March 12, 2010
Punch Ya Daddy Naming Continues to Live On
I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news, so I'll just put it out there: "Punch Ya Daddy" seasoning can keep its (ridiculous) name.
I wrote about the seasoning war simmering between "Slap Ya Mama" and "Punch Ya Daddy" last year. The makers of "Slap Ya Mama" Cajun seasoning, Walker & Sons, slapped "Punch Ya Daddy" with a trademark infringement lawsuit last year.
Now, a federal judge has ordered "Punch Ya Daddy" to change its logo and packaging, which is very similar to that of "Slap Ya Mama" and "damaging the plaintiff's business".
The judge ruled that "Slap Ya Momma" is a term that is "quite common" whereas "Punch Ya Daddy" is not, so as far as the naming goes, there is little likelihood of confusion.
The term "Punch Ya Daddy" came from when the toddler son of the maker of the stuff, Kirby Falcon, said "I'm going to punch ya, Daddy".
"Slap Ya Mama, on the other hand, is a term down in the Bayou that means you like something so much you want to "Slap Ya Mama With joy"
As for me? I'm slapping my forehead at the idiocy of it all.
Technorati Tags: Punch Ya Daddy, Slap Ya Mama, Naming Dispute, Bayou, Cajun
Posted by William Lozito at 8:46 AM| Comments (0)
| TrackBack
February 23, 2010
Despite Tough Times, Customers Still Keep Trying Out Well Known Brand Names
A new brand survey links well known brand names to most frequently tried new products in 2010.
Starbucks was the number one brand tried by consumers last year, followed by Dunkin' Donuts Coffee and Celestial Seasons Tea. Most of the other brands that people tried (Chex Mix, Ritz, Special K, Lysol and Clorox) were also well known. This was especially so when it came to cleaning products.
Starbucks came out on top? I thought conventional wisdom said you should cut out the Starbucks during a recession. Seems that the ultra premium brand is still attracting converts, as are many other well known, pricier brand names
Beverages had the most brand name recognition with coffee products being the most tried by consumers. Funny enough, 44% of consumers tried a new brand of snack within the last 30 days. Those same snackers also were opting for healthier cereals, with Kashi and Special K getting special mention across categories.
The bottom line? Long term, well known brand names attracted the most new customers.
Score one for the power of a brand name, even in tough times.
Technorati Tags: Brands, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Celestial Seasons, Names, Trial
Posted by William Lozito at 10:40 AM| Comments (0)
| TrackBack
February 10, 2010
Is Italy Selling Out with a New Burger Brand Name?
"Il gusto McDonald's parla italiano," proudly declares the publicity for the new McItaly burger. Well, maybe the McDonald's taste does speak Italian, but the name is as far as it goes in Italy.
The choice of McItaly over perhaps the more obvious McItalia is no real surprise, given the growing Italian trend for using English words - albeit with the nationals' own unique take on the pronunciation.
Italians are already well used to the McDonald's English names on the menu, although the descriptions are in Italian, and sound a lot better for it I might add. Over half of Italian McDonald's consumers are under 30 and more accustomed to using English than the older generation. More used to the concept of fast food too.
The BigMac - pronounced 'beeg mek' of course when ordered by Italians - is already an established fast food feature along with the Happy Meal ('ehpee male'), Chicken McNuggets ('cheeken' is often confused with kitchen, thus McDonald's staff in Italy are used to dishing up 'keetchen meknoogets') and the perennial favorite the 'emboorger' (hamburger to you and me!)
So how will the next offering sound? 'Mek eetahlee' is already on the menu in the chain's 392 Italian outlets, its syllables as well chewed as that oh-so-sexy 100% Italian-raised beef in its extra virgin olive oil bread roll topped with artichoke sauce.
McDonald's sold over 100,000 burgers in its first week, which must count for something.
But, surprisingly, McDonald's new 100% Made in Italy concept, with McItaly as its first product, was not the idea of the fast food chain but the Italian government. Italian Agricultural Minister Luca Zaia explains: "We asked McDonald's to create an international brand that would be understood from Paris to Shanghai. We want to globalize the Italian taste and give an identity to our agricultural industry."
This has led many Italians to question if Zaia is truly working for Italy or if McDonald's has a hand in his pocket. His support of McDonald's has been hard to swallow.
Italy is the nation that gave birth to the Slow Food Movement nearly 25 years ago, the movement for making eating relaxing, and more homemade. McDonald's, the fast food giant has always been met with slight animosity ever since it opened its doors in its flagship Rome restaurant.
The new burger is already the butt of many jokes. "Da Mc Donald's arriva McItaly, panino italiano a 100%, a cominciare dal nome," is typical - roughly translated as: "McDonalds' new McItaly burger is 100% Italian - starting with the name."
What will McDonald's do next? A McChina?
Technorati Tags: McItaly/a>, McDonald's, Italy, Zaia, Slow Food, Fast Food
Posted by William Lozito at 8:03 AM| Comments (1)
| TrackBack
February 8, 2010
Heinz Dips and Squeezes its Naming and Branding On User Friendly Packets
Ketchup packets have announced their first revamp in 42 years with the new Heinz "Dip and Squeeze."
They are engineered to allow users to either squeeze out three times more ketchup on their fries, or else dip them. One blog points out that when Heinz put out the first ketchup packet in 1968, the "hate began immediately," with people kvetching that "You need like seven of them just to get something done" and "They're a pain to open. They're hard to open and they squirt everywhere."
This is a huge day for anyone who has struggled with these things at least one of our staff admits to biting them open. But, more than that, it also is yet another innovation from Heinz that incorporates a packaging breakthrough into the naming. It was prompted by an apparent upswing in people needing to get quick access to ketchup while driving.
The target market here is fast food chains, and the roll out is relatively slow, but I am sure this will catch on. Heinz sells 11 million traditional packets a year and will keep on doing so, regardless of the new Dip and Squeezes.
I await these with great anticipation.
Technorati Tags: Heinz, Ketchup, Naming, Dip, Squeeze
Posted by William Lozito at 9:02 AM| Comments (0)
| TrackBack
November 13, 2009
Taiyaki Branding and Naming Makes Japan Happy
I often look to other countries for naming inspiration and today its Japan, where the horrible economy has brought back in vogue a traditional snack called Taiyaki.
Taiyaki means, wait for it, "baked sea bream." It's a fish shaped pancake that is filled with sweet bean jam and has been around for a hundred years. The name is pretty interesting in that I doubt many westerners would want to name a snack after a fish.
Then I recalled that one of my favorite snacks is Pepperidge Farm Goldfish which just got an award for their cue ten-spot series of commercials. This commercial series follows the adventures of "Gilbert" the Goldfish who gets separated from his pals, who decide to try and find him.
According to Wikipedia, in 1975-1976 a Japanese hit single entitled "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun" ("Swim! Taiyaki") sung by Masato Shimon was also about a fish who slips away from his pals and is finally found by a fisherman who..uh..eats him.
The name is what does it: the word "Tai", which means sea bream, also is close to "happy". Sea Bream is a part of the carp family, which the Japanese have a deep reverence for.
The treat is sold at festivals and you can pick one up for as little as a hundred yen ($1.10). That ought to make anyone happy.
Technorati Tags: Taiyaki, Japanese street food, Japanese traditional snack, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, Goldfish crackers
Posted by William Lozito at 10:06 AM| Comments (0)
| TrackBack
November 6, 2009
McDonald's Walks Into a Naming and Branding Lion's Den
The Eden Prairie, Minnesota restaurant The Lion's Tap has settled its trademark suit with McDonald's over the fast-food giant's use of their slogan "Who's Your Patty."
The Lion's Tap has been using the slogan since 2005. According to the Jordan Independent, "The phrase is on company T-shirts, newspaper ads and headlines the restaurant's Web site." The Lion's Tap probably will not financially benefit from this, as yesterday's filing says "All claims ... are dismissed with prejudice and without costs and disbursements of attorney's fees to either party."
This is an interesting issue not least because Lion's Tap only filed for the federal trademark a few days before the trial despite having a Minnesota trademark for the phrase.
The case was hailed in Slashfood as "a small fry" going after a "super-sized giant," with the tiny, out of the way restaurant being the small fry. Had The Lion's Tap held the federal trademark their position would have been much stronger.
DuetsBlog asks the million dollar question: "What did McDonald's know and when did they know it?" and suggests that McDonald's probably had no idea that The Lion's Tap was using the slogan.
But they should have because of the Minnesota trademark.
Duets notes that the restaurant has used other slogans in the recent past, including "Any Fresher and it Might Get Slapped," "Sponsoring the Napkin Industry Since 1977," "Yes, They Really Do Exist. Come See One for Yourself," and "Lions and Burgers and Fries, Oh My!" So even if some acolyte at McDonald's had been trolling the Internet for usage of the slogan they would have been foiled until quite recently when the restaurant's site was revamped.
Duets also discovered that the actual domain whosyourpatty.com is not held by either Lion's Tap or McDonald's but instead by Patty Wood, a real estate agent.
McDonald's probably was willing to concede the point here to avoid bad publicity, but legally things look a little murky. The Minnesota Litigator puts it very tactfully in their examination of the case: "Lion's Tap counsel has expressly invoked David vs. Goliath in the complaint and has otherwise adopted a somewhat light-hearted tone not normally associated with complaints initiating lawsuits."
I'm thinking that this was good publicity for The Lion's Tap and not worth the trouble for McDonald's.
Technorati Tags: McDonald's, Lion's Tap, Trademark Conflict, Who's Your Patty, Slogan Conflict, Tagline Conflict
Posted by William Lozito at 9:40 AM| Comments (0)
| TrackBack
October 30, 2009
Naming and Branding in 2010: Keep it Simple
So the magic marketing word for 2010 is "simple" according to USA Today, and this is sure to have a major effect on naming and branding. Last year was all about "cheap" but consumers are now looking for simplicity in health and beauty items and most definitely in things they eat.
Marketers now talk about how few ingredients there are in things you buy in the supermarket... this year there were ingredient decreases in 19 food product categories including pet food. And between 2005 and 2008 there was a whopping 64.7% increase in products using the word "simple" or "simply" in their brand name.
Less is more because consumers believe that if a food product contains a few simple ingredients, it must be good for them.
Häagen-Dazs offers us "Five" ice cream which contains that many ingredients (milk, cream, sugar, eggs and one natural flavor) for a public that is now searching for recipes that use 5 ingredients thanks to Michael Pollan's book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto which some home cooks find "mind boggling."
Beech-Nut tells us they offer a "No Junk Promise" in its Let's Grow toddler foods. Starbucks has streamlined the ingredients in its its food offerings while Frito-Lay's new campaign pushes the idea of three ingredients in their new chips campaign "the power of three."
Simplicity in ingredients makes people believe there is a transparency that today's shoppers seem to find attractive.
This month six new products from the UK skincare brand Simple launched in the USA - these also have a minimum of ingredients. The Chow message boards says it best: when it comes to food, "complicated does not equal better."
Technorati Tags: Simple, Haggen Dazs, Frito Lay, Michael Pollan, Simple skincare, Simply
Posted by William Lozito at 8:40 AM| Comments (0)
| TrackBack