BRANDING

What’s in a (re)name?

From football teams to pancake mixes, a lot of household names opted for new monikers over the past year.

• Some of them, like Pearl Milling Company, Washington Football Team, and Ben’s Original, renamed to rid themselves of racial stereotypes and slurs in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement that arose in summer 2020. 
• Others, like Rocket Mortgage, renamed for less newsworthy reasons; formerly Quicken Loans, Rocket Mortgage wanted to better align with its parent brand, Rocket Companies. 

Why it matters: As these names settle into the cultural lexicon, we couldn’t help but wonder…how do brands that worked for decades to put one name into American households decide to take that name right back out? And once that decision is made, what considerations go into choosing a new name? 

We spoke with brand naming experts—as well as three brands that recently decided to change their names—to get the scoop.

Click here to read the full story, or read on for the highlights. 

On deciding to rename: “Renaming a company is a big deal. It's very expensive and it takes a lot of effort, so there has to be a really good reason to change it,” Laurel Sutton, president of the American Name Society and cofounder of naming agency Catchword, told Marketing Brew. She said there are three reasons why companies typically choose to rename: a change of business focus, legal requirements, or when a name has become inappropriate for cultural reasons. 

On the best case scenario: Jonah Fay-Hurvitz, head of strategy at Red Antler, told Marketing Brew that retaining any existing brand equity is one of the most important parts of choosing a new name. “There are creative ways to do this like deleting or changing a word, for example. This keeps the overall sound and shape of the name, while removing the limiting factors,” Fay-Hurvitz explained. Think Dunkin’ and Ben’s Original.

And the worst case: “With Aunt Jemima, both parts of that name were offensive…so there was no way [Quaker] could have kept either part of that,” Sutton explained. Marketing Brew spoke with Kristin Kroepfl, CMO of Quaker Foods North America, who said Pearl Milling Company was chosen as Aunt Jemima’s new name “because of the connection to the brand’s beginnings—a small mill in St. Joseph, Missouri, that specialized in a pearl milling technique and where the famous self-rising pancake mix was first developed.”

Bottom line: “With all these questions, there's never one answer,” Sutton summarized.

+1: The process of renaming can get pretty granular. 

• For instance, Sutton said there are certain considerations brands should think about if they want the brand to sound male or female. For example, insomnia medication Lunesta ends with a feminine “a” sound, which American culture associates with softness.

Other factors play into it, too, like whether a brand should incorporate “ascenders” like “b” or “descenders” like “p” into a name. “It's very contextually dependent on the situation of the company and the actual name they're considering,” Sutton concluded.—PB

PARTNERSHIPS

Get your Degree

Well, that didn’t take long. Soon after the NCAA decided that college athletes can profit off their name, image, and likeness (aka NIL) via things like autographs or brand partnerships, Degree tapped 14 of them to join its #BreakingLimits team. 

What’s that? The deodorant brand’s roster of collegiate brand ambassadors, which includes athletes ranging from University of Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez to University of Florida gymnast Jazmyn Foberg.

• It’s not totally clear what they’ll be doing (aside from putting #BreakingLimits in their Insta bios). Chiara Grillo, Degree’s senior marketing manager, told Marketing Brew the “brand will work with all the athletes to inspire more people to break their own limits.”
• Degree didn’t share how much it’s paying the athletes, but Grillo told us “the brand is committed to providing equitable compensation to both men and women athletes across all types of initiatives.”

Degree worked with Opendorse, an athlete endorsement platform, to broker the partnerships. TJ Ciro, Opendorse’s SVP of strategic partnerships, said marketers exploring deals with college athletes should read up on state legislation and university policies regarding NIL. (For instance, Clemson doesn’t let its student athletes use the school’s facilities or uniforms for NIL activities). “As long as they’re mindful of that, they’ll be safe,” Ciro said.

Zoom out: Degree isn’t the only brand that’s taken advantage of the NCAA’s change, which kicked into gear at the start of this month. Companies like Boost Mobile and fast-food chain Runza have, too.—MS

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Register for the Salesforce webinar right here.

BRAND SAFETY

(Block) party’s over

Brands are becoming less reliant on keyword blocking, which is good news since it can often hurt publishers.

That’s at least according to a report released by DoubleVerify, a brand safety and fraud detection software company.

• According to its report, keyword blocklists “are now being used in a more refined manner, which is driving violation rates down.”
• Keyword violations decreased from 13% to 7% from May 2020 to April 2021 among DoubleVerify clients.

Back up: For the most part, brands want to avoid publishers that spread misinformation, pornography, and other dark parts of the internet. But they…uh…also want reach. So, they’ll lean on companies like DoubleVerify or NewsGuard to help navigate the deep trenches of digital marketing. In some instances, they’ll use keyword blocking, banning their ads from showing up alongside articles that include terms like “Covid-19” or “Donald Trump.” But that’s not great for credible news publishers writing about these subjects, as they’re missing out on ad revenue. 

Collette Spagnolo, senior director of marketing analytics at DoubleVerify, told Marketing Brew the company is working with advertisers to minimize keyword blocking and “use it really only in very specific circumstances. There's a time and place for keyword blocking, and it should be used really infrequently.”

+1: Ironically, DoubleVerify blocked advertisements from appearing alongside coverage of DoubleVerify’s own report on Adweek. 

Zoom out: According to Ad Age, DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science are vying to partner with Facebook for the platform’s “experimental” brand safety offering. NewsGuard recently told Marketing Brew it’s also had talks with Facebook.—RB

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a privacy bill into law that requires companies to honor opt-out requests for ad targeting, echoing similar legislation in Virginia, Maine, and California. 
• TikTok’s new resume program is taking on LinkedIn—and Chipotle is among the first to test it out. Speaking of TikTok, the platform has banned financial services and products from its branded content. 
• Man Repeller founder Leandra Medine detailed the media company’s demise in a podcast this week, while avoiding allegations of racist and classist behavior.
• The NFL just became Twitter’s first Spaces partner, in sad news for Clubhouse. 

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AD TECH COMPANY OR A SPELL FROM HARRY POTTER?

There are a lot of questionably named companies in the murky marketing universe. So here’s a new game. Three of these companies are real ad tech firms. Two are fake. Can you find them? Keep scrolling for answers.

1. Crucio
2. Criteo
3. Anapneo
4. Viant
5. Xaxis

FRENCH PRESS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren't those.

Messaging: Sprout Social’s recent piece explains why social media teams could be at the center of the conversational commerce boom (you know, the intersection of messaging + e-comm). 

Here comes the content: Check out the 10 hottest visual content marketing trends for the rest of the year.

Speaking of content: If you recognized the tag above as a Bo Burnham Inside reference, you’ll love this marketing manager’s unfiltered thoughts on the comedian’s “Social Brand Manager” skit.

Pulse check: Modern employee engagement from TINYpulse allows your biz to collect valuable employee insights in real time. This engagement software could be a game changer for your team’s dynamic by reducing employee turnover and improving culture. Get a free demo here.*

AD TECH OR HARRY POTTER SPELL ANSWERS

Crucio, the torture curse, and Anapneo, the healing spell, aren’t ad tech companies. Yet.

ICYMI

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Olympics: How brands are using AI to track their in-game sponsorships
• Substack article about misogyny ripples through ad industry
• Android users spend almost one day per month on TikTok, report says