We were delighted to catch Catchword cofounder Laurel Sutton on PIX11 News last night in a story on drug brand naming. You can see her entire interview online.
The New York station reached out to Catchword for insights on how drugs get their names, particularly the product names for the Covid vaccines Comirnaty and SpikeVax.
Laurel reported in to the broadcast and was also quoted in the online story.
“When people think of naming they think of Madmen,” Laurel Sutton told PIX11. She’s the Co-Founder of a product naming company called Catchword. “They think a bunch of people go to a bar and have some beers and write some names down on cocktail napkins and say ‘brilliant, this is the name.’ And that’s not how naming is done.” …
“It’s a very aggressive name,” Sutton said of Spikevax. “Perhaps that’s what we need for a COVID vaccine. Something that sounds like it’s really gonna knock it out.”
As for Comirnaty: “Not great for a brand name,” in Sutton’s opinion. ”They wanted it to say… Community. Immunity. mRNA. Immunization. And you just sort of wind up with an alphabet soup of words that are all mashed together.” …
But these brand names aren’t aimed at consumers. These vaccines aren’t sold over the counter.
Medical professionals deal with them. So, does a potentially awkward brand name like Comirnaty really matter much?
“It’s perfectly fine and perfectly serviceable,” according to branding authority Laurel Sutton. “And people are going to call it the Pfizer vaccine anyway.”
Well done, Laurel!
