:39 -0800

What are the most impressive/exclusive quality diamond jewelry brands with a retail presence in Manhattan? I am looking for those that are known to the reasonably knowledgeable New Yorker but not necessarily as well-known outside. I worry that Tiffany is too over-exposed and perhaps not the best value for the money.

More specifically, I am looking to buy for someone in the upper half of her 30's who has lived in New York for about 15 years and has a classy, timeless sense of style but is brand-conscious. Thus the name on the box must be recognizable.

A few alternatives come to mind: H. Stern, Cartier, De Beers, Harry Winston, Piaget, Van Cleef but I don't have any idea how they rank on quality, value, or brand recognition. Can you provide some insights?

How can I learn about and collect images of the seed signs that are posted along large agricultural fields?

refractal — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:46:37 -0800

Agriculture Industry Filter: After a recent drive across the mid-western United States, I became very intrigued by the variety of signs along the road that seemed to be trademark or branding markers for the types of seeds being grown in the various fields. (1) Does anyone know the purpose of these? (2) Seen a collection of them online? or (3) Know how one might properly refer to them in order to go about collecting images of them?

How should I brand my bankruptcy law firm?

delosic — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:33:31 -0800

What is a good name for a law firm focusing on consumer debt relief, both bankruptcy and collection abuse? I will be establishing a consumer debt relief law practice in the next 2-8 months and am in the beginning planning stages. I would like a unique, catchy name for my practice for both domain name and other marketing purposes. I would love to stay away from the Dewey, Cheatem and Howe, LLC or The Bankrutpcy Law Firm models. One idea I have seen is toughtimeslawyer.com, which I love but is, quite clearly, taken.

My practice will concentrate on consumer bankruptcy and collection abuse. I will be located in St. Louis, MO, serving the St. Louis and southern Illinois area.

I figured the Hive-mind is more clever than I am and would love some suggestions. Thanks!

Dating photos using branding and codes

emilyd22222 — Mon, 18 May 2009 06:34:44 -0800

Is there a way to date photos by using the photo paper branding or the printed serial numbers on the back? I am working on a photo album and trying to sort the pictures by year. They are all photos that were taken between 1985 and 2005, mostly on disposable cameras, and developed at drug/photo stores. I've already looked for timestamps and clues in the pictures, but there are a few that I can't figure out. I'm wondering if it's possible to use the branding on the back of the photo paper or the printed serial number/code to narrow things down. I understand that there are pitfalls to this method (e.g., it could have been old photo paper, the pictures could have been developed long after they were taken), but I'm still hopeful that this could yield some clues, like X branding was only used between 1991 and 1994, for example. I've tried Googling for more info on the years different branding was used, and had no luck.

The photo paper is mainly Fuji and Kodak. I tried to scan/photograph the back so I could post it here, but the gray tones in the branding are so light that they won't show up through either method.

Some examples of the branding:
FUJICOLOR PAPER
THIS PAPER MANUFACTURED BY KODAK
(Logo) FUJICOLOR paper
KodakPAPERKodakPAPER
Kodak Official Sponsor of the Olympic Games
Kodak DuraLife PAPER
(Logo) FUJUFILM Fujicolor Crystal Archive Paper

Some examples of the printed codes:
730 0123 N N N-2 2
955 0124 N N N N 2
98 12 N N N 3 2 (this one is definitely not from '98)

Thanks in advance!

I say cake pops, you say...

Bella Sebastian — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:12:52 -0800

Help me name my company! I'm starting a business selling cake pops (cake balls on sticks made to look like lollipops) and need some naming assistance. My business partner and I have a great product, but the name has us stymied. We make cake pops, which are basically balls of cake on a lollipop stick, dipped in chocolate and decorated. We will be selling through a web site and through small cafes/businesses in our area, but of course the goal is to really expand and eventually sell through distributors.

The price will be somewhat high, and the target audience would be the Dean & Deluca type. The pops taste awesome and look professionally decorated, and the packaging is very sleek and clean, with some color and a touch of whimsy (after all, they are cake pops.) Naming avenues we've considered:

Something with "cake pop" in the title: Cake Pop Shop, The Cake Poppery, etc...haven't liked any of those yet

Something playing off of the shape or construction of the pop, like using "stick" in the title. It'd be great if the name immediately conjured up some nice associations, like "Sprinkles" does for cupcakes. However, all the stick names we've thought of ("Stuck Up," "Sticks and Scones") aren't really appropriate.

Something green-themed. We want to use eco-friendly packaging and play up that angle in the marketing materials, so something that reinforces the green angle isn't bad. We kind of like "Bloom" or "Bloom Bakeshop," or some other name that references flowers, trees, nature, green baking, etc.

I've seen several name-my-company threads in the past, and have always been impressed and delighted with what the community comes up with, so I can't wait to see what you folks will think of...

How to brand an Internet channel, on my own

frosty_hut — Fri, 08 May 2009 08:03:38 -0800

Your tips on personality branding plus Facebook and Twitter My question is specific to radio personality branding, but I thought I would cast the net wide and ask for any ideas you might have on personality and career branding in general, by way of Internet technology.

I'm the host of an Internet music station. The format is classical, so it attracted some classical music lovers out of the gate, but has potential for more than that because the format is pretty flexible - we're including film scores, television series themes, and new-age music in the mix. The thinking is that we can attract people who like a certain sort of relaxing music, whether classical or not.

The station also has an air signal that plays traditional classical fare. Our audience for that is falling off and not being replaced (which is true for most classical stations out there), and the thought with the Internet channel was to try to bring younger listeners into the fold with a new offering that would shake up the old format just a little.

So far so good - my channel is one of the more successful ventures the station has had. Now I'd like to start branding myself and the channel. Our promotions department has said there are no funds in the budget to do this. So I'm pretty much on my own as far as trying to keep the momentum going with what we've started, and to keep attracting new listeners.

The station I work for does have tentative plans to create Facebook pages for its online channels. I'm not sure what the hold up is. Rather than wait for that, though, I thought I could use my existing Facebook page to promote my channel. The problem is that my FB page has been personal up to now, although nothing compromising is on there. It just hasn't been exclusively music-focused. If my FB page becomes a promotional arm of my music channel, I'm thinking, it'll have to take on a different identity.

I thought I could start favoriting all kinds of music groups, both locally and nationally, if I can find them on Facebook. I was also going to take my list of listeners who've emailed me, and ask them to locate me and friend me. The station I work for also has its own Facebook page (although not for the individual Internet channels, like I said), so I'd ask them to join that as well.

Is there anything I'm not thinking of?

I have a nice shiny studio-type photo of myself on my page. What else should I be doing?

My hubby, my de facto manager (LOL), tweets stuff about my channel pretty regularly. He also tweets a show I co-host on the regular air-signal each Saturday, a few minutes before it begins.

This is too long by far, so I'll ask you to chime in now. What else can I do to shore up my little corner of the Internet music world here? I would also be open to ideas that might involve some minor outlay of cash.

How to win HS election swing vote with school news advertisement?

seandq — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:57:50 -0800

Help me come up with a funny campaign ad targeted to high schoolers to clinch the Student Body President election. I have a large chunk of support from friends, teachers, and administrators around the school, but the swing vote in the election is won or lost with an advertisement aired over the school news on CCTV.

Some ideas:

I was known for a YouTube video I recorded and have since deleted in freshman year with a lipdub to the Final Countdown. People have told me to incorporate said song into the campaign ad. It went microviral around the school, but it doesn't have as broad of an appeal I like.

Next idea that's really ringing a bell for me would be for me or others to voiceover softball questions regarding my candidacy and clip in celebrities answering these questions with a "Yes, that's right." or "Of course", etc. It'd be funny, but the availability of "celebrities saying yes to something" on Google or YouTube was little to none.

I found out from experience that appearing on the news and giving a serious address is a no-no. People judge your character and ability to do the job from your overall persona and not just one speech on the news, so this is the time to be silly. However, I can't do a Benny Hill-esque video with pratfalls and then just pop up in the end and be like "VOTE FOR ME!"; there needs to be an underlying message relating to the campaign although it could be humorous. An example of this was "Current President loves sports" which linked to a cut-in of an image of Michael Vick during his dogfighting scandal.

I wanted to ask the hive mind because you are all-mighty, all-knowing, and you have been here in one way or another before. I appreciate all MF has given me from an entertainment and a knowledge standpoint and I'd appreciate if you all would be able to help me out.

(Before anyone says anything, yes, I have one or two comments. I've been a member for ~ a week, didn't plan on asking AskMF until about 10 minutes ago, and plan on being an active member in the future.)

Re-Branding for Seattle-based Non-Profit

lois1950 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:42:58 -0800

Non-profit agency in Seattle area looking for an amazing, creative, local re-branding/marketing group with experience working with non-profits. Any recommendations based on personal experience, salacious gossip or back-fence chatter?

vancouver product and brand design studios...

Muirwylde — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:24:30 -0800

Please tell me who the leading product and brand design studios are in Vancouver, Canada. I am looking for small, mid-sized and large established agencies that specialize in trade dress, branding, and packaging for hardline products, especially food product packaging. In the trade, these are sometimes referred to as product and brand design 'shops' or product and design 'houses'. The lobby of a thriving and successful product design agency would typically have a well lit gallery of packages and products the house has designed packaging and branding for.

Who are the established players in this segment in Vancouver, Canada? I'm not looking for web design agencies, but more likely those that specialize in food and product packaging design with a greater emphasis on food packaging.

Finally if you know of any successful hot-shot up-and-coming agency who is making waves in package design and branding, please include them too. (I'm looking for success stories not wanna bees).

Branding and marketing 101

2or3whiskeysodas — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:06:58 -0800

I've been put in charge of coming up with a consistent look for my print shop's promotions and signage--branding, I guess. We have plenty of people on staff with design skills but none with marketing experience. We're looking to plan a year's worth of promotions at once and need to begin with finding our "look" for 2009-2010. What resources would you recommend? Books? Tutorials? Blogs? I'd be thrilled to find something like a comprehensive step-by-step process. Thanks, y'all!

Name our farm!

youcancallmeal — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:47:42 -0800

Seeking a name for our impending farm. Help! Things that are relevant:

1) It's small. We'll just be cultivating an acre or two.
2) We will have small animals. A corgi. Dwarf goats. Chickens.
3) It's in Vermont. It's cold here. There are mountains.
4) It needs to fit both the farm itself and work as a brand for things like pies, jams, etc.
5) The farm is Metafilter related in that the land actually belongs to a fellow Mefite. But inside jokes have to be funny to outsiders as well.

Our first idea is Snowpatch Farm, but we think we can do better. Ideas? We want to get going on a blog, so we need a name soon!

Johnny Walker Blue is not a common American whiskey

brandnew — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:41:24 -0800

Which notable products or brands do people in other countries love to buy and consume, even though they are not popular or common in their country of origin? A friend of mine travels around the world a lot. Recently he got back from a two week trip to Taiwan. He mentioned that the Taiwanese seemed to like to drink Johnny Walker Blue as if it was common a whiskey and (gross American beer X) as if it was a luxury.

It got me wondering about other brands where this happens. For instance, I consume a lot of European and Asian products, but I have no idea if they're authentic products, or whether they have been marketed to seem authentic. Another example: in college (pre-American craft breweries) we used to drink a lot of Foster's but later discovered that Foster's wasn't popular in Australia.

So, which popular products are used in other countries which are not commonly used in their country of origin?

Help Me Find A Twin Cities Headhunter

Waitwhat — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:32:16 -0800

I'm looking for a headhunter in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area who specializes in brand strategy, market research or advertising. I've done some Google searches but those have not been particularly helpful. Does anyone know of any headhunters or places I should look for headhunters specializing in these areas?

Grandiose Self Promotion?

Spurious — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 07:47:19 -0800

Grandiose Self Promotion. Is that the way to get ahead in the long term? I am a young PhD student in a large field (for example: "health care policy"). I consider myself pretty intelligent and disciplined. I do good work and people are slowly but surely taking notice. I try to let my work speak for itself (and me).

Two years ago I stumbled upon this 21-year-old guy (Lets call him Mark) at a mid level US university. Over the past two years he has become a relentless snake at self-promoting himself. Some examples:

1) He takes basic theories created by other researchers and twists it into his own work by adding a bunch of neologisms he creates. For example, "smoking causes cancer" becomes "Horizonless Biological System Shifting".

2) He blogs and twitters at least 20 times a day, making intelligent sounding but completely glib statements. For example: "Health hacking creating new paradigms for social media bioshocks". When pushed, he does not seem to have more than a basic grasp of the field (which he has been a part of for less than 2 years).

3) He gets into controversies by arguing for the exact opposite of the scientific consensus. The first time he did this I thought maybe he really felt that way or was providing a devil's advocate service to the field. But after the tenth time I realize he is just being controversial for the press.

4) To use an analogy: If he was a company, he would be spending 90% of his funds on advertising himself and 10% on actually producing a good product.

But despite this, his career has been on the fast track. While I have spent the last few years in a graduate program, he has gone from an undergrad to an analyst at a top think tank in the field.

Is Mark's strategy to road to long term success? Should I be more like Mark?

Note: I am not competing with Mark for jobs. I am not angry or jealous. I am just sincerely interested if every industry has people like Mark and if their grandiose personal branding (what I consider snake-like level of self promotion) is the path to success?

Is there a name for this branding concept?

ElDiabloConQueso — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:22:30 -0800

Is there a name for a tagline or slogan made of several independent words that form a descriptive phrase? And do you have any examples of it in use? An (admittedly poor) example would be along the lines of:

SomeCompany, Inc.
Affordable.
Widget.
Creations.

It describes concisely SomeCompany, Inc. -- "Affordable Widget Creations". But each of the words can stand alone to emphasize a "how" or "what" characteristic of the company: Rather than simply selling, they make (Creations) a specific product (Widgets) at a reasonable price (Affordable).

I know I've seen this used a number of times and I'm trying to come up with concrete examples, but my brain is failing me. I do seem to recall that what originally caught my attention was the emphasis on each word's independence with the use of the period.

Extra discussion point: Is there a downside (trite, generic, dated, etc.) to this kind of branding or marketing?

My forum has turned into a monster I want to disown!

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:02:50 -0800

How can I go about shutting down my popular online community in a way that doesn't make my users hate me? About a year ago, I founded an online community on Ning.com. The network has grown to 6500 extremely active users. As it's grown, it's also become exceedingly difficult to manage. Even with three moderators helping me, I'm constantly dealing with flame wars, angry banned members, and all the usual BS one expects online communities.

It's reached the point where I've started considering shutting the community down.

The question is ... how in the world to do this without making the users hate me? The community was set up in part to market a book I wrote -- these are my readers! I don't want to piss them off, but the group is becoming a time suck and brand liability.

Any resources or anecdotes from anyone who's shut down communities before? Obviously, people would be sad and upset -- but are there ways to minimize the freaking out?

That green thing on my sleeve is a heart, not snot.

nomisxid — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:46:14 -0800

A universal symbol for a low-speed electric vehicle? Similarly to cocoagirl's question, I have a pure electric vehicle (vespa-style scooter, not car) that I would like to have people be able to tell at-a-glance is electric. I'm thinking more along the lines of a sticker for my cargo-box, rather than a personalized plate, though. Space is limited, so whatever symbol I pick can't be bigger than ~6"x10".

bonus points if it also informs them that whatever speed I'm going, it's as fast as the vehicle is capable of, and within 5 mph of the posted speed limit of any road I travel, so get off my ass. =p

Looking for modular brand identities

BirdD0g — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:54:08 -0800

I'm looking for examples of modular brand identities. The only example I can think of is that of Tate Modern, which isn't the ideal example. In essence, I'm looking for brands that don't have a specific logo, but rather flexible visual components that make up their identity.

Personality-Based Design/Arts/Fashion Blogging - new trend?

divabat — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:02:05 -0800

Is there a specific term/genre that defines bloggers such as Gala Darling, Nubby Twiglet, Queen Gilda, Doe Deere, This is Star, and Agent Lover? Has anyone tracked this? I've noticed a few of those sort of blogs recently, sharing similar things in terms of aesthetics and content:

* Young female, using a glamorous pen name
* A mix between personal life, recommendations of products/people, and how-tos based on everyday life (such as How To Be Fabulous)
* Plenty on design, fashion, style, culture, trends
* Blogger likely to be an artist or other creative person
* Promotes the blogger itself as a brand
* "Things I Love Tuesday" (possibly started by one of those bloggers)
* Similar layouts

A few of these blogs cross-link to each other, but other than that I don't see anything that suggests they're part of a collective or tight group of friends. Rather, it seems to be a growing sub-trend of blogging, and I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this and/or done some research on these blogs.

They're like camgirls in the sense that there's quite a bit of voyeurism into their personal lives, but it's not constant. They're seen as icons and inspiration, and have enough followers to even sell products with their branding (AFAIK Gala Darling lives on Adsense income). When I was a teen, random-content-heavy personal sites, often with vector illustrations, were the Big Thing; this seems like an outgrowth of that.

Is there a name for this? Does anyone else fit this aesthetic?

Jon vs. Jonathan

Spurious — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:51:44 -0800

Personal Branding in Academia: Jon vs. Jonathan? I am at the beginning of a career in academia / research, and now that I have a journal article coming out, my adviser asked me how I wanted to be labeled: "Jon Smith" or "Jonathan Smith" (Smith is a fake last name).

The name you use is important in academia, since fellow scholars use your name to find your articles and work. Many women scholars do not change their name when they get married specifically because it would make their articles harder to find (some would be under the old name and some under the new name).

I have been called Jon my entire life but all my official documents call my Jonathan. I currently run a growing blog under the name "Jon Smith", but I see no reason I couldn't change it. Most of my colleagues think I should use "Jonathan" for everything printed or work related and use "Jon" for everyday informal stuff.

I have added a bunch of additional information below:

- I have been called "Jon" my whole life, but my credit cards, passport, licenses, and diplomas say "Jonathan".
- I am just starting my academic career in a semi-hard science.
- I run a semi-popular blog related to my research under the name "Jon Smith"
- There are 9 "Jon Smith" listed in Facebook, but only 1 "Jonathan Smith".
- There are 3,000 "Jon Smith" results in Google, only 27 "Jonathan Smith" (but a few hundred are from my blog).
- There is 1 "Jon Smith" listed in Facebook, but 0 "Jonathan Smith".

Question: If you were me, would you use "Jon" or "Jonathan" for your author name and by-line? Why?

Thanks everyone! I have been mulling over this for weeks and need advice!

Help me name my software.

mattoxic — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:32:53 -0800

My company has developed a case management tool that has been in use for a number of years, and has never had a name. I want to start marketing it, register a domain name, get a logo developed, brochures and turn it into a brand. I would like something eponymous, and to that end I came up with the name “Preside” (as in preside over a case). I’m not that enamoured with it, and the developers hate it- but can't give me a reason. Can the hive mind think of something better? Or is “Preside” OK or just too awful? I can’t continue referring to the software as “our case management application”

I hate naming!

pmaxwell — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:29:56 -0800

I am involved in branding a "company" that has a casino, theater and hotel as part of its assets. Part of the brand development is naming. The company is located in Northern New Mexico (Espanola – which, I've been informed is a leading provide of Black tar heroin!). Anyway, I'm looking for recommendations for reference books or even novels that focus on that area/culture and might spark some inspiration for names. The "company" is actually a Native American tribe or Pubelo that is known for its Black pottery.