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.

The secret to his success: "My brain thinks in pictures that come out as words," Cecil said. "I'm like a dog in the backyard, going through 30-40 different holes -- and if there is an idea there, I'll get it. A good list is about 300 samples."

A native of Santa Cruz and an English major while at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Cecil was editor of the school's newspaper.

He started his career as an aspiring journalist, landing a job at the Saturday Evening Post shortly after graduation, working as an editorial assistant and performing proofreading duties. He also tried his hand at headline writing, producing revised story names -- called slugs in the biz - - as he saw fit. Post-it notes had just been invented and Cecil recalled using the yellow sticky notes for his pithy headline ideas. His efforts were rewarded, and Cecil was soon promoted to sports editor (in spite of the publication having no official sports department) so that he could cover and write an article about the Masters Golf Tournament. A shared byline resulted in a promotion, allowing him to work on other Saturday Evening Post publications.

Ultimately, Cecil found himself working as a kind of generalist, performing varied duties from writing articles to selling ads. He then landed a job selling regional advertisements to national magazines. The job eventually brought him back to the Bay Area, with a territory from San Jose to San Francisco. He pulled out a map and looked for towns between the two cities, ultimately settling in San Carlos.

"The point where I decided to focus on naming, versus being a kind of generalist, was one day when I was coming back from a call," Cecil recalled. "The car in front of me was a Camry. It started to become clear to me that the word 'Camry' could really be translated to mean 'my car.' I wondered if they knew that. Of course they knew that."

"Back then, there weren't many naming companies," Cecil said. "As an editor, I had enjoyed publishing that changed other people's words for the better. I knew that I was in the right industry. I was in the right airport, but not parallel to the runway."

What happened next was serendipitous: Cecil responded to an ad in a trade magazine for a naming contest. He won the competition and began his second career. He said that the work sometimes involves clandestine e-mails sent to him asking him to position things that are only vaguely described.

"I might be told that it's a luxury condo where all of your needs are satisfied -- when really it was an SUV that is so well-appointed that you could live in it. I have no ego about any of this. I don't care if they tell me the wrong thing," he said.

A recent job was finding a new name for a bank in the North Bay that wanted to change its image to meet broader business needs. Thanks to his efforts, Novato Community Bank is now Circle Bank. Another success story was an Oregon soil-excavation firm called LandTech Solutions, that wanted a name that sounded smart, but didn't reek of being a business that took itself too seriously. Cecil renamed the company DirtLogic.

In working with his clients, Cecil adopts the persona of "Ranger Steve" and takes turns with various hats while giving his in-person presentations. The 6-foot-4, 270-pound master of neology (a newly invented word or phrase) said that his work is akin to being a docent in leading corporate clients to a better understanding of words and meaning.

"I wear different hats, like the Nike hat, and tell great fable-like stories," Cecil said. "We explore where good names come from. There are one, or two, of 40 different ways to name things. There are alphanumeric names and products that are named after people. Starbucks came from the book 'Moby Dick. ' Listerine was named after (founder) Joseph Lister. You couldn't name a product with your own names these days."

Cecil said that companies often come to him with a narrow idea, and they want him to be more descriptive.

"The namer is a verbal chemist," Cecil said. "We combine and recombine words -- looking for just the right nuance, or glancing blow. I do this in real time -- and sometimes I talk the group into a cul-de-sac."

Kim Petrini, CEO at Circle Bank, called Cecil's work fascinating and educational.

"The bank was in the process of undergoing a repositioning," Petrini said. "I wanted to not only change its name but to change its image to cross geographic boundaries. Not only are there no geographic ties, but the name is short enough for people to remember. And when we see the sum product of a circle, we see that it's never ending. It really gave the board a new perspective on what goes into creating a name -- and the importance of creating a name.

"It certainly is an interesting conversation piece. The origin of the name Circle Bank always comes up."

While the workload is heavy, Cecil said that, on average, it usually only involves working with one client per week.

"I can only do this about once a week," he said. "It's exhausting, as you can imagine. It's also exhilarating. It's a challenge not to be in the same phase with each client at the same time, switching between strategic and creative. It's hard -- like getting the hiccups. Once you've got them, you just ride them out."

Cecil added, "I spend all day on the telephone and I never meet most of my clients. I couldn't really recommend that anybody do what I do. I don't think anybody could survive 24 hours in my head."

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