Effective Naming and Branding Strategies

In the podcast "Naming in an AI Age," Mike and Ashley discuss the critical factors in naming a product, emphasizing the need to understand both the competitive landscape and target audience. Using Desert Glory’s "Cherubs" tomatoes as a case study, they highlight how the name cleverly evokes both "cherry" tomatoes and cute, small angels, making it memorable and effective. The episode contrasts master brand strategies, which use a single name for all products, with niche branding, which targets specific product attributes. Mike also stresses the importance of testing names to gauge their effectiveness and appeal.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 0:12 Assessing the Competitive Landscape
• 0:57 Branding Grapes: The Cherubs Case Study
• 1:50 Emotional Appeal and Branding Success
• 2:56 Master Brand Strategy vs. Niche Branding
• 5:37 Summary and Future Topics

Transcript

Ashley Elliott (00:12):

Well, hello and welcome to naming in an AI Age. This week we're going to talk about coming up with a great name for me. I think sometimes we become so focused on the name and what we need to name and even learning the target and all of that, that we forget to look at what's going on around us and who is around us, and what if we come up with this brilliant name, but somebody else has it pointless at that point or it's so close to someone. So I would say really assessing the competition, if any in your space. I think about Desert Glory when they came to name Stormers and they wanted a name for their grape tomatoes. It's kind of like tomato, tomato. You go to the grocery store, there's tomatoes everywhere. I remember going to the grocery store and I don't remember them ever being in packages.

(00:57):

Maybe I was from a small town, Oklahoma, and they were probably grown in the garden outside. But thinking of branding and naming an actual grape tomato was a challenge at the time because they weren't tomatoes that were branded and named like that. And so also just realizing that there's in that competitive set and looking at that, there is some gaps that you can feel and opportunity you can take. And so that's what they did. Naming these little small red grape tomatoes that looks kind of like cherry tomatoes that were sweeter than cherry tomatoes that were just these cute little round things. I mean, I don't ever think of tomatoes and think of a big juicy tomato. I know that my grandpa did, and he would put salt on it and just eat it like an apple, which maybe that's a thing I don't know. But I like the little poppable ones that are on the salads or that you can take in a snack with you.

(01:50):

And so I love that y'all went through the process of trying to figure out what kind of name could really be branded in this space that can lean into the tomato, but not really feel like it's just a descriptor of the tomato. And so when name storms came up with cherubs, I thought that was great. I mean, it's small cherubs sounds like cherry, which could take you to the red element of it or the tomato element of it. It's also like an actual play on cherub in the name of these little tiny little angels that are chunky and cute, unlike some of the angels that we know of. But these little cupid type angels that it just evokes this emotion. That was really great. I thought it was a really great branding strategy to really brand tomatoes in a way that hadn't been done before. So I think also knowing what opportunities you have by looking at your competitive set. It's not just the store brand and it's cute packaging too that made you want to get that trial purchase and really expand the category there.

Mike Carr (02:56):

I think those are great points. I mean, I think you can never, the space that you're in, what your competitors are doing. We'll often have clients come to us and they want to use the master brand strategy. And what that strategy is, is we want to use the same name across our entire portfolio of products because it's easier. You can put all your brand building dollars behind Green Garden, let's say in that produce space. So you've got green garden, green beans, you've got green garden tomatoes, and you've got green garden potatoes. And it all speaks to this fresh thing. And that probably works fine if you don't have branded competitors that are very niche, niche oriented. But then when you have a cherubs that comes along and cherubs does speak to that small size and something that's cute and maybe sweeter angels sort of sweet and sweet little angels, it sort of kills that master brand.

(03:56):

Because first of all, green garden, a green tomato isn't really what you're buying. You're buying a Red Tomato. So a name like that sometimes can be too limiting and you can't rifle shot the message around each product that a master brand's on, like you can with very niche brands like a cherubs for a tomato and something else for a potato that might be more in vogue with whatever makes for a great tasting potato. And then the last thing I would comment on is we thought cherubs was going to be a great name because people we thought would know what a cherub angel was, a cherubim. You mentioned the reason it actually succeeded, which was not that people knew that it was this little rosy cheeked sweet little angel. Most people didn't, what most people thought was it was a new kind of cherry tomato because it began with CHER just like cherry, which is like, oh my gosh.

(04:54):

So consumers were buying it because it was a new kind of cherry tomato. Granted, it was more expensive, but it's a garnish. It's in salads, it's not a big expense item. Let's give it a try. And then when they tried it, it was so much sweeter. It actually had a higher brick score, a higher sweet index than the cherry tomato, which was the only other tomato that was small that was out there at the time. They loved it. And so that's when they were really interested in paying more money. So not just, I think paying attention to the competitive set, but also testing the name and really understanding why exactly is it going to work or is it not going to work with your target might be a good idea too.

Ashley Elliott (05:37):

Yeah, I think that's a great point. I think knowing your target, knowing your competitive set, even thinking about brand strategy, do we want our rifle shot that name, or do we want one that can be across multiple different services or platforms is a great start. There are plenty of other things that we could talk about too. So stay tuned for next week when we dive into another naming topic.

Mike Carr (05:59):

Thank you so much everyone. Have a great week.