May 1, 2008
Why Did the FDA Object to Merck's Cordaptive Brand Name?
The news that Merck's new Cordaptive drug was unexpectedly torpedoed by the FDA has raised eyebrows across the industry, not least because the FDA
rejected the name as well, leading Derek at In the Pipeline to wonder what Merck will do with "all their promotional freebies."
This seems to be the least of Merck's problems this week.
There are a number of scientific and political reasons that probably doomed Cordaptive, but the FDA has yet to give a specific reason.
I have some thoughts on why Cordaptive may have been given a not-approvable letter.
Cordaptive is a cholesterol reducing drug from Merck that combines niacin, which can cause the unfavorable side affects of flushing and hot flashes, with laropiprant, which mitigates niacin’s side affects.
But Merck also markets Zocor, which also is designed to reduce cholesterol.
Additionally, there is Vytorin, a combination of Zocor and Zetia, which has proven to be no more effective than Zocor alone at reducing heart attaches or strokes.
Perhaps the FDA felt the "cor" prefix in Cordaptive suggested that the new product was an adaptation of Zocor. Or perhaps there were other reasons.
Merck changed the Cordaptive name to Tredaptive, which was approved by EMEA or the European Medicines Agency.
It will be interesting to see what the FDA decides regarding the Tredaptive name and the drug itself.
Technorati Tags: Merck, Cordaptive, Zocor, Tredaptive, Cholesterol, Drug Names, Vytorin, Facial Flushing, FDA
Posted by William Lozito at 8:22 AM
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April 17, 2008
Pharmaceutical Product Naming – Not as Plain as the Nose on Your Face
The FDA just announced approval for Alcon’s new nasal spray, Patanase (generic name, olopatadine hydrochloride), expected to be on the market next month.
This prescription drug for allergic conditions will join the "Allergy Arms Race" alongside blockbusters like Flonase and Veramyst (generic name, fluticasone).
The best thing about this name is that it leaves no doubt as to where the drug should be applied. Like Flonase, the nasal root (nasus in Latin) is almost universally understood as nose.
The PATA prefix, however, is harder to explain.
Obviously, Alcon’s brand architecture includes several other allergy drugs that begin with the PATA prefix, but all of these are for ocular allergies, and each is affixed to a semantically distinct suffix
Pataday
Patanex
Patadur
Patalopt
Patanol
Patadiem
Pataset
Patavance
Pataxcel
And it’s anybody’s guess as to why Alcon connected with the PATA prefix to begin with. PATA has no intuitive meaning in the major European languages. If anything, it’s close to the Greek/Latin root for father (Pater) - yet it’s hard to believe that Father Nose, Father Day or Father Next is what Alcon had in mind.
Further, the root, PATA, in Sanskrit means a woven piece of cloth or even a tapestry/painting. But Painting Nose and Painting Next are semantically puzzling concepts for a drug as well.
In Zulu, the word PATA when repeated as PATA PATA is slang for sexual intercourse. This too is probably not Alcon’s intended meaning.
There is, however, a Sanskit word, PATTAN, which means port. So, potentially, Patanase means Nose Port.
Closer to home, there is a chance that PATA refers to the Anglo Norman word, Patch. As in Nose Repair. But this might be taking things too far, since in the early trials of Patanase, the incidence of epitaxis (bloody nose) was significantly high.
Technorati Tags: Alcon, Patanase, Flonase, Allergies, Veramyst, Pataday, FDA, Nose Spray
Posted by Diane Prange at 11:51 AM
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March 5, 2008
Placebos With Dummy Brand Naming Get Patients’ Approval
The Wall Street Journal Health Blog has a great piece up today that tells us that placebos might work better with a brand name. It seems that people expect more expensive, brand name drugs to work better than generics, despite some recent research on the matter that claims generics are comparable to brand name drugs.
Drug brand naming is a complex process that is an industry in and of itself.
It does seem to me that drugs that come with a higher price tag and an attractive brand name are going to be received by consumers with more alacrity than their generic counterparts. That may be why we spend so much time picking the perfect name for them. On top of that, good pharmaceutical naming can also prevent confusion on the hospital floor.
Technorati Tags: Placebos, Drugs, Brand Naming, Pharmaceutical, Generics, Hospital
Posted by William Lozito at 7:43 AM
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January 3, 2008
Technology Brand Naming Men's Health Article
You may have seen the special edition of Men's Health Tech Guide 2008.
There are a lot of cool gadgets covered in this issue:
- Sierra Designs Echo Sleeping Bag
- Yamaha 2008 FXSHO Personal Watercraft
- Saeco Primea Cappuccino Touch Plus
Men's Health invited me to write an article on technology brand naming.
Technorati Tags: Men's Health, Technology Brands, Yamaha, Saeco
Posted by William Lozito at 8:01 AM
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December 5, 2007
Dennis Quaid’s Lawsuit Shines Spotlight on Pharmaceutical Naming and Branding Practices
Dennis Quaid’s upcoming lawsuit against a drug maker will bring a great deal of public focus on the kind of unclear packaging and labeling on pharmaceuticals that led to his newborn twins being administered an overdose of a blood thinner in a hospital. Two very different dosages were packaged in similar vials with blue backgrounds, leading to the near death of his children recently and the death of three children in Indianapolis hospitals last year.
Product naming and branding has a double duty when it comes to pharmaceuticals: not only do the names and packaging have to help sell the brand, but they also have to be clear enough to prevent confusion on the hospital floor. Over ten years ago the New England Journal of Medicine printed an article expressing concern over the similarities in the brand naming of Lanoxin and Levoxine. Other forums discuss the death of an eight year old who was given methadone instead of methylphenidate while a nineteen year old man showed "potentially fatal complications" after being given clozapine instead of olanzapine, two drugs used to treat schizophrenia...and the list goes on and on.
Pharmaceutical naming has many layers where mistakes can be made, not least at the testing level where most names are reduced simply to numbers. The problems expand when one considers how many prescriptions are written by doctors with bad handwriting, causing errors in differentiating brand names like "Lamisil and Lamictal, Cerebyx and Celebrex, Zyrtec and Zantac," and leading to 52 deaths in the five years between 1993-1998.
I have written before about the growing awareness of consumers about pharmaceutical brand naming and its safety implications. Dennis Quaid’s high profile case, it seems to me, is likely to bring more pressure to bear on drug makers to think extremely carefully about their product naming, and bring home to naming consultants the importance of each drug project they take on.
Technorati Tags: Dennis Quaid, Pharmaceuticals, Drugs, Prescriptions
Posted by William Lozito at 7:57 PM
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June 1, 2007
Product Brand Naming Pushes Boundaries
Two fairly innocuous pieces of naming news caught my attention this morning.
The first was the flak that the Suck & Blow branded gelatin shooters are getting for their product name that seems clearly aimed at the underage demographic, not least because the name comes from an adolescent kissing game that's right up there with spin the bottle. The company's web site is cartoonish and colorful and their product design is clearly designed to appeal to the fake-ID set, yet the founder claims that these are not geared towards kids:
"Our concept is the first interactive beverage in the alcohol industry,” said Doug Hamer, founder of SAB. “People in college or high school, they have all the interaction they need. People in their 30s and 40s and 50s, they just want the interaction of having fun when they go out to nightclubs or home parties. So our product is really geared toward the 30-plus-year-old demographic."
Well, I am part of the 30+ demographic and my last official jell-o shot was in college when I was, ahem, underage.
The other product name is the well named WoundStat product that is designed to stop bleeding on the battlefield. Right now, soldiers use something called HemCon, made with a blood clotting agent that is "derived from shrimp shells," and an aptly named product called QuikClot helps blood clot faster.
Technorati Tags: Product Names, Suck and Blow, jell-o shots, Gelatine, WoundStat, HemCon, QuikClot
Posted by William Lozito at 10:23 AM
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April 30, 2007
resQ - The New Product Name for Bayer HealthCare Pet Tracking System
Did you know...
- There are 73 million dog owners in the U.S.
- 25% own two dogs
- There are 90 million cat owners in the U.S.
- On average, cat owners have 2 cats: 2.4 to be exact
Those of you that ever had or have a dog or cat as a pet know how devastated you'd feel if your pet were lost.
Bayer HealthCare to the rescue.
In the United States, competing companies hold separate registries and require different scanners to detect pet microchips, causing confusion and reducing the chips’ overall effectiveness.
The company has introduced the new resQ™ Pet Tracking System, whose scanners can read all brands of chips tested*, a true no-cost pet registration database and ISO (International Organization for Standardization) compliant microchips for companion animals.
Our company dogs, Chomsky and Pushkin, will be among the first to have the resQ™ microchips, the size of a grain of rice, injected under their skin.
We had fun creating the resQ™ product name, but also realize the importance of feeling secure about one's pet. Most importantly, both Chomsky, Canine Linguist, and Pushkin, Chomsky's Associate, fully endorsed the new resQ™ Pet Tracking System.
To learn more about the resQ™, visit resQ @ PetParents.com.
*Third-party test results confirmed that the resQ™ reader successfully read 200 out of 200 encrypted AVID® microchips, 50 out of 50 unencrypted AVID microchips and 100 out of 100 HomeAgain™ microchips.
Technorati Tags: Bayer HealthCare, Pet Tracking System, resQ, Pet Microchips, New Product Name, Naming
Posted by William Lozito at 12:24 PM
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April 29, 2007
What Do You Think of the Product Names of New Drugs for Dogs?
Veterinarians have been prescribing Prozac and other anti-depressants to dogs for several years.
Now Prozac manufacturer Eli Lilly and Co. has launched a new anti-anxiety medication especially for dogs. The chewable, beef-flavored Reconcile tablets are designed to help dogs cope with being left alone all day while their owners are at work.
Reconcile is a perfect product name for a product aimed at helping an animal accept its situation. It’s certainly a more evocative name than Prozac, when you come down to it, though Prozac has to be one of the more famous drug names in history (if not quite in competition with Viagra.) The active ingredient of Reconcile is in fact fluoxetine, the same as that in Prozac.
Meanwhile, as NPR reported on April 24th, Eli Lilly’s competitor Pfizer is coming out with two new medications for dogs.
- Slentrol, an obvious portmanteau of "slender" and "control," treats obesity and
- Cerenia prevents vomiting. It’s certainly true that serenity and vomiting are mutually exclusive — whether you’re the dog, or the owner who has to clean up after his or her beloved pet, or should I say best friend.
Nothing about the product names of these drugs would tell you that they’re for canine rather than human patients. But then, it’s not the dogs who are doing the buying, though I’m sure they’ll like beef-flavored Reconcile better than plain capsules of Prozac.
Fortunately, our company dogs and staff members, Chomsky (the one with a blue eye) and Pushkin do not need any of these canine drugs. Helping with the naming and branding of new products is therapy enough:) To get to know Chomsky and Pushkin better, see their video click here.
PS: Tomorrow, Monday we’ll post on a new pet product we named with the help of Chomsky and Pushkin.
Technorati Tags: Veterinarians, Pharmaceuticals, Drugs, Anti-Depressants, Pets, Prozac, Viagra, Reconcile, Eli Lilly, Fluoxetine, Pfizer, Slentrol, Cerenia
Posted by William Lozito at 10:44 AM
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April 23, 2007
Product Naming: Is BPA Free the New Buzzword for Babies?
An article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about Boca Raton-based Born Free LLC, which sells baby bottles that do not contain bisphenol A (BPA), caught my attention this morning.
Bisphenol A is found in most plastic baby bottles and has been found to cause abnormalities in lab animals. And while most brand name baby bottle manufacturers have assured customers that their bottles are safe, there has been a sudden spike in Born Free bottle sales, which are made in Israel of a form of nylon rather than plastic.
The company name of course, reminds me of the Born Free Foundation as well as the famous film, both of which are all about saving life.
According to this useful blog post about BPA by Omar Shahine, brands that contain polypropylene are getting a shot in the arm as well, including Snappies and Madela. It has also, interestingly, created a resurgence in glass baby bottles. Evenflo is a brand that is taking advantage of the shift in preferences.
About a month ago, my barber was lamenting the fact that his wife could not find any glass baby bottles for their newborn. I went home that Saturday morning, did an Internet search, and found that Evenflo glass bottles were available on Amazon.com. Needless to say, my barber's wife ordered two dozen.
In fact, glass baby bottle use has surged, with the San Francisco Chronicle citing Environment California's “Toxic Baby Bottles” report. Yesterday’s Times Argus in Vermont reports that this sudden fear of BPA might be partly a marketing ploy: over 95% of us have it in our urine, it seems. BPA is found in almost anything made of plastic, and most items children come into contact with - plates, utensils, feeding chairs and toys - are made of it.
It seems to me that now would be a great time for some new product names to appear on the horizon and for glass and polypropylene baby bottle makers to feature “BPA Free” stickers to their packaging.
I have a feeling that “BPA Free” will be the next phrase all parents are looking for when they buy most anything for their children.
Are you listening, wooden toymakers?
Technorati Tags: BPA Free, Bisphenol A, Born Free, Baby Products Branding, Polypropylene, Evenflo, Glass Baby Bottles, Toxic Baby Bottles
Posted by William Lozito at 11:33 AM
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March 29, 2007
The Genetic Basis of Cancer Drug Brand Names
The FDA has just approved GlaxoSmithKline’s new breast cancer drug, Tykerb®. The “kerb” suggests “curb” as in “hold back.” Curbing the spread of cancer is certainly a good thing.
The roots of the name go deep into biochemistry, which is not friendly territory for consumers, but very common in Pharma naming. In case you couldn’t tell, the origin of the name comes from its use to treat cancers involving the tyrosine kinase receptor ErbB2.
This drug brand name seems chosen to appeal to oncologists rather than cancer patients, who could hardly be aware of the Tykerb® brand name. Apart from the biochemists who created the drug, medical specialists are the only people likely to know what tyrosine kinase is and why receiving it should be an issue.
But to those who understand the relationship between tyrosine kinase and cell reproduction, “Tykerb®” makes it clear which cancers the drug is meant to treat.
That doesn’t give the name any more aesthetic appeal, however. GlaxoSmithKline’s oral chemotherapy drug, Xeloda®, has a much nicer ring to it, belying the fact that there’s nothing pretty about chemotherapy. Tykerb® is designed to be used in combination with Xeloda®.
Taken together, those names are quite a mouthful.
For more information about Tykerb®, check out Kristina Collins' blog post at The Cancer Blog and Ruth Schaffer's blog post at The BioTech Weblog.
Technorati Tags: Tykerb, GlaxoSmithKline, Drug Brand Names, ErbB2, New Cancer Drug, Xeloda, Kristina Collins, Ruth Schaffer, Pharmaceutical Naming
Posted by Diane Prange at 8:11 AM
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March 6, 2007
Ice Taps Popular with Bill O'Reilly
Remember Pixy Stix, the powdered candy packaged in a wrapper resembling a drinking straw, normally poured from the wrapper into the mouth?
Imagine you have a sore throat and you could use Pixy Stix to soothe it. You pour the medicine in your mouth and it dissolves silently and quickly.
That's what the experience of using Ice Taps® is like. It's the #1 cough soothing medicine in Japan, and now it's available in the U.S.
Ice Taps® is a unique, convenient, fast-melting granule taken without water to relieve, refresh and rejuvenate sore throats, quite differently than traditional throat lozenges and sprays. The powdered cough and cold medicine comes in boxes of twelve single-serve packets and can be taken straight from the package.
Even Bill O'Reilly and Dr. Laura Schlessinger use it.
Strategic Name Development created the Ice Taps® brand name. Our objective was to create a simple and suggestive name with a refreshing connotation. Ice Taps® connotes the experience of using the product while employing very natural language and only two short syllables.
It's a metaphorical name that cleverly conveys tapping into cool refreshment to soothe your throat.
“Ice Taps® is not only a new product in the cough/cold category, but it represents Solstice Medicine Company's introduction to U.S. consumers and retailers. We are very pleased with the name development expertise provided by Strategic Name Development,” said Douglas Momii, National Sales Manager, Solstice Medicine Company.
To read more, click here.
Technorati Tags: Ice Taps, Solstice Medicine, Cold Medicine, Pharmaceutical Naming
Posted by William Lozito at 11:56 AM
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February 22, 2007
Naming Cardiac Stents
In her A Hearty Life blog this past Monday, Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD asked us if we could provide some insights into the process of naming cardiac stents.
As Christopher Snowbeck of the St. Paul Pioneer Press pointed out in his February 19th article, there’s a long tradition of naming medical devices for their inventors.
The term “stent” itself comes from the name of a nineteenth-century British dentist, Charles T. Stent. His name, in turn, appears to be related to the Latin verb for “to stand,” from which we get the word “status.” If true, that makes “stent” a doubly appropriate name, since anything Latin has a scientific ring to it.
Professional naming companies work with clients to develop names that appeal to a new product’s target market. In most respects, naming a cardiac stent is like naming any other product. Because it’s a medical device, names based on Greek and Latin roots might be more appropriate than those derived from other languages.
Because surgeons have more influence than patients do on the purchase of stents, it’s worth considering any advantages a new stent has for the doctor, as well as benefits for the patient. Because stents are used to treat life-threatening conditions, a frivolous name would be inappropriate.
Within the community of surgeons and medical researchers, naming a product after its inventor is both attractive and effective. In a small community of specialists, everyone knows everyone else. A well-known inventor’s name brings brand-recognition to the new product—at least among the people who matter most when the product is first released.
Outside of that first generation of consumers, a name like “Stent” or “Palmaz” has less meaning. And as long as the name meets federal requirements regarding its claims of effectiveness, any kind of name is possible.
A few of my own favorites are names which suggest benefits without being too literal:
- Assurant
- Symphony
- Fluency Plus
But I wouldn’t refuse the offer to name the product after me.
Technorati Tags: Stent, Medical Product Naming, Palmaz, Assurant, Symphony, Fluency Plus
Posted by Diane Prange at 11:31 AM
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February 13, 2007
A Novel Injectable Therapy Brand Name Out Of The Blue
It’s very common for us to take our health for granted, until something goes wrong.
Anyone who is, or knows of, a patient who regularly needs the dialysis procedure, has a sense of how interruptive it is in one’s lifestyle, not to mention the potential for an unintended infection.
A fair number of dialysis patients do contract an infection and for a percentage of them, it’s fatal.
Zuragen™, a novel, injectable antimicrobial/antithrombotic therapy from Ash Access Technology, Inc., may potentially reduce the incidence of infection from the dialysis procedure. We found it a priviledge to be able to name a medical device such as Zuragen™ that offers hope to many, many dialysis patients.
We are thrilled with the outcome of a collaborative name development process that resulted in a mellifluous combination of the familiar Latin and Greek roots, Zur- for the azure blue color of the product, and Gen- for the pathogen eradication it performs.
“Zuragen™ is an exciting technology that addresses a significant unmet medical need and has the potential to be used across a wide range of patient populations,” said Bob Truitt, President of Ash Access Technology. "In working with Strategic Name Development, we were able to develop a name that both defines our product’s unique attributes and captures the excitement of technological innovation.”
Technorati Tags: Ash Access Technology, Zuragen, Injectable Therapy, Dialysis, Medical Device Name, Bob Truitt, antimicrobial/antithrombotic
Posted by William Lozito at 12:48 PM
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February 6, 2007
Brand Naming: "Great Men" in China Use Viagra
Pfizer lost a trademark battle over an Asian upstart with the brand name “Wei Ge,” which is the Mandarin Chinese homophone for “Viagra.”
Chinese drug maker Guanzhou Welman registered "Wei Ge," a commonly used local reference to Pfizer’s tremendously successful anti-impotence drug. Great product naming strategy - Wei Ge means “great man.”
As the expiration of Pfizer’s patent on Viagra looms, we’re sure to see the company at odds with yet more producers in China: my favorite Chinese name for a Viagra clone, of course, has to be “America Number One, Male Exclusive, Great Big Brother.”
Now that's a pharmaceutical brand name that doesn’t leave much to the imagination...
Technorati Tags: Viagra, Phizer, Trademark Conflict, Wei Ge, Chinese Drug, Guanzhou Welman, Pharmaceutical Brand Name
Posted by William Lozito at 11:05 AM
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August 31, 2006
Company Naming: A Chorus of Admiration
I was interested to read about the corporate name change undergone by MDSERVE, Inc. which was announced earlier this week.
From here on in, the company name will be Chorus with the tagline “Working Together”. I note this name change for numerous reasons, not least because the new name is far more resonant than the old, virtually meaningless one, and also because it is the result of a merger.
Mergers and acquisitions are the most frequest reasons companies change their names, responsible for 33% of the company name changes in 2006. In this case, a private company (MDSERVE) was bought by Practice Management Ventures, LLC ("PMV") and simultaneously formed a link with the National Association of Community Health Centers ("NACHC"), making it the very first software development firm to be owned by community health centers.
This means a totally new direction for MDSERVE and the name change nicely reflects that direction.
It seems to me that companies and their customers should always be “working together”, and yet so often - especially in the medical and pharmaceutical industry - there is the perception among consumers that this is not the case.
The name MDSERVE, from a brand strategy perspective, puts the focus on the service the company could provide for doctors. Chorus is a much friendlier, holistic company name that includes the patients those doctors depend upon, and incorporates the expanded scope of the company.
Healthcare in the United States is constantly getting knocked for being too greedy, too corporate, and too impersonal, as evidenced within the blogoshpere and at least one new book entitled “Money Driven Medicine”.
It seems to me that one way in which healthcare brands can change their image is to focus on “working together” with patients. I hope that company name changes like this reflect a shift in the healthcare business toward a more friendly, cooperative dynamic between doctor and patient.
Technorati Tags: MDSERVE, Chorus, Company Name Changes, Mergers, PMV, NACHC, Brand Positioning, Brand Strategy, Money Driven Medicine
Posted by William Lozito at 11:38 AM
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August 10, 2006
Tourism Slogans: What Happens In Vegas Does Not Always Stay In Vegas?
Las Vegas has spent $115 million promoting its popular slogan "What happens here, stays here" and, as I wrote in an earlier post, it's even made it into kids movies.
Now, Nevada-based Samaritan Pharmaceuticals - which makes drugs to combat AIDS - has applied to have its slogan "What happens in Vegas does not always stay in Vegas" trademarked, sparking off a legal battle in the casino capital.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board does not want the famous tagline to be associated with sexual disease, especially because since its 2002 debut it has become one of the most famous tourist slogans of all time, used by Billy Crystal at the Academy Awards (what happens at the Oscars, Stays at the Oscars) and attracted a cool 38.6 million people to the city in 2005.
Yes, it does suggest that you can come to Vegas and break all the rules and some people abuse this, but that doesn't mean you'll get AIDS for bringing your buddies to Caesar's Palace...and creating a slogan by tearing down your top city's brand name is just a bad bet.
Technorati Tags: Las Vegas Slogan, Samaritan Pharmaceuticals, LVCVA, Tourism Slogans
Posted by William Lozito at 9:35 AM
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July 14, 2006
Abercrombie & Fitch Now Available in Hospitals. Sort of.
I don't believe it.
In a July 9th post, I wrote about a trend of high schools selling naming rights.
I never realized that hospitals were considering the same. The Columbus Children's Hospital has named their emergency room the Abercrombie & Fitch Trauma Center. Yes, they got a $10 million donation, but are they prostituting themselves in the long run?
I'm still waiting for someone to sell the naming rights to public toilet seats. Just kidding. But, you never know.
Technorati Tags: Abercrombie & Fitch, Columbus Children's Hospital
Posted by William Lozito at 1:09 PM
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July 13, 2006
Tourism Slogan: Emulation or Trademark Infringement?
It was bound to happen.
A drug company is playing off the famous Las Vegas tagline, "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas."
A drug company, Samaritan Pharmaceuticals, has trademarked an AIDS medication campaign with a spin on the famous Vegas tagline: "What happens in Vegas does not always stay in Vegas."
Although the drug company claims that their marketing efforts will benefit Las Vegas tourism, as you can imagine, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority holds another view.
I'm wondering if Las Vegas can successfully challenge this slogan. What do you think?
Technorati Tags: Las Vegas, Samaritan Pharmaceuticals
Posted by William Lozito at 9:08 AM
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June 20, 2006
Brand Naming: Sounds Like a Drug to Me
Pharmaceutical brand names, like tech names, draw heavily on Greek and Latin roots, yet they are rarely mistaken for anything but drugs. The old stand-by tranquilizer, Valium, could just as easily be a microchip from its name, but few of RxList’s top 300 most-searched-on drugs have names ending in –ium.
Pharmaceutical companies and their customers have a greater tolerance of polysyllables than do the manufacturers of most consumer goods, though the brand names of medications are almost always considerably shorter than the generic names.
Generic names for drugs usually tell you something about what’s in them. Back in high school biology, I learned that anything which ended in –one was a steroid, and anything that ended in –ol was a form of alcohol. But there are steroids like Florinef whose brand names don’t end in –one, and non-steroids like Trazodone (brand name Desyrel) whose names do end in –one.
In fact, while it’s easy to recognize drug names because of their multiple syllables and endings in –ol, -one, -in, -ex and the like, drugs with similar-sounding names may not do the same thing.
Take the popular –in ending. Penicillin is an antibiotic with an old-fashioned name (the –cillin is for “bacillus”). Vicodin, on the other hand, is an opiate, whereas Aspirin is a non-opiate anagesic. Neurontin was developed as an anticonvulsant, though it works better for neuropathic pain than for epilepsy.
OxyContin, popular on the black market and cause of some celebrated scandals, is also an opiate, but Claritin is an antihistamine and Wellbutrin is an antidepressant.
Or take the –ra ending. We all know what Viagra does, and get frequent offers for it by e-mail. Similarly-named Septra is an antibiotic (with the truly frightening generic name of sulfamethoxazole trimethoprim) and Allegra is an antihistamine. The names themselves don’t tell us much about which to take for allergies, which for infections, and which for erectile dysfunction.
All of them sound like drugs, but if you want to know what they do, don’t go by their names. Read the prescription label instead.
Technorati Tags: Pharmaceutical Brands, Drug Names, Polysyllables, Generic Names, Brand Names
Posted by Diane Prange at 9:14 AM
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June 12, 2006
Product Names That Really Stick
When it comes to baby product naming, choose names that get right to the bottom of things.
Take, for example, Boudreaux's Butt Paste. This is a baby bottom cream and the name works. After a quick stint on Oprah, favorite daytime show of stay-at-home parents, sales of the product exploded.
The product name seems to have been derived from doctors who sent patients over to Butt Paste founder George Boudreaux's Louisiana drugstore, telling them "he's got really good butt-paste".
Even after Boudreaux sold out to a major pharmaceutical company, the name stuck. Why?
When it comes to product naming for babies, get right to the point. Parents live pretty earthy lives and earthy names seem to do the trick. Try out the "ThudGuard" baby helmet, for instance, or "Piddlers": cute little disposable fish you float in the toilet to help Junior with his aiming. Or get a "Wipe Warmer" that warms up those wipes for the bottoms needing pasting.
Some athletes even use Butt Paste to cure athletic itch!
Technorati Tags: Butt Paste, George Boudreaux, Baby Product Names
Posted by William Lozito at 11:30 AM
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April 26, 2006
Links Du Jour
- Let ad revenue be your shepherd - Here's a novel way to get your product name and URL out there: on the torsos of sheep. And it works...
- That's disgusting... - Some pharmaceutical product names and slogans, like Mucinex (Mucinex in, Mucus out) are pretty gross. Now they are graphically disgusting as well thanks to in-your-face ads and yucky web games that make you remember the brand names. The branding research going on must really be gross...
- Nationwide Puts Your Name in Lights - Nationwide is offering to put your name beside theirs on Times Square as part of its Life Comes At You Fast promotional campaign. This technique is an interesting mix of personal branding with promoting a company name.
Technorati Tags: Mucinex, Pharmaceutical Names, Nationwide, Life Comes At You Fast
Posted by William Lozito at 1:24 PM
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April 11, 2006
Links Du Jour
- Keyword Purchases Not a Trademark Use - Merck v. Mediplan Health Consulting - The courts have handed down another decision regarding keyword poaching…and this time the news isn’t good. Possibly a setback in protecting brand names.
- Mariah Carey to Launch Fragrance Line with Elizabeth Arden - Yet another big star has her own fragrance, and yet another product can be had that bears her name and distinctive figure. She now joins ranks with Donald Trump.
- Optimum Zen - There's nothing like associating Zen Buddhism with a cereal brand name! Brand Builder is having a ball with this particular product name.
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