www.wherewords.com
where words come from
As featured on the award-winning podcast,
Marketing Matters with M7, 12/15/8
http://marketingmatterswithm7.podomatic.com/entry/eg/2008-12-15T06_28_08-08_00
Developing an effective name for your new company or product is critical to building your brand. But what goes into it? And how do you come up with one that works for you, not against you? In this episode, Lisa interviews 20-year naming pro, Steve Cecil, on the ins & outs of creating an effective name, and what you need to watch out for.
Steve has handled over 500 naming projects: from shoes to shampoos, from gum to rum, from soft drinks to software! And just this year alone he developed over 30,000 unduplicated candidate names for 77 different ad agencies and clients. Steve knows naming!
Listen in as Lisa asks:
1. How important is a brand name?
2. How do you know if you need a new name?
3. What are some names you like, also some names you don’t like, and why?
4. What’s the process you take clients through?
5. What are the biggest challenges companies face when choosing a name today?
read the interview
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As seen in BusinessWeek, June 9 2008
A Practical Guide to Branding
Define your brand identity—your product's "personality"—before you spend a dime on advertising or marketing
By Karen E. Klein
SPECIAL REPORT
Talk to entrepreneurs about their marketing and communications efforts, and they'll often use the words "branding," "marketing," and "advertising" interchangeably.
Steve Cecil, a shortform copywriter and verbal-branding expert with Wherewords in San Carlos, Calif., says a brand is a promise and branding is the act of devising the promise your company makes to the world. Marketing, he says, "is the strategy that differentiates your brand promise from all the other brand promises in that increasingly crowded house called "your category."
read the article
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As seen in BusinessWeek, August 13 2007
SMART ANSWERS by Karen E. Klein
"I am naming a web startup company, but I'm struggling since so many dot-com
domains are taken. I feel that an easy-to-find dot-com domain is critical to the
success of my new business, and I also need to have a simple, yet unique name.
I want to be "Google-able" but also to ensure that I can identify media coverage
as it appears and not be confused with other businesses."
-- M. S., Waltham, Mass
You're right, it is getting more difficult to create business names that are free
of trademark conflicts and also available as web site domains, especially in
the computer and consulting industries. "The problem is that everyone wants the online equivalent of beachfront property, but it's a little too late in the internet land grab to have such high expectations for an exclusive domain," says Steve Cecil, a business-naming expert with Wherewords in San Carlos, California. "All the common-usage dictionary words have already been registered."
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As seen in the Repro Report, volume 26
(News Magazine of the International Reprographic Association)
NAMING DOs and DON'Ts
Steve Cecil, who goes by the title "Manufacturer of Fine Ideas," is an expert on naming. His website is www.wherewords.com. He offers these DOs and DON'Ts when choosing your company name:
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As seen in the Los Angeles Times, 10/4/7
IN BOX
By Karen E. Klein
Q: I'd like to dream up a slogan for my company. How do I come up with a good one?
A good slogan extends and explains your company's "brand," which is the proposition that makes your firm unique. To pick an effective slogan, you have to first develop your brand. Are you promising the best customer service in the industry? The most unusual or functional product in your niche? Top-of-the-line consulting expertise at bottom-line prices?
List words that you'd associate with your brand and string them into clever combinations. Humor, alliteration and simile can elevate a slogan from dull to memorable. Ideally your slogan shouldn't be more than six or seven words long.
When you have a couple of possibilities, look at your competitors and identify those that have a similar brand "promise," suggested branding expert Steve Cecil, founder of WhereWords.
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As seen in the San Mateo County Times, 7/25/5
Monday Q & A
Writer Finds His Game in a Name
San Carlos resident Steve Cecil has, appropriately, a gaggle of names to describe his job: branding professional, neologist, copywriter and nine-letter novelist, to name a few.
The former journalist recently chatted with staff writer Tara Ramroop on his love affair with words, and how his ideas make the jump into the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office.
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As seen in the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/06/PNGVBCGKAK1.DTL
PEOPLE
Verbal Chemist Labels Companies, Makes Name for Himself
by Alex Horvath, Special to the Chronicle
When corporate strategists are befuddled over what image they want to portray for their companies, they often turn to Steve Cecil, a resident of San Carlos who has a knack for creating nine-letter novels and six-syllable sagas -- all in the name of brand identification.
Like a word detective, Cecil, 47, will do some initial research via telephone so he will have the ability to pop out something in the neighborhood of 300-word samples for his clients. The result has turned the former journalist into a branding professional and short-form copywriter, creating names, key lines and phrases for high-profile clients such as Adobe, Best Buy, Kodak, Pepsi and numerous others. He works with larger naming firms and ad agencies on a regular basis and as an independent contractor with a select group of clients.
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