Posts Categorized: Positioning
09 MAY 2017
What’s the difference between good names and bad names? A lot less than you think. Ever since I wrote the first edition of [...]
10 JUN 2015
Brand Death It’s been a long, dismal downhill for tobacco branding. First came the ban on TV and radio ads in 1970. Since then, tobacco [...]
03 MAR 2015
Emoji Brands: Taking Names at Face Value
Doubters beware: emoji are here to stay. Their Western invasion (or welcomed arrival, depending on your point of view) began in earnest [...]
08 JAN 2015
Empty Vessel Company Names: The Fortune 500’s Secret Weapon
Cigna, Avnet, and Alcoa are all Fortune 500 companies. Each has what we call an “empty vessel” name—a moniker with little meaning for a [...]
22 JUN 2015
Deconstruct: 365 by Whole Foods
Deconstruct is a propaganda venture from A Hundred Monkeys in which we perform close readings of new names belonging to companies with [...]
20 MAR 2015
Have you heard of Spoonrocket? It’s like Uber but for food. Have you heard of YPlan? It’s like Uber but for events. Have you heard of [...]
23 FEB 2015
Football brands deserve more fitting sponsors
Let’s start with something really obvious: football (“soccer” for the Americans and Australians) is the most popular [...]
21 NOV 2014
Let’s translate a few common phrases: “You can trust me” means “Don’t trust me.” “This is going to be fun” means “This will definitely [...]
01 AUG 2014
Don’t Click That: The Clickbait Virus
On a bad day, the website Upworthy attracts some 1.5 million unique visitors. Good days see 5 million visits. That’s a hell of a lot of [...]