Helpful words:
About Branding

Show and Tell

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 suck.” “We care” means “You are a number to us.” Say these, and you’re sending a message that’s the opposite of your intent. Sometimes, saying it outright isn’t enough. You have…

Surfin' URL.

How to Find a URL

So you found a name you love. Then you tried to find a URL. You wanted nameyoulove.com, but the person who parked it is MIA. Now you’re banging your head on the keyboard, digging for a random group of letters and numbers that’s also an available domain. Stop. Save yourself a headache—let us help you figure…

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 ad revenue without much overhead—the site just writes a bit of copy and hosts other people’s content. So, you know, good for them. They’re making money. Because Upworthy gets…

Branding is Just Like Life: First Date Edition

How would your brand do on a first date? When we say that we build human brands, we aren’t spouting corporo-speak. We imagine brands as people. Even better, we imagine brands as people doing what people do: hanging out at the park, figuring out which trash bin to use, or—in this case—meeting someone on a…

Don’t Call Them Wearables

Technology is easy to recognize. One glance at a coffee shop laptop and you know it’s a Macbook Air – doesn’t matter if it has 12 stickers on it. This is generally applauded as good product design. If you can recognize a laptop in the wild with a sideways glance, the product can practically market…

brand attributes

Brand Attributes: Your Words Are Meaningless

In most pursuits, the fastest way between two points is a direct path. However, when dealing with people, this isn’t the case. For example, saying “Those glasses look really good on you” might be the fastest way to get out of the DMV. It will definitely work better than walking up to the counter and…

The Rise of the Blank and Blank

Opening a restaurant is risky: a quarter fail in their first year, and nearly two-thirds are gone by the third. The desire to minimize risk causes many restaurateurs to pick names that appear safe. They aren’t. Consider this list of Bay Area bars and restaurants, ordered by opening date: 2005: Squat & Gobble, Fish &…

Cicero is Holding You Back

One of the oldest things on your computer—and it’s definitely on your computer—is a garbled, 2100 year-old text written by Cicero: Lorem ipsum dolor sit , consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea…

What can you learn from Dumb Starbucks?

What can you learn about branding from a business consultant who advises a gas station owner to offer a giant rebate that can only be redeemed on a remote mountaintop? Actually quite a bit. Nathan Fielder, the star of Nathan for You on Comedy Central, recently opened Dumb Starbucks, a parody version of Starbucks in…

Stupidest Product of the Year (and it’s only January 3rd)

On the way into work this morning, I was listening to Marc Maron interview Artie Lange. One of the things I love about Maron is the way he hawks his sponsors like stamps.com and Adam and Eve in fine old time radio style. You’re rooting for him to pull it off but you know the only…

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