Around every time we go on our biannual team retreat, we also make new shirts. They came in fresh last week. A lucky few may have snagged one at our Brands 'n Eggs open house. So, after doing two type shirts, we're happy to present...

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A friend walks up and says, "I'm thinking about starting a cola company. What do you think about the name 'Pepsi'?"

What's your response?

A common response might be, "Why? What does that mean? It sounds weird and it's spelled funny. I don't like it." But, we all know Pepsi is in fact is a great name. You could probably insert Starbucks, Nike, or Apple into that scenario and get similar results. Why is that?

Names are almost impossible to judge or give feedback on within the vacuum of a casual conversation. They need to be lived out in context to be fully appreciated or understood. A brand name conjures up different memories & experiences for everyone, and gathering feedback to make a decision within a storm of mixed emotions takes courage and vision to preserve.

Naming a brand is incredibly difficult, because of the emotion. Brand Names engage the ‘feelings' side of our brain and rarely the logical. Similarly how human names conjure memories and experiences of other people we know with the same name, whether good or bad.

However, a great name is the foundational driving force of a brand. They are everything. It you have a name that is hard to say or hard to pronounce you are jeopardizing a great deal of your brands potential. So how do you handle feedback and ensure yours is great?

Names should be tried on. They should be lived with. Call yourself and leave a voicemail using the new potential name in a sentence. Develop a script for friends to read to you using the new name. How does it sound? Introduce yourself to a stranger at a party using it. How do people respond? How does it feel?

Great names are hard to find. Change or creation is emotional and great names take courage and vision to survive the frenzy of feedback.

What defines a great brand name?

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Hello, I’m Daniel Romanoski , one of the summer interns. I was born in New York City, grew up in Charlotte, and graduated from Winthrop University’s Visual Communication Design program in ’09 where I learned to never take sleep or showers for granted again.

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This is the coolest thing to hit fast food restaurants since those tubed ketchup dispensers hit the napkin counter. Coke's Ferrari-designed, Freestyle fountain dispenser.

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Wednesday morning we had our first Brands 'N Eggs open house and it was awesome. Thanks to everyone who made it out.

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When two companies merge the question of how to handle public perception through the brand is often overlooked.

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Every four years the world's best athletes compete on the world's biggest stage, The World Cup. Everyone is thinking one thing... What are they going to wear?

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Rarely do I meet someone in research who shares the same philosophies of branding, so after spending some time with Debra Semans I asked if she wouldn't mind writing a guest blog post for us. Debra is Senior Vice President at Polaris Marketing Research and a 25-year veteran of the marketing trenches, working for companies large and small to make the world safe for brands.

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A case for regional branding - and in Texas, no less.

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Every good product has a story behind it. Even something as ubiquitous as a chair.

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