Maybe you know that David Bowie was born David Jones, or that the St. Louis Cardinals were previously the St. Louis Browns, Brown Stockings, and Perfectos, but did you know that PayPal was originally called Confinity, or that Yahoo was briefly named “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web”? [More]
Brand Names
McDonald’s Rebrands Fancy Burgers Created Via Kiosk
By 9.29.15
What does the name “TasteCrafted” sound like to you? If you said “a mass-produced product that calls itself ‘artisan,'” you’d be close: that was one of the names tested for pricier, higher-quality, customized burgers at McDonald’s. The new name is “Chef Crafted,” since there’s nothing that the public associates more with McDonald’s than a trained chef carefully assembling burgers in the kitchen. [More]
Real Person Or Marketing Dept. Creation — Can You Tell The Difference?
February 2, 2015
Take a look in your kitchen cabinets or the shelves of any supermarket and you’ll find seemingly countless products branded with names that sound like they’re based on the name of an actual human being — and many are. But a number of those boxes, cans, and bottles carry names cooked up by the folks in the marketing department. Do you think you’re savvy enough to tell them apart? [More]
Consumer Reports Tastes Store Branded Foods, Finds Some Are Just As Good
By 9.7.10
Name brands exert a strong power over shoppers: 17% of us think name brand foods are more nutritious, even though there’s little nutritional difference between the two categories. Consumer Report performed taste tests on several food categories to determine whether name brands tasted better than store brands, and found that in some cases the store brands actually won. [More]
Why Paying More For Brand Name Drugs Is Folly
By 5.26.10
There are some people out there who just don’t get how much crazy money you can save with buying generic drugs. For those folks, this infographic was crafted by Mint.com. To illustrate the cost-savings possible, they took a look at Advil. For the same 200 mg of isobutylpropanoicphenolic acid, people are willing to pay over $8 more per box. Those pretty graphics aren’t going to chase away your headache any faster, honey. Let’s take a look: [More]
We Are Too Poor For Fancy Alcohol
By 2.2.10
The numbers are in for liquor sales in 2009, and last year had the smallest increase in sales since 2001, reports Bloomberg. What’s worse (if you own a high-end liquor company), sales shifted toward the products on the cheaper end of the spectrum, and people bought less at restaurants and other public places. But we’re not actually drinking less, it turns out–we’re just doing more entertaining at home. [More]
Expensive Purchases Are Like Peacock Feathers, Except They Don't Work
By 5.25.09
Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico, says marketers are trying too hard to find a working model of why people spend money the way they do. It really comes down to the human equivalent of “cost signaling” in the animal world—a sort of “peacock feather” display that’s supposed to tell peers and prospective mates how smart or sophisticated we are. The only problem is, other people never fall for it.
Duane Reade May Want To Rethink The Instructions On Their Generic Sandwich Bags
By 4.4.09
Duane Reade wants you to compare their store brand sandwich bags to Ziploc’s bags, and you should, because Ziplcoc’s bags are $0.50 cheaper.
