Pre-Ramble: Plenty, that’s what! A friend of mine … well, an admired acquaintance really, is a partner in Pollywog, “an unconventional branding agency” … an enterprise that comes up with highly purposeful/catchy names for businesses, organizations, products, services, events – you name it. (heh.)
Made up of creative professionals from some of the world’s largest advertising and marketing agencies, the group positions a successful name as an investment in a key piece of “intellectual property”… an invaluable foundation for any new business.
To that end, Pollywog has developed a patent-pending “power positioning process” that “reveals the essence of a brand, sets the tone and stakes out a place in your customer’s mind that no other brand occupies.” They cite 17 key characteristics that give a name its power …
“These key traits help us determine which names will be the most effective in the marketplace. A “Power Name” has impact, high memorability and a solid connection to your brand promise … [it] creates a buzz and makes people want to tell others about your brand …”
Successful names are:
- instantly understood
- unique
- engaging; provoking interest
- high impact
- easily remembered
- very different from competitors’ names
- readily spread by word of mouth
- a factor that boosts the effectiveness of all marketing communications/materials
- inextricably connected to the brand itself
(Clearly, my blog and the essence of my writer-ness could benefit from an investment of this sort … But, I digress … )
The proof is in the pudding. Last week, Saint Paul Public Schools and the City of Saint Paul announced the launch of a network of nonprofit organizations, city departments and other community partners offering out-of-school-time opportunities for kids. The program promotes and coordinates over seventy after-school youth development programs currently available in the Saint Paul metro area … programs that feature arts, athletics, science, leadership, multi-cultural and other academically and socially relevant activities. The new community network is called “Sprockets.”
Sprockets! What a great name! And, yup, it was developed by the Pollywog team.
Owning to the Pollywog brand promise, this multi-faceted name really has teeth. Not only fun to say, Sprockets immediately conjures up all sorts of colorful, interlocking, moving, bits and pieces … I can almost see and hear the blinking and beeping emmanating from the essence of the word. It invokes a sense of playfulness, hands-on energy, tinkering … curiosity and wonderment. The concept of interlocking movement also reflects the structure of the community network itself, hundreds of resources all linked together, humming and whirring in a dynamic web of high-quality enrichment opportunities for kids.
The Take-Away: Well done! And, beyond the glow of a successful naming exercise, the Sprockets project brings way more to the party than immediately apparent. Mired in a series of budget cuts, union issues, declining enrollment and a persistent and staggering gap in achievement between student groups, the Sprockets “power name” provides a very strong platform and hopeful ray of sunshine that the strife-ridden local education environment can use as a flash-point to spark a fresh approach to things.
Let’s hope that in addition to engaging and inspiring struggling students in our urban education environment, the vibrant, value-add of the Sprockets brand can give a much-needed extra-curricular boost to the tone and essence of the struggling district leadership as well.
Post-Note: I’d link you to the new Sprockets website, but there apparently isn’t one yet. Hope the visual branding (logo, website, communications materials, etc.) can pay off the A+ power name.
Post-Post-Note: Oops, … looks like there IS a Sprockets website … we’ll save the critique on that for another day.
