Blasting Landor’s ridiculous work used to be a burden shouldered solely by Igor, but now the mainstream media has taken up the slack. Via Design Week:
Ben & Jerry’s ice cream – acquired by Unilever in 2000 – was a pioneer of faux-naif design, with its cartoon pictures of cows, clouds and daisies, smile-in-the-mind copy and child-like handwriting. Some see Innocent’s branding as an imitation of Pete & Johnny’s smoothies, which created the UK smoothie market in 1994 and adopted a Ben & Jerry’s, child-like style. Acquired by PepsiCo in 2005, the brand was renamed PJ Smoothies and relaunched with a cold, corporate look by Landor Associates, which failed to strike a chord with consumers.
Impotence is now ED and painful bladder syndrome is IC/PBS. Naming specialists brainstorm to come up with innocuous acronyms for embarrassing diseases to be associated with name brand drugs.
And then, pharmaceutical companies have to come up with memorable names for drugs their customers can associate with those syndromes, and ask their doctors if it’s right for them.
It’s the job of drug consultants to create a name that’s not already taken, won’t lead to medical mix-ups and can help cut through the marketing clutter.
What makes a good name?
“A lot of it is more art than science,” said William Trombetta, professor of pharmaceutical marketing at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. “There are certain letters that express power and control, like Z, M or P. Other letters, like S, are more passive. Depending on what the drug does, you want to give the name certain features.”
Want to sound high-tech? Go for lots of Z’s and X’s, such as Xanax, Xalatan, Zyban and Zostrix.
Want to sound poetic? Try Lyrica, Truvada and Femara.
Want to suggest what it does? Flonase is an allergy medicine that aims to stop nasal flow. Lunesta, a sleeping drug, implies “luna,” the Latin word for moon — a full night’s sleep.
Then there’s Viagra, the erectile-dysfunction drug made by Pfizer. It uses the prefix “vi” to suggest vigor and vitality. The word rhymes with Niagara, suggesting a mighty flow.
“You know exactly what Pfizer (PFE) was trying to say with that,” said Andy Valvur, senior brand strategist at Igor, a San Francisco branding company.
Drug names can suggest, but under FDA rules they can’t come right out and make medical claims. That’s why you won’t see TumorBeGone or CureAll.
For the latest thinking on naming and branding in the pharmaceutical industry, there’s Better Naming Through Chemistry by Igor.