In recent months, many heritage brands have had to come to terms with their harmful histories and culturally insensitive brand names. From acknowledging their perpetuation or promotion of stereotypes like Uncle Ben’s and Aunt Jemima, to recognizing their racist or sexist worldviews like Fair & Lovely, to taking on their appropriation of culture like the […]
linguistic analysis
Pitfalls in the naming process
When it comes to the brand naming process, we usually only see the final result: the new name. At that point, it’s easy to pick out flaws. The name might be hard to pronounce, offensive, or too similar to a competitor’s brand. But what about mistakes along the way? The “bad” brand names we encounter […]
How to use “negative” brand names to good effect
At Catchword, if we had a nickel for every client who expressed concern about “bad” meanings associated with proposed brand names…well, we’d have a ton of nickels. Keeping an eye out for potential hiccups when creating new brand names is not only natural—it’s critical. But it’s also important to know the difference between edgy-but-viable name […]
