January 22, 2016
This post originally appeared on Wordnik on November 5, 2015 We here at Wordnik love talking to professional namers about the naming process. So we were delighted to have the chance to chat with Mark Skoultchi, a partner at Catchword, a full-service naming company founded in 1998. Mark spoke with us about Catchword’s naming process, […]
August 26, 2015
Earlier this month, media leviathan VICE Media, Inc. launched Broadly—the first women’s interest site among its stable of digital channels—featuring daily editorials, digital videos, and immersive long-form documentaries. Broadly leverages VICE’s in-your-face style and tone, intelligent coverage of prickly territory, cheeky humor, and confident attitude. Branching out from a primarily dude-skewed audience, VICE now shares space with confrontationally named grrrl sites, […]
August 10, 2015
This post originally appeared on MarketingProfs on 8/5/15 One of the hardest financial decisions you’ll face when naming or renaming a company or product is whether you should splurge for the exact .com domain name—and, if not, how you should adapt the URL so that it fits with your brand and allows consumers to easily […]
May 19, 2015
This blog was originally published on Duets Blog on May 18th, 2015. When the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants 2015” guide arrived today, I started paging through eagerly. But not to see if my favorite spot made the list, or even to see if I’d eaten at any of the top 100, […]
April 27, 2015
Did you know that 98% of online purchases start with a keyword search of some kind? This staggering statistic demonstrates the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) as a tool for driving any business towards success. Because so many of your new customers will search for you online to find your website, it’s essential to […]
June 15, 2010
There have been a number of Dilbert strips that deal with naming; seems like Scott Adams does about one a year. And you know what? It’s still funny, and it’s still true! This is the crux of naming: finding names that are both appropriate and available. Lots and lots of names are appropriate but completely […]
February 12, 2010
Some say it with flowers. Others, with chocolates. And then there are those who prefer more stimulating tokens of their affection. So in the holiday vibe, this Valentine’s Day the brand naming specialists at Catchword decided to take a look at some of the sex toy stores around the country, and the way their brand […]
August 25, 2008
Many naming specialists cringe when they hear the words “consumer research.” This negative reaction isn’t because the idea of research is inherently bad. Instead, it’s because naming firms have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to the execution of naming research. And, because many researchers don’t understand the nuances of […]
August 18, 2008
Linguistic and cultural appropriateness are important factors when launching a global brand. We all know about the Chevy Nova. Naming a car with a word which means “doesn’t go” in Spanish is probably not the best idea (although we’ll dispel this naming myth later.) But the point is valid: If you are launching a global […]
August 11, 2008
Everyone loves an epiphany. Unfortunately, expecting an epiphany from a naming process is usually a bad idea. It’s common to want to fall in love with a single name candidate that communicates all of your desired messages, that is legally available, and that has an available dot-com. But expecting this to happen on your first […]