Next up in our series ‘How’d they come up with that?’, we’re diving into Australian sunscreen, electrified RVs and power candy for more examples of great brand and product naming from around the world.
Image credit: SICKDOGWOLFMAN
2 out of 3 Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer before the age of 70, yet fewer than 3 in 10 Australians use sunscreen regularly. Enter SLATHER.
SLATHER is “a highly protective, broad spectrum, easy to apply, moisturising sunscreen” that has taken an unconventional approach to its brand name, with the aim of making sunscreen more appealing and less clinical.
Developed by the team at SICKDOGWOLFMAN (mental note: let’s talk about that name in a future post), SLATHER connects viscerally to the act of generous application. It does not plainly describe, or preach, or evoke science; it springs to mind the feeling of dumping a big glob of sunscreen in your palm and layering it on thick. As a verb, the name acts as more than just a corporate identifier; it’s a call to action.
At Monika, we intentionally replicate this creative thought process with our Verb Metaphor model, which identifies verbs associated with a company’s category, just as “slather” is relevant to sunscreen. It’s a mental exercise that comes second nature to brand namers, but one that we’ve codified and are able to generate at scale.
Image credit: Manual
Lightship seeks to transition RVing into the electric age by creating products that reduce the environmental impact of traditional RVs. In their words, “It’s time to search, to explore, to wander the great outdoors, while preserving its wonder.”
The name alludes beautifully to the product’s modernity and lesser environmental impact, which stands so far opposite to the clunky, retro, heavily-decaled RVs that we’ve all seen barreling down the highway. The rest of the identity for the brand, developed by the talented team at Manual, is perfectly compatible with the brand name; blending technical precision with the warmth of the organic world.
Looking internally at our generator to see if there’s a way we could’ve produced such a name, our Evocative Compound model comes to mind. This model utilizes a sentiment database to identify words highly correlated with emotions, guided by specific ideas in the naming brief. With words as strong as “light” and “ship” (evoking optimism and freedom, respectively), Monika aims to create combinations as powerful as this one.
Image credit: Hormbles Chormbles
Hormbles Chormbles is a new “power candy” brand — with high protein, zero sugar and only 100 calories per bar.
This name is just straight-up fun to say. And while it might sound completely random, there’s a lot going on that helps this name work.
Firstly, it rhymes. This places it right at home in the candy category (alongside the likes of Hubba Bubba, Laffy Taffy and Tooty Frooties). As a brand trying to position itself as “deliciously nostalgic,” it’s an effective idea. Saying the name also gives you the feeling that you’re chewing a candy bar. This ideophonic quality, coupled with the rhyme, suggests a distinct product experience and positioning.
It’s certainly attention-grabbing – something we’ve come to expect from the agency behind the work, Day Job – and the fact that the brand directs further attention to the name in their comms makes it all the more hilarious. In their words, “Hormbles Chormbles is a normal name for a company.”
While the exact name Hormbles Chormbles probably isn’t something we would’ve come up with ourselves, producing onomatopoeias and rhymes is something we’ve recently designed into our generator. Through a few models and mutations, Monika creates root terms – which may or may not be real words – and then produces rhymes.
While this approach won’t be for everyone, it resembles the kind of serendipity and randomness that we try to bake into our system – leaving room for such outrageous names. But then again, Hormbles Chormbles is a normal name for a company.
Shout out to our friend John for making technical sense of our musings on this name.
See you next week.
