You should get yourself to Rehab

A few months ago we got a call from entrepreneur Veeno Suchdeve of West Babylon, New York. He was opening a self-serve frozen yogurt store at the mall and wanted a more provocative name than Spoon Me, which is quite possibly the best name ever created by Eat My Words. Veeno asked us to create a name he could monetize with branded merchandise that would appeal to teenage mallrats and bring in cold, hard cash. This was a hard order to fill, but we were up for the challenge. I immediately thought of the name Self Gratification, but Veeno thought it was a little too edgy. Then, inspired by my longtime addiction to frozen yogurt, aversion to alcohol, and fascination with Lindsey Lohan, I came up with the name Rehab. It was fun, fresh and scored 100% on the SMILE & SCRATCH test. (Rena created the equally fun tagline, “Get your fix.”) And our 12-stepper friends assured us that they didn’t find the name or tagline offensive or mean-spirited. We absolutely love the playful identity design, which was created by our talented go-to designer, John Luckett. By turning the R into an Rx symbol with a spoon, the logo instantly communicates that Rehab is related to food. (Hopefully no one interprets it as a coke, crack, or smack spoon.) If the name Rehab makes you smile, please show them some love and “like” them on their new Facebook page.

Introducing our newest megawatt name: Illumineering™

We have never been asked to name a psychotherapy before, but Eat My Words is always up for a challenge. Renowned coach and psychotherapist Lauren Mackler, (and best-selling author of the book we named “Solemate: Master the Art of Aloneness & Transform Your Life), asked us to name her new therapy, which is based on the premise that when we’re born, we are whole, integrated human beings with tremendous potential. As Lauren explained to us, “Growing up, we respond to our life conditioning by adopting habitual patterns of thought and behavior, many of which erode our innate wholeness. We carry these patterns into adulthood, and they shape our feelings, relationships, lives, and careers. Illumineering™ is a groundbreaking coaching method that integrates family systems work, psychodynamic psychology, and coaching.” After exploring a wide range of names, we discovered that combining the words “Illuminate” and “Engineering,” created the perfect word to describe this process: Illumineering. Illumineering™ Relationship Coaching helps people break free of their self-defeating patterns, develop strong interpersonal skills, and create the quality of relationships to which they aspire. Lauren also has developed Illumineering™ Executive Coaching, Illumineering™ Career Coaching, and Illumineering™ Life Coaching.

Wanted for TV: Estranged Family Members Who Would Like To Repair Their Relationship
A national TV news show is doing a segment on Lauren working with estranged family members. They’re looking for 2 estranged family members who would like to repair their relationship. It can be a couple, a parent and child (20s+), or siblings. The estranged pair will spend 3 days working with Lauren, during which she’ll use her Illumineering method to help them identify and address the root causes of the issues that led to the estrangement, and concrete actions they can take to build a healthier and more fulfilling relationship.

If you or someone you know is estranged with a family member and is interested in being part of this groundbreaking segment (which will include working with Lauren on camera), please send an email to info@laurenmackler.com and tell her you were referred by Eat My Words.

Introducing Hand Job, a cheeky new nail salon in the Castro

Introducing Hand Job, a cheeky new nail salon that’s smack in the heart of San Francisco’s gay mecca, the Castro. Like our other “risque” brand name, Spoon Me frozen yogurt, Hand Job has tremendous potential to be monetized through the sale of lotions, potions, polish, t-shirts, totes, and anything else you can slap the logo on and ring up at the register. The jaw-dropping tourists on Castro Street are scooping it up. (Trust me, they do not sell Hand Job tea towels at the Mall of America.) Special thanks to John Luckett for designing a logo that’s playful yet sophisticated and lets the name speak for itself. We love the bold red color, which will make for sleek and sexy holiday and Valentine gifts.

Literally Eating My Words at Spoon Me

In town for Spoon Me founder Ryan Combe’s wedding over the weekend (see next post), thanks to the GPS in my rental car, I managed to hit two Spoon Me locations (and eat Spoon Me at the wedding) in less than 8 hours. Spoon Me is the name that Eat My Words is the most proud of creating. Ryan and his partners David and Wayne have built a cult brand that transcends frozen yogurt and has become one of the hottest franchises on the planet, with projections of 100 new stores within the next 18 months. Spoon Me is a stellar example of how a brand can take a name and run with it. (That’s why we call them names with “legs”.) From the best-selling “Shut Up and Spoon Me” t-shirts to the “No Spooning on Sundays” hours sign, to the Spoon Me movie quote graffiti (“You had me at Spoon Me”) in the bathrooms, there are endless ways to extend the brand through wordplay. Here are photos from my afternoon visit to the original store in Salt Lake City and my late night visit to one of the new super mod locations in Sandy, Utah. Thanks to everyone at Spoon Me for treating me like a celebrity. Can’t wait to come back!

We wrote the book on naming books.

Imagine our surprise when we looked on Amazon a few weeks ago and saw that the book we titled Solemate was ranked #29 on their best seller list and #1 under books on “Depression.” (Nothing depressing about that!) Author Lauren Mackler came to Eat My Words at the eleventh hour, needing an arresting book title for her new book about “mastering the art of aloneness.” Our team tackled the assignment, submitting catchy titles including, Dancing With Myself, Table For One, and Good Enough for Garbo. The winning title, “Solemate” says it all. And readers clearly love it. Babs on Amazon gave it five stars and said, “…who can resist that clever title.”

What do you call "Yelp for pet owners?:

Doggone it, “Yelp” would be the perfect name, but it was taken. So we came up with Breed Trust (and got www.breedtrust.com on GoDaddy for $9.95). When you see the Breed Trust decal in a window of a pet service provider or on their website, you know that it is a business you can trust because, as our taglines says, it’s Owner Recommended. Pet Approved. In addition to user ratings and reviews of local pet businesses, the Breed Trust website will include info on dog and cat breeds, pet travel, and the “Gossip Hound News Browser,” featuring pet news (yes, you can lap up more about Bo!), user reviews of pet-themed books, movies, and TV shows (e.g. I Love Lassie), pet care advice, and of course an online pet store, because pets don’t drive. We’ll yap about it when it launches, but if you want to be the first to know, sign up here.

Announcing a fresh new name for Second Chance Coffee: I HAVE A BEAN

When some people thought the name Second Chance Coffee implied that the beans were recycled, the founders knew it was time for a name change. The name Second Chance stemmed from the mission of the company – to help ex-offenders help themselves by providing gainful post-prison employment, job training and a community of acceptance. The company positively impacts the spiritual, social and economic condition of their employees, their families and the communities in which they live. All that and they make what many people say is the smoothest cup of coffee they have ever tasted. (It’s so smooth, most of their customers drink it black.) Second Chance wanted us to create a memorable name that they could monetize, like we had done for frozen yogurt franchise Spoon Me and the chain of laundromats we named Stuff a Sock in It. After reviewing dozens of names, the top contenders were narrowed down to Happy Joe Lucky, I Dream of Coffee, Thank God It’s Coffee, and I Have a Bean. We felt that I Have a Bean made the biggest emotional connection and had the strongest potential to make our client rich through the sale of t-shirts, mugs and coffee canisters. The client agreed. The tagline we created, “Inspired Coffee” helps set the tone that the company is inspiring people to live better lives. We are thrilled with the package design, which was created by Carrie Dufour and her talented team at Sloat Design. We snatched up www.ihaveabean.com for $9.95 and the site and brand officially launch on June 1st. Until then, follow them on Twitter, at I Have a Bean.

Out of our minds for Brain Thaw

Ex-Microsoft guy John Grispon came to Eat My Words for a cool name and tagline for his new marketing consulting company. Since John helps people put “ideas into action,” we named his company Brain Thaw. We love John and it’s not just because on the side he’s a dreamy print model and was George Clooney’s stand-in on the new flick Up In The Air. Well, okay, that might have something to do with it.

Eat My Dust cleans up in Big Success Business Contest

Congratulations to Eat My Words’ client Russ Goldin of Eat My Dust™ who is one of five finalists in the Comcast Big Success Business Pitch, taking place this Thursday night at the Westin in San Francisco. As you may know, Eat My Dust is the first green commercial janitorial company in Northern California with fundamentally different approach to cleaning. They utilize a science-based cleaning system that removes up to five times more dirt and pollutants than traditional housekeeping. They are competitively priced and 100% sustainable for both the environment and the cleaning worker.

• Kevin Hartz- limited partner of Sequoia Capital, seed investor of Paypal, and co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite
• Christine Comaford-Lynch- angel investor of Google, former VC and bestselling author
• Mark O’Leary – regional vice president of Comcast Business Class
• Amy Errett – Former CEO of Olivia.com and Venture Capitalist with Maveron

Thursday, March 26th
6:15 – 8:30 p.m
Westin San Francisco Market Street
50 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Purchase Tickets Here

We hope to see you there and help Eat My Dust sweep the competition!

Shut Up & Spoon Me – Now Available Online

It seemed as if Hell would freeze over in frozen yogurt before this happened, but after months of anticipation, Spoon Me loot is finally for sale online. Now you can buy your own “Shut Up and Spoon Me” t-shirt and stop trying to steal mine. As most of you know (because we talk about it every chance we get), Eat My Words named Spoon Me, which has become the hottest frozen yogurt franchise on the planet.

Spoon Me has turned their name into cold hard cash by slapping it on everything from bumper stickers to booty shorts. We love making our clients rich and are proud to be the only naming firm that monetizes names through merchandise. (How many t-shirts do you think Spoon Me would have sold if they stuck with their original name, Zenyo?)

Check out the Spoon Me store to see all of the stylish fashions.