Genoptix Medical Laboratories, a specialized laboratory diagnostics company focused on delivering personalized, comprehensive assessments to community-based hematologists and oncologists, has released its first bundled set of evaluations for solid tumors under the NexCourse™ name.

According to a company spokesman, the new solid tumor offering will play a significant role in the Genoptix’s goal of expanding its customer outreach in 2010.

The company turned to Applied Storytelling to develop a comprehensive brand messaging and naming framework that included the new name.

“Like many companies, Genoptix reached a point where an organic, one-off approach to product naming would no longer suffice,” says Eric La Brecque, Principal of Applied Storytelling.

“The new offering needed to be seen not only as important in its own right but also as part of a meaningful system—and an overall business strategy.”

Supplemented by external insights from Frymire & Associates (Menlo Park, CA), Applied Storytelling worked with a cross-section of company’s C-level executives and departmental leads to arrive at a new product naming and messaging solution. To succeed, the company needed to maintain the loyalty of its existing customer base as it reached out to a broader array of oncologists.

“In the oncology diagnostics space, as in so many other categories of service business, the pressures towards commoditization are tremendous,” says Matthew Kruchko, Managing Director of Applied Storytelling. “Those pressures can increase even further as a company diversifies its offering.”

In the life or death battle between diversification and commoditization, companies must often find ways to port their brand’s core strengths into their new offerings, Kruchko adds. Carefully considered messages, together with a compelling, credible, brand story, can play a vital role in making this translation possible.

Winner of best-of-show at CES 2010, Spring Design’s Alex Reader has a lot going for it: It’s the only dual screen reader based on Google’s Android platform to fully integrate web browsing and reading. From the outset, it gives readers access to over one million Google books. And it will be heavily promoted in the US through Borders.

Of course, Alex needs a lot going for it, too. While hardly mature, the eReader marketplace now features entries from all of the major players, with several lesser-known contenders weighing in as well.

Heading the new reader’s brand, name and identity development, San José, California-based Liquid Agency engaged longtime collaborator Applied Storytelling to provide the messaging framework to support the eReader at launch.

Beyond individual messages building on the eReader’s distinctive features and benefits, Applied Storytelling also crafted a Real Reader Credo, which begins with the premise of “reading unlimited” and states a belief “in the power of the curious mind unfettered.”

Sample headlines and copy concepts, a common feature of Applied Storytelling messaging deliverables, also gave a boost to pre-launch creative.

Seeking “to revitalize and expand…so that it may live up to its potential as the region’s indispensable hub for connecting people and nature”, the Natural History Museum has embarked on a capital campaign to re-imagine key exhibits, restore landmark architectural features and inspire visitors and others to make deeper and more meaningful connections to a changing world.

Teaming with Los Angeles-based KBDA, which developed the museum’s overall brand platform in 2008, Applied Storytelling first developed the campaign’s communications framework and has since gone on to collaborate on communications geared to securing contributors as well as inspiring the public. These have included concept development and writing for an overview video that first aired in August on the museum’s YouTube channel as well as an awareness campaign displayed throughout the museum itself. Additional communications are forthcoming.

The public will begin to see the first enhancements to the museum made possible by the campaign later this year, with the effort slated for completion by 2013.

The museum’s NHMNext fundraising initiative comes at a time when charitable giving to cultural institutions has declined, a casualty of the current economic downturn. More broadly, museums are asking hard questions about how to remain compelling, vital institutions in an increasingly media-driven and digital landscape. In this landscape, a strategic approach to communications becomes even more vital to a campaign's success.

“Ultimately, the museum experience itself must engage many different types of visitor who come to the museum for many different reasons,” says Eric La Brecque, Principal of Applied Storytelling. “But the campaign story has a vital role to play in exciting the imagination—and, to donors, communicating lasting value—long before that experience takes shape.”

Guided by criteria established at the assignment’s outset, the campaign messaging framework builds on the museum’s own overall mission and strategic plan. Messaging elements include a campaign vision, mission and promise as well as supporting value propositions and a call to action. Applied Storytelling also developed the NHM Next campaign name and Join the evolution slogan.

A new educational initiative from The Henry Ford, America’s greatest history destination, aims for nothing less than “advancing a culture of innovation” by documenting and sharing the in-depth insights of American innovators past and present. The pre-launch of The Henry Ford’s OnInnovation web site, which went live earlier this month, gives a preview of content and activities to come.

OnInnovation is the most recent in an ongoing series of strategic efforts geared to building awareness, relevancy and revenues for The Henry Ford that have involved Applied Storytelling since 2002.

“We have embraced advancing innovation as our signature cause,” says Patricia Mooradian, President of The Henry Ford. “We believe we have an important role to play in this regard: Our content and collections are nothing less than a gold mine of insight waiting to be unlocked, shared and put to use—and added to, as well.”

The new web site is the centerpiece of the institution’s initiative, adds Carol Kendra, Chief Marketing Officer for The Henry Ford.

“When it launches this fall, the site will be a content hub for educators, students, business leaders and the public at large to gain firsthand insights from some of the greatest innovators living today—and many past innovators as well,” she says.

“Ultimately,” adds Kendra, “We look forward to creating a place where innovators of all kinds, well-known and unknown alike, share their insights and help to inspire each other.”

From naming the initiative and messaging to concepting and writing the multi-phase web site, Applied Storytelling has played an instrumental role in helping to bring OnInnovation to life.

“Creating compelling content and a great user experience is only half the challenge,” says Applied Storytelling Principal Eric La Brecque. “We are also working to insure that The Henry Ford is fully dialed into the existing conversations around innovation that are taking place in business, education and government every day—and vice versa.”

“In a very real sense,” he adds, “there’s no longer any such thing as a ‘dark period’ before you go live: You’re live the minute you state your intentions.”

When Lowe Destination Development, a leading developer of resort hotels and communities, acquired one of the last unclaimed stretches of property on the often-scenic but usually crowded Southern California Coast, the company set out to create a destination worthy of the world-class setting.

Long before the 582-room resort’s June 1 opening, its development and marketing team needed an evocative name to set the tone for partners, travel planners and prospective buyers of its oceanfront residences.

Working with San Diego, California-based MiresBall, which developed the Terranea identity, Applied Storytelling set out to develop a name that would suggest a timeless sense of place: at home in an exclusive Southern California setting, evocative of the resort’s Mediterranean-inspired architecture, and distinctive from the names of dozens of other landmark properties young and old that dot the California landscape.

After identifying Terranea as a select candidate, the name team conducted an additional review of its spelling and pronunciation to give Terranea’s owners the ability to adopt the new name with confidence.

Terranea is one of a growing portfolio of high-profile names Applied Storytelling has developed for hotels, communities and other landmark destinations in the United States and elsewhere.

Qualcomm’s Plaza Retail mobile internet solution is among the new offerings and initiatives the telecom leader is showcasing at the world’s largest mobile industry gathering, held in Barcelona February 16-19.

Qualcomm first announced Plaza Retail, a “new end-to-end widget framework that will allow operators to drive use of the mobile Internet” last May and released a series of teaser videos about the service on YouTube in late 2008. Qualcomm envisions Plaza Retail as an easy-to-implement, platform-neutral alternative to competitive offerings from Nokia, Yahoo and Apple via the iPhone.

Working with San Diego-based MiresBall, Applied Storytelling provided an array of messaging tools and written communications to support Plaza’s launch, beginning with the name of the service itself. Early on, the effort also included the development of clear, simple messages targeted to operators, publishers and device manufacturers. To develop these messages, Applied Storytelling worked not only with Plaza Retail stakeholders but also conducted a systematic review of competitors’ communications.

MiresBall has led Plaza’s overall brand expression, beginning with the Plaza Retail identity and extending to ads, videos and marketing collateral. The current initiative to support Plaza builds on extensive mobile communications expertise the two firms have developed over the past several years, working closely with Qualcomm and others.

This January, a limited number of US retailers began offering a new, hibiscus-infused variation on the Mexican distiller’s premium quality reposado tequila. The soft pink-tinted liquor, Gran Centenario Rosángel, premiered in Mexico last fall. Jose Cuervo turned to Applied Storytelling to name the new product.

The name takes inspiration from the allegorical angel that appears in its package design.

The new name needed to satisfy a number of criteria in addition to being distinct from the names of other hibiscus-flavored beverages and true to the Gran Centenario personality and packaging. For one, it also needed to have a “cool Mexican feel” that did not feel overly exotic or foreign to a Mexican consumer. Additionally, of course, it needed to sound pleasing when combined with “Gran Centenario”.

For Applied Storytelling, the successful effort continues the firm’s longstanding strength in consumer product naming. It also represents a growing body of work geared to the Mexican and Latin American markets.

In a company release, CEO Julia Stewart summarizes the thinking behind the new name and tagline: "The acquisition of Applebee's required that we select a name for our company that reflects our company's core competencies and recognizes our ownership of multiple brands, and DineEquity does just that," she says. "Further, DineEquity's tagline 'Great Franchisees. Great Brands.' prominently identifies two of the most important contributors to our success. With Applebee's and IHOP, we have brought together two great brands, and we are beginning to demonstrate how we are more successful together than we could ever have been apart. Our name change to DineEquity reflects the promise of our newly combined company."

For most consumers, DineEquity is likely to remain a background presence at most. Culminating in the name and tagline, the new brand development effort is geared to quickly convey the company’s core strengths to financial audiences and franchisees.

With the promise to “revolutionize your grocery shopping”, the Ikan “intelligent shopping system” has officially launched to consumers at the MetFresh Supermarket in Brooklyn, New York. Ikan takes the idea of price scanning to an ingenious new place: Similar to how a supermarket scans what you purchase, Ikan scans and records what you discard. From there, you can improve your recycling and waste management for increased cost savings. You can also forward new purchase orders directly to your Ikan-enabled supermarket, for increased time savings.

Working with the system’s Brazilian inventors together with Santa Monica-based KBDA, which designed the Ikan identity and packaging concepts, Applied Storytelling developed a name for the new system that is easy to say and use on a worldwide level. The name also makes a nod to kanban “just in time” manufacturing as well as to the “I can” sense of empowerment over time, money and waste management the smart new system inspires.

your thoughts? / 0    

At a time when Qualcomm’s BREW wireless services brand is expanding in scope, reach and capabilities at an accelerated rate, Applied Storytelling has developed a conference theme to match. “Into the New” is the watchword and hallmark of the BREW 2007 global conference—and the driver of a bold identity developed by San Diego-based MiresBall. The conference, slated for June 20-22 in San Diego, will attract some 2,500 developers, operators, manufacturers and brand marketers from around the world.

In collaboration with MiresBall, Applied Storytelling has helped to shape and define the BREW brand since its launch in 2001. Applied Storytelling has been responsible developing the BREW brand architecture and articulating the BREW brand story — not just once but through two follow-on iterations as BREW has responded to fast-paced changes in the global wireless services marketplace. Applied Storytelling has also provided naming as well as a communications and identity foundation for a number of BREW Signature Solutions as well, including BREW Gaming and its tagline— The game has changed™—as well as its sticky, high-profile “Broogs” mascot.

Marketing continually impinges on the vulgar, which imparts a whiff of wiseguyness or trendiness or badassedness to writing destined for export. It’s all too easy to lose sight of the vulgar quotient in light of the fun factor, or to do whatever we must to get an A for Attitude. Right? Two recent examples:

Geezers 2.0: Secrets of Longevity. This appears on the cover of Newsweek (December 15, 2008). A name that’s sure to make older people feel good. Why not Hos 2.0: Secrets of Femininity?

It’s the same in brandland as in so many other areas of endeavor: collectivity rules. Alliances and networks of small, highly specialized firms can deliver thinking and programs every bit as powerful, if not more so, than the so-called “full service” firms. In our experience (and that of others like us), clients appreciate the honesty and transparency of knowing who, exactly, is doing the work, and where, exactly, the competency lies. They also appreciate the lack of conflicting agendas between, say, Strategy and Design.

On one hand, a “full-service” firm generally touts the benefits of its “integrated model”. On the other, a narrowly-focused “networked alliance” firm (like us) will tout the “best in class” expertise of its allies and friends. We’ve got a stake in this argument, and we believe we’re on the winning side of it (at least, most of the time). But we also know that the “networked alliance” model is relatively new—at least, as a business model that’s been outed and is now publicly okay to embrace. Like all new models, it’s still got some kinks to work out. A few of these are: What are the right rules of the road for working together? Who owns the client relationship? Who should manage the project? And so on.

After dozens of engagements, we’ve arrived at the following etiquette, more or less. We share it as a window into the way we build teams (and collaborative relationships) and as a starting point for further conversations elsewhere. We share it as a way we like to be considered, and the way we like to consider others in turn. Please forgive the lapses into legalese.

If you don’t want to get into details, we can summarize the etiquette with five simple principles:

1. Every firm on the team represents itself as itself.

2. Every firm on the team is acknowledged as the author of its own work.

3. Every firm on the team presents its own work.

4. Every firm on the team enjoys direct communications with the client with respect to its own work.

5. All team members will respect the firm that owns the relationship while retaining responsibility for their own work.

*

Invitation to Co-Present to a New Prospective Client with a Professional Services Collaborator

When we present with a collaborator on a new business pitch, we represent our company, processes and work, as our own (in our case, “Applied Storytelling”).

In acknowledgement of our collaborator partner as the "lead collaborator" from a business development standpoint, we allow our collaborator partner to determine the time and place of the presentation, and to be the sole point of contact with the client prospect with regard to matters relating to the presentation.

Request for Proposal: If the team is asked to provide a proposal that includes the services we offer, we consider that we have helped to win the business and expect to benefit in a manner commensurate with our efforts. Namely, we do not consider our collaborator partner to be our "client". Our obligations to our collaborator partner differ significantly from our individual and joint obligations to the client.

Obligation to Collaborator: If the prospect has originally contacted our collaborator partner, then we regard the prospect as having the potential to become the collaborator's client. We absolutely respect our team member’s right to "own the relationship" with the client outside the specific scope of services that we provide. Any recommendation or request for services that we receive, and that falls outside the services we offer directly, will be referred by us to our lead collaborator partner.

We extend and abide by the same considerations we expect of our fellow team members.

Proposals: We provide our own proposal and pricing for any brand consulting and naming services we are asked to provide.

If we are presenting at the invitation of a collaborator, we gladly provide our proposal to the collaborator to be packaged with the collaborator's own proposal, providing the collaborator responds to the client within a reasonable timeframe. In such circumstances, we expect that our proposal will be presented intact as delivered to the collaborator, regardless of any cover letter or "wrap" the collaborator might wish to add. Our collaborative partner agrees not to amend or revise our proposal in any way without our express knowledge and consent.

In the case of a referral from a collaborator (versus a co-presentation), we expect to submit our own proposal directly to the prospective client. On occasion, a referring firm will ask for a finder's fee if we win the business. We may agree to such a fee beforehand. As a rule, we make referrals freely, as do our closest professional services allies.

Communications: We copy our professional services collaborator on all written communications and apprise our collaborative team member of all meetings and presentations we will be making to perform the services detailed in the scope of work. We expect that our collaborative partner will not communicate directly with the client regarding our services without our express knowledge and consent.

We actively seek to represent and recommend our collaborator partners at every opportunity as well as to coordinate our workflows and deliverables to strengthen their own work products and client relationships.

Project Management: We expect to manage the project(s) for which we are engaged to provide services. We freely inform our collaborator partners of the steps and approach we are taking, and we may solicit opinions from them, but we remain the sole authority and decision maker with respect to the process, steps, tools and people we use to perform the services for which we are engaged.

Billing: In line with the project management we provide for the work we perform, we establish direct billing with the client.

Representation of Work: We represent our work as our own. Our work is not co-branded with our collaborator partners.

*

Invitation to Co-Present with a Professional Services Firm Collaborator to an Established Client

Certain distinctions between this situation and the previous situation apply:

Billing: Provided the collaborator partner has a history of timely payment with us, we allow our billing to be run through the collaborator partner. Note, however, that we retain control of project management for services provided.

Representation of Work: We allow our lead collaborator partners to repackage our work in their own format provided our work does not materially change without our express knowledge and consent, and provided that any reformatting does not materially effect project steps and timing. We consent to our work being co-branded with our collaborator partner’s, if desired by the partner.

*

Request for Services from a Professional Services Firm that Will Be Incorporating these Services into its Own Client Deliverable

Additional distinctions between this situation and the previous situations apply:

Billing: Provided the collaborator partner has a history of timely payment with us, we may consent to run our billing through the collaborator partner.

Communications: To be successful, we must hear the client's voice directly. We agree not to contact the end client without the participation of our collaborator partner—who is, after all, our fellow team member. At the same time, our professional services collaborator agrees to include us on all phone calls of substance relating to our work product, and agrees to allow us to take the lead in presenting the deliverables we develop. Our collaborator/client further agrees to send no deliverable provided by us to the end client "over the transom" (i.e., without a presentation or walk-through to the client) without our express knowledge and consent.

Representation of Work: We allow our professional services collaborators/clients to repackage our work in their own format provided our work does not materially change, and provided that reformatting does not materially effect project steps and timing. We consent to our work being co-branded with our collaborator partner, if the partner desires. We never allow a professional services collaborator/client to represent our work as its own without our express knowledge and consent.

Project Management: We acknowledge the professional services firm as our client, and perform services under their project management lead as set forth in our working agreement with them.

It’s one thing consciously to create names and taglines that meet the client’s needs. It’s another to recognize an asset in the midst of what the client already has, or when the client stumbles upon it, or in a passing bit of conversation. It’s a sign that you’ve created the right kind of work atmosphere, and that you’re truly attuned to the assignment. I think of these as “assists”, and they make me every bit as happy as a solution by any other route.

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles has just completed a major brand development effort guided by Kim Baer, a wonderful graphic designer who has developed great skill as a strategist. Now we’re working together on a new capital campaign for the museum. In the midst of developing the campaign messages, Jane Pisano, the museum’s president, emails a thought that came to her while in yoga class. The short phrase she sends doesn’t really fit into the campaign effort. It will, however, become the museum’s new tagline.

A particularly intense name development exercise: We need to keep our collaborators in the right, light frame of mind. “Ailuvya” is the first candidate they see. They pronounce it slowly, deliberately, as if tasting a wine for the very first time.

“I don’t get it,” the creative director says. “I don’t see the connection.”

“Say it again,” we say. “Like you mean it this time.”

“Ailuvya.”

“We love you, too.”

Now we’re ready to move forward.

Can you use brand principles to win popular support for the U.S. Military in theaters of operation? The RAND Corporation thinks so — and details how in a report commissioned by the United States Joint Forces Command. An excerpt of the report’s summary runs in this month’s Harper’s. [“Target Audience”, p. 21, November 2007] In classic Harper’s style, mere appearance in the magazine frames this document as patently absurd if not morally and aesthetically repugnant. Can you really equate consumers with civilians? Are we entering an age in which brand principles gloss over responsible policy — or pass for policy? Unsettling questions to consider. And yet I can’t help thinking, “In principle, if not in practical terms, and from a purely technical standpoint, the original premise might just be valid...”

How apt that the cover story of this issue has to do with the brandufacturing of Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The article itself refers to “the task of reformulating and repackaging the Romney brand.” With every week, it seems, we see more and more of the world through a brand-centric lens.

Both stories emphasize brands as “manufactured realities” and posit their manufacture as dubious enterprises. To be sure, all stories are “manufactured realities”, but many have truth, either literal, psychological or poetic, at their core — and many of the “manufactured realities” we and others have helped to create have done a lot of good — much of it, yes, in the name of selling things.

The image of brand work is itself in need of brand work.

The new, no-frills airline based in Columbus recently inaugurated service between Oakland and its home city. A business trip to Columbus-based Nationwide gave us an opportunity to check it out. The net-net: Skybus is so no-frills that it actually ends up delivering a decent experience.

Food: By offering no free food on the flight (not even peanuts or pretzel stickettes), Skybus has at least focused on selling a decent sandwich — decent enough for the flight attendant to ask two passengers near me how they liked it. Both express satisfaction. Nice to hear the FA ask this question.

The logic is odd, but it works: By charging for every extra, you can actually add value to every extra. For example, you will pay $2 for a bottle of Aqua Fina — but then you can at least tell yourself that hey, this is a bottle of Aqua Fina I’ve purchased, and that’s a whole lot better than a cup of no-name water from who-knows-where. (Forget, as usual, that Aqua Fina is itself tapped from the public water supply.)

Other airlines that charge for various types of “snak pak” should take note: If you’re going to charge for them anyway, why not put more effort into making these offerings not only decent (most aren’t even that) but actually wonderful? Why not offer different levels of for-purchase food, from basic to deluxe?

Back-of-seat pocket space: Basically, there is none. Instead, there’s the thinnest little slot in the plastic seat back. After the obligatory safety guide, airsickness bag and in-flight shopping magazine-cum-menu (handed out and gathered back up in-flight), there’s barely room to stow an extra magazine of one’s own. At first, I hate not being able to stuff all the books, pens, laptop and snacks that normally accompany me on a medium-haul flight. But the unexpected upsides soon become apparent: First, no item left behind. Second, a cleaner plane. Passing the rows of empty wrappers, discarded newspapers and other detritus when exiting some Southwest commuter flights, I can’t help but be appalled at what pigs my fellow passengers are. Skybus has neatly solved this problem: Allow no room for garbage, and pass through the cabin with a big collection cart often.

The un-uniform: Flight attendants wear black t-shirts with the airline logo on one side and a promotional message [“Killer $10 fares”] on the other. Instead of looking shabby and slacker, combined with black slacks these actually look trimmer and smarter than many of the more conventional uniforms that other airlines’ FAs wear. I imagine these shirts to change out often — first, to keep from looking worn, and second, to carry new messages.

Idiocracy now: After he delivers the prepare-for-landing message, the FA announces that the message is available for sponsorship.

If Skybus represents the reductio ad rationem of discount air travel, it’s safe to assume more airlines will follow suit. From a brand standpoint, this raises interesting questions: Will there be any real way for airlines to differentiate aside from flight times and fares? I believe so. Look for differentiation through:

• the types of food they offer for purchase, and the celebrity chefs they enroll to create signature items and menus.

• the types of media they offer for purchase, including downloadables. This could eventually lead to exclusives and premieres with studios and labels. Airline as content creator? Why not.

• the quality of their loyalty programs. Look for these to get increasingly robust.

• enhanced pre- and post-flight environments and experiences. Look for at least some airlines to seek ways to carve out more of the “total trip” experience. Web sites will continue to play a major role, but so might actual lobbies. Why not different levels of membership club, including basic levels?

1. The Golden Compass. This promises to be a glorious movie based on Philip Pullman’s incomparable adventure tale of the same name, the first volume in a trilogy known as His Dark Materials. The booth for the flick, which is due out in December, offers just the right level of tease in the form of short clips and sumptuous costumes. Nicole Kidman looks to be perfectly cast as Mrs. Coulter, the most exquisite incarnation of evil in a long, long time. I plan to be waiting in line on opening day. As for the books, if fantasy is your thing and you haven’t yet read them, treat yourself now.

2. James Sturm’s America. One of the freshest collections of graphic stories I’ve seen in a long time. [See ‘Zion Lion” in Gleaning Meaning Watch.] Better yet, James Sturm himself is sitting unobtrusively off to one side of the Drawn & Quarterly booth to sign it. Even better, Sturm relates that he has started a Center for Cartoon Studies in the small Vermont town where he lives. [cartoonstudies.org]. If I were younger and coming at storytelling anew...

3. Last Gasp, Drawn & Quarterly and all the other smaller publishers. Perusing their offerings, you feel the vitality of the medium. Since these imprints are small, many of the publishers and authors themselves (sometimes one and the same individual) staff the booths. You can get into some great conversations.

4. Buttons. José Serrano [www.serranojose.com] and I let our daughters loose to collect as many as they can. By the time we catch up with them an hour or so later, their lanyards are bandoliers of small-but-supercatchy iconography. For anyone interested in fresh logo design and company naming, this is a must-visit destination. Excellent name: Micurio, which describes itself as “an online community for sharing all your collectibles”.

5. Warner Bros. Bags. Adverting Superman: Doomsday (due out in September), they’re oversized and bright orange-and-yellow. A+ for visual impact. At the airport that evening, it’s easy to spot all the convention goers. It’s fun to think of these bags bobbing up at airports around the country, virally hyping the event.

6. Lunch at Bondi Bay. It’s just a short walk from the convention center to the restaurants and shops of the Gaslamp District, an area I remember as mysteriously dark, quiet and warehouse-filled when I was a little boy. The most interesting of these is Bondi Bay, a spacious Australian-owned and -inspired place with a smart, abo-modern interior. My daughters are drawn to the semi-private wicker seating pods.

7. The people. Part costume party, part gathering of the tribes, part geekfest — and more families than you might imagine. The future of brands: People will increasingly become their avatars. Costume is the first step, physical mods the next. Look for the return of the family crest. To some extent, I read, this is already taking place in Japan. Peter Carey cites this type of permanently dressed-up individual, whom he calls a visualist, in his little book, Wrong About Japan.

8. Running into Don Hollis and Dylan Jones. By day they’re both graphic designers — Hollis at his own namesake studio and Jones at MiresBall. On the side they run Subtext, a design boutique located in Little Italy, directly downstairs from Hollis’s studio. Subtext is dedicated what might best be described as “alternative visual culture”. It is to San Diego what Giant Robot, on Sawtelle, is to LA. Accompanied by Hollis’s wife and daughter, asleep in her stroller, they’re stocking up on new things to take back to the store. I make a point of stopping by often to pick up a new vinyl doll for my youngest daughter, Lucie.

9. College for Creative Studies (CCS). It’s great to see this fine Detroit-based school [www.ccscad.edu] promoting itself alongside other sterling design institutions such as Art Center. It will be interesting to see how the Detroit visual design community evolves and matures as the region’s economy continues to change. Right now, we see a huge vitality in the underground broadsides, posters and invites to art shows, clubs and concerts — a vitality that’s harder to find in the mainstream and generally safe work most of the bigger (and smaller) Detroit-based agencies produce.

So easy, in fact, anyone can do it. (Except that a growing number of the names you generate will already have dibs on them.) First, forget about any symbolic or rational link to the company to be named. That doesn’t matter. What matters is sheer, raw memorability — an iconic pow. This is the most important rule in the exercise. If you can’t do this, you simply can’t have the kind of name that will gain the notice you crave in the brave new world we live in.

Okay, now create two columns. Your name will be the combined result of the lh + rh columns. (Some clever, resourceful people will invert this order in the never-ending pursuit of ownability.)

In the lefthand column, list the four Pythagorean elements — air, earth, fire and water. Or, if you prefer, the six Ichingian elements — Heaven, Earth, Thunder, Water, Mountain, Wind (or Wood), Sun (or Fire), Marsh (or Mist).

Beneath them, list the names of colors. Give preference to the basic colors of the spectrum. Obscure hues (carmine, sepia) or colors with long, complicated names (viridian, chartreuse), generally don’t work as well.

If you think you might need more options, you can add the names of basic elements (iron, copper, helium) or stones (jade, sapphire, diamond).

In the righthand column, list lots of names of animals. Give preference to commonly recognized animals —barnyard animals, the animals of the Chinese zodiac, etc. Add lots of birds and great cats.

If you think you might need more options, you can add a second set of names derived from flowers (rose, daisy, orchid) and possibly other plants and trees as long as the words are simple and the species aren’t overly obscure (pine, alder, ash).

Now, get some of those great multi-sided dice that used to be so popular for role-playing games in the pre-computer days — you can still find them at Forbidden Planet in Manhattan, among other places — and randomly generate some candidates. Keep going until you tire, get something that strikes your fancy, or hit upon something still ownable.

Lithium Bear
Rose Pine
Daisy Gray
Donkey Neon
Earth Rhino
Cheetah Green
Marsh Monkey
Ruby Tulip

Still not ownable enough?

Go to three elements (alternating columns):

Blue Cheetah Green

Add some groovy numbers. Only you need to know what they refer to. But some numbers are inherently groovier than others. My faves: 7, 13, 21, 24, 52, 69, 2000 and any numbers that repeat themselves (55, 66, 77, etc.). Don’t forget the the address of the street where your parents lived when you were born or derivatives of your birthday. Remember, good numbers should be easy to say as well as fun to look at!

21 Red Plover Violet Monkey 69

Go have fun! And be a great, visionary entrepreneur, too.

[Apologies to anyone who already owns these names. I didn’t check them. I just generated them at random.]

Doritos asks consumers to name a new flavor of chip. What’s the harm in that? It’s fun! Who better to name the chip than those who will eat it? What better way to engage them in the brand? For a flavor name, okay, this may be harmless enough. Ben & Jerry’s has certainly secured some zingers from its cadre of loyal lickers. But too often we’ve seen companies create contests for employees to name a new brand or even company. The results invariably disappoint. The vast majority of entries have the feel of a lark — See how cute? See how clever? — without regard for what the brand represents or what the name should convey. Or, for that matter, whether some competitor is already using it. Heaven forbid the company should ask for, or any contestant should provide, a rationale for the name. We’ll know it when we see it! Those candidates that seemed clever to the individuals who thought of them seem less clever in light of the spate of similar entries from their co-workers — and less clever still in light of what’s already in general circulation. In the end, the relatively paltry reward offered by the companies almost always goes unclaimed, and a more rigorous process replaces the original, feelgood effort.

At this point, though, the name team is working at a disadvantage: Management has created the expectation that native genius will triumph. Management has created the expectation that everyone’s involved in the creative process. Management has signaled its lack of understanding of, or awareness of the need for, a rigorous process. Management has reinforced that naming is inherently non-serious and artsy-fartsy. And the new candidates are likely to be viewed with inherent dislike by a newly disenfranchised team.

Back to Doritos. At the time of the news item that appeared in BusinessWeek (6/25/07). The company had received 100,000 suggestions. According to the article, the company has not stated whether it will use any of the names, or even whether it will release the flavor. Maybe it’s all so darned fun nobody cares. But it’s also the ultimate diss of the customer one claims so fervently to respect.

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brick dick

LANDMARKLAND—Cabinet Magazine hosts a contest for “the world’s most phallic building”. The winner is the water tower of Ypsilanti, Michigan—in local parlance, the brick dick.

Fright Night

POPCULTURELAND—The name of the hit 1985 vampire horror-comedy has become eponymous with Halloween. My daily infosheet for The Rundown arrives with a hot list of the top LA Halloween parties. Heading the list: Trashy Lingerie’s Annual Halloween Costume Ball, featuring “the best barely there costumes” as well as a performance by The Stilettos. Fun!

Tony Spumoni

RETAILAND—Caffe Trieste is the quintessential historic North Beach café. Its sister venue near the corner of Dwight and San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley maintains a similar vibe—in a more generous-feeling space. At lunch, Lucie asks for gelato—ice cream is a Saturday constant. So we take a look at the flavors on display, and discover Tony Spumoni among them.

Lelli Kelly®

BRANDLAND—Lucie needs shoes: boots for the coming winter, sneakers for the playground, and thongs to wear around the house like me. At Red Wagon in Claremont we come upon Lelli Kelly—an Italian brand, it turns out, despite the name—and “market leader in the children’s footwear sector”. Unfortunately, nothing Lu’s size.

Brew Crew: Michigan microbreweries seem to be flourishing: The beverage case at Zaccaro’s Market on Woodward has plenty to choose from. Arcadia Ales Amber Ale, from Battle Creek, is one of my faves. The people at Arcadia Ales style themselves the brew crew, suggesting both camaraderie and pride. Their taste for playful language doesn’t end there: On their web site I read that they hosted a stache bash at their brewery this past summer. I take it they’re referring to a foamy beer mustache. The American Mustache Institute hosts a Stache Bash, too.

cigar bar: To buy a ticket to the Charity Preview gets you only so far. Many more levels of access and admission await you, if you're lucky or connected, on this grandest of gala evenings. To attain the next level, you will need to cultivate invitations to the various private sponsor parties. Among these, the most exclusive is the VIP event hosted by the Detroit Auto Dealers Association, hosts of the Charity Preview and organizers of the auto show. The next level is reserved for the fewest of the few, almost exclusively auto dealers, and by no means all of them. No printed invitation exists, and only a handful of individuals have the power to invite. No external markings to the cigar bar exist, either. And its location shall remain undisclosed.

Cranny Branny: Favorite bakery item at favorite breakfast stop, Avalon International Breads. A just-sweet-enough muffin full of hearty goodness. Local pride: The people at Avalon name many of their baked goods after local neighborhoods and landmarks.

Grand Marnier crème brulee: The server at Roast, one of our favorite Downtown Detroit restaurants, takes obvious delight in pronouncing this recommended dessert. Clearly, she’s a gleaning meaning connoisseur. The place is filled with well-heeled attendees of the auto show’s Charity Preview event.

Hott Spott: Located on Woodward near New Center, Cherokee’s Hott Spott is the place to go for all your exotic dancing needs. This storefront is abandoned—but no worries, Cherokee still does business just across the street. On her new sign, she’s dropped the double t’s, which somehow makes it a little less hot.

Jo Bros: The Jonas Brothers are the hot ticket in town—and you can only get one if you first purchase a $400 ticket to the Charity Preview, the gala that kicks off the Public Days of the auto show. On the topic of Jonas Brothers-related gleaning meanings, don’t forget seven-year-old Frankie Jonas, the Bonus Jonas. He plans to join the band someday, too, when he’s bigger.

local yokel: Our friend John Ozdych, Creative Director at Solomon-Friedman, calls some other D-based creative a local yokel over a drink at Small Plates. Delightful term I haven’t heard in a while.

Macomb Zone: An accidental gleaning meaning: All second-level zones of Detroit’s Cobo Hall Convention Center are named after three Southeast Michigan counties — Wayne, Oakland and Macomb. During the auto show, sponsors occupy most of the rooms on this level together with DADA staffers who decamp from Troy for the show.

PRODUCTLAND—Thanks to my daughter Simone, whose birthday is imminent, I’ve discovered the myriad delights of www.firebox.com. I can only describe the site’s product offering as Apple Store-meets-Novelty Shop. Without it, I wouldn’t have known where to purchase a USB Panic Button, which causes “a boring document” to instantly appear on your computer screen to conceal the forbidden material you’re actually viewing. (Whatever could you need this for, Simoney?) Or the enticingly named Thinking Putty, “the latest must-have stress relief toy”. (Are you already experience stress at the tender age of 12, my dear daughter?) Or the Glow Flow, a “nifty LED faucet attachment “that illuminates flowing water in cool blue when it's cold or warm red when it's hot.” All of these and more appear on Simone’s extensive birthday wish list. I can’t deny the fun factor here—a brazen challenge to my Good Parenting goals of finding gifts that will prove in some way useful or educational or edifying. I hope you like what we’ve chosen for you, Simoney Peperoni.

Name coined by staffers for the ethos of the Obama campaign. Sharply contrasted from the McCain campaign, itself nicknamed the McCain Drain, or from Hillary Clinton’s campaign, both of which essentially imploded from within.

The Obama campaign also gave birth to the Obama Mama, a passionate female follower of the Illinois senator. Here and there, various Obamaramas cropped up, too. One was a blog that apparently sputtered out in February. Ralph Nader used the term, somewhat pejoratively, to describe “the politics of the smooth mood” that he witnessed on the campaign trail with Obama in New Hampshire.

It’s in the title of a book I’m reshelving as I move into our new office, a garage convert and definitely the nicest office I’ve ever had. Ab Fab to Zen: Paper’s Guide to Pop Culture. God, I haven’t seen this book in years. I forget which project we bought it for. It’s copyrighted 1999 — pre-dotcom bust. But, you know, flipping through it, a lot of the names and topics still feel current, if not fresh as a daisy. I might be more with-it today if I’d used this book as a guide to exploring more back then.

Ab Fab, the adoring nickname of Absolutely Fabulous, has a lasting place in my personal mythology. It helped to broker how Diana and I got together: At the party where we reconnected after being out of touch for several months, she asked me if I’d like to drop by her place to watch an episode of Ab Fab with her sometime.

We saw many episodes of Ab Fab together.

This is the first of a series several entries based on findings in Greg Palast’s book Armed Madhouse. Palast is a lively writer. His gleaning meanings suggest the delight he takes in skewering the Bush Administration, and much else besides.

This item occurs on p. 162 in the phrase “Friedman free-market mumbo-jumbo”. It takes its place in a larger discussion about how China is building its economic juggernaut by taking a course very different from that of the free market advocates who would like us to believe that the free market paradigm is the only paradigm that makes sense in today’s incredible shrinking world.

The trusty Online Etymology Dictionary (www.etymonline.com) tells us that “mumbo jumbo” entered the English language in the mid-18th Century through Africa, as the corruption of a name given by certain tribes in the Niger region to an idol they worshipped. It appears to have taken well over a century for the term to evolve to its present meaning, “big, empty talk”. Perhaps this evolution was aided by its similarity to “mumble”. It sounds like big, empty talk.

Sucio Lucio
Nickname given to Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez, who came to office on a pledge to break away from the austerify plan imposed on the country by the IMF, by the Ecuadorian people. He earned the nickname when he broke the pledge, and was subsequently driven out of office. Nice to encounter a non-English gleanmean. Are gleanmeans on the rise in other countries and cultures, too?

Tallahassee Lassie
Nickname given to Mindy Tucker Fletcher, a spokesperson for the Bush campaign in Florida, who was challenged by Palast to explain the purpose for lists of black voters apparently drawn up by, or for, the Republican National Committee.

I’m not sure whether Palast is the one to apply the nickname to Ms. Tucker Fletcher. In any event, most references to the name hearken back to an old Fifties rock ‘n roll song of that name, penned by Freddy Cannon (www.history-of-rock.com/...).

Well, she comes from Tallahassee,
whoa, She's got a hi-fi chassis, whoa
 Maybe looks a little sassy,
whoa, But to me she's real classy, whoa
 Yeah, my Tallahassee Lassie, down in F.L.A.

hugger-mugger
Page 292, in reference to a meeting held in May 2001 at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills by a group of energy industry movers and shakers, ostensibly to figure out how to resolve the regulatory complaint filed by the State of California with the federal government.

Hugger-mugger has two broad definitions: The first has to do with disorderly confusion, a muddle; the second with secrecy and concealment. In this reference, Palast intends the latter. The origin of the term is unknown.

www.worldwidewords.org/...

It’s impossible not to hear this term and think it belongs in Harry Potter somewhere — an attribute of muggles.

itty-bitty
Page 312, characterizing a funding increase secured by Congress to support No Child Left Behind. According to my online dictionary, the term emerged in the 1930s from the babytalk version of “little + bitty”. It’s closely related to itsy-bitsy, which also has roots in child talk: “The itsy-bitsy spider ran up the water spout...”

From a discussion of America’s trade deficit with China in Greg Palast’s Armed Madhouse. Palast is lively. He loves a good barb, a smart turn of phrase. Given that, it’s not surprising his book is sprinkled with gleaning meanings. They help to leaven his deep sense of moral and political outrage. If his tone were more earnest, he’d come off as less deadly. It helps to keep him from sounding like an ideologue. On the trivial side. Even Steven dates to the mid-1800s. It’s one of a subclass of rhyming phrases based on people’s first names. Steady Eddie and Willy Nilly are other Tradland examples of this. Chilly Willy and Small Paul are counterparts in Consumerproductland. The film Roger Dodger also comes to mind.

A word that suggests “the magic of instantaneity” — an idea that relates to a new instant mobile data communications brand we’ve been hired to name. Sounds like pseudo-Latin. What’s at the root of this cliché bit of magician’s banter? The Online Etymology Dictionary (www.etymonline.com) one of my favorite tools, dates the term to Shakespeare’s time. Initially, it was a proper name, Hocas Pocas, for a stock type of character, much like Harlequin or Pantaloon or others in the cast of the commedia. Apparently it’s a perversion of the Mass Latin blessing, Hoc est corpus meum (“This is my body”.) According to the dictionary, a more complete incantation, provided by Thomas Ady in 1655, is “Hocus pocus, tontus tabantus, vade celeriter jubeo.” It is the parent, apparently, of two other gleanmeans: hokey-pokey (“false, cheap material”) and hanky-panky (“deception, fraud”).

Of course, nowadays we know “Hokey Pokey” as the song you sang and danced to as a kid in the local skating rink. Interestingly, it was sort of written for the skating rink: The National Institute of Health & Human Services (www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/hokey.htm) notes that it was penned by Roand Lawrence LaPrise “along with two fellow musicians in the late 1940s for the ski crowd in Sun Valley, Idaho.” Interesting to consider how it spread.