Episode #194: How To Pick A Toy Brand Name That Doesn't Suck with Alexandra C Watkins
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In this episode of Making It In The Toy Industry, you'll hear an insightful conversation with our guest Alexandra C. Watkins, the creative genius behind naming consultancy Eat My Words and the innovator of iconic names like Wendy's Baconator.
Watkins shares her expertise on creating memorable and appealing names for toys and toy companies. She's learned firsthand how the power of a catchy name can drive your sales, save you money, and even turn your customers into ambassadors for your products and discusses the importance of familiarity and imagery in making a name memorable, as well as the concept of "legs" for expanding a toy's theme.
We also dive into the emotional connection that a well-crafted name can create with customers and emphasize the significance of avoiding easily misspelled names, not to mention, sharing our own experiences with memorable business names that we feel just got it right!
If you're a toy industry professional looking to create names that resonate with your target audience, this episode is a must-listen. Let's dive into the world of toy naming!
Episode Cliff Notes:
Listen to Alexandra speak on the importance of a name [00:03:06]
Understand trademarking and protecting a Name [00:06:02]
Learn about Alexandra’s moment in creating the Baconator name [00:07:43]
Discover some great naming success stories [00:09:23]
Listen to the importance of memorable names [00:14:21]
Find out about the power of imagery [00:15:08]
What Alexandra means by names with legs [00:17:36]
Listen to the emotional connection names can have [00:20:39]
Hear Alexandra’s advice on avoiding misspellings [00:22:50]
Discover the limitations of restrictive names [00:28:01]
Understand what expanding beyond the initial product means [00:29:36]
More phenomenal advice on avoiding annoying names [00:31:38]
Learn about the curse of knowledge and hard-to-pronounce names [00:33:59]
Find out why not all good names are taken [00:36:30]
Listen on how to create a coherent theme [00:43:07]
Discover engaging language and fan identity [00:43:31]
Listen to both Azhelle and Alexandra’s worst and best names [00:44:14]
Listen to the importance of clear product messaging [00:45:34]
Childhood favorites and services offered [00:48:23]
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This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to Making It in the Toy Industry, episode number 194
[00:00:19] Azhelle Wade: Hey there, toy people! Azhelle Wade here, and welcome back to another episode of the Toy Coach Podcast. Making it in the toy industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by the toy coach.com. Our guest today is going to teach you how to create a brand name that sticks.
[00:00:35] Our guest is Alexandra Watkins and she's a leading and outspoken authority on love at first sight. Brand names her Breakthrough Creativity book. Hello, my name is awesome. I got my copyright here. How to Create Brand Names. That Stick was named a top 10 marketing book by Ink Magazine. She is the founder of naming consultancy, Eat My Words, the only naming firm on the planet that specializes in names that make people smile instead of scratch their heads.
[00:01:03] Her personal name hall of fame includes Wendy's Baconator, the robotic vacuum named Neato, Spanish language school Gringo Lingo. Love that one when I read that in the book. and Frozen Yogurt Franchise Spoon Me. So today we're going to talk about exactly what this book is, why you need to go out and buy it right now.
[00:01:23] Don't worry, I'll give you my Amazon link and, and how it's going to help you create a brand name. But first, Alexandra, welcome to the show.
[00:01:30] Alexandra C Watkins: Thank you so much. And hi, toy people. It's so exciting to be here. I love toys. I live in a world of toys and color and fun. So this was Just, I was so excited when Ajal invited me to be on her podcast.
[00:01:46] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, you're so, I love your teaching style. You are a tough coach in this book. You are like, this name sucks. This name's great. It's so good. And I love that you want to create names that make people smile. Your, the names you come up with are playful and bold, just much like toys.
[00:02:07] Alexandra C Watkins: Yes, that's why I love toys probably.
[00:02:09] It's good. It's a good match. And yeah, they're like toys make people smile. So yeah, it's perfect fit.
[00:02:16] Azhelle Wade: Have you ever developed a brand name for the toy industry?
[00:02:20] Alexandra C Watkins: I did some work for Hasbro. I don't know if, if any, I don't think the toy ever saw the light of day. That happens a lot when you work with big companies.
[00:02:29] Yeah, for sure. But, but no, no, I haven't. And I would love to. We've certainly worked with a gazillion companies. Yeah. But yeah, I'd love to do more toys.
[00:02:39] Azhelle Wade: Well, let's let this episode be your pitch. Okay, toy companies, if you're listening, you're going to find out how Eat My Words can help you name your next big toy.
[00:02:47] First, I want to start, Alexandra, why do you think a name is important? If someone is listening, maybe a major toy company, maybe a startup, and they're saying, I don't know, it sounds cool, but I don't think a name is so important for my toy. I think just the toy function itself is important. What would you say to that?
[00:03:03] Oh
[00:03:04] Alexandra C Watkins: my gosh, no, think about, think about toys that have just endured for years, right? So I was looking up the top toys of last year and like, Lightbrite was on the list. Like they had Lightbrite when I was a kid, which is a very long time ago. you know, look at Slinky. Right? So all of these names that have just been around for decades and decades.
[00:03:25] So yeah, a name is really important. And I think in the toy industry, more than, more than almost any other industry, because kids ask for toys by name, right? So they're not, they're not often not who's buying the toy. The parents are buying the toy for the kid, but the kid has to ask for the toy. It needs to be memorable.
[00:03:45] Right? So the parents can remember it, but yeah, the toy, you know, kids, kids are talking about it. You know, you want your, the name of your toy to spread like wildfire. So yeah, I think the name is so important. Not just, not just the product, but the name of your toy company as well.
[00:04:02] Azhelle Wade: That's great. And we're going to get into kind of the do's and don'ts that you say in the book.
[00:04:06] But one thing I have to point out, because I was reading it more recently, was when you brought up a name, the name Travago. And you were saying that this isn't a great name. And then at one point you address the reader and says, I know reader, you might be thinking, what Travago is a great name. But no, it's that they've spent millions of dollars in marketing budgets to hammer it into your head.
[00:04:28] And then you ask the question, what's your marketing budget? So I want to, I want to float that as a good name could save you money, right? A good name can make other people want to share the name of your brand. A good name could, you even mentioned this in your book, could have your customers wanting to market your product in the form of t shirts and things without you having to ask them because it Connects with them or allows them to showcase a piece of themselves, right?
[00:04:56] Alexandra C Watkins: Oh, exactly. Yeah. I mean, there's no greater feeling than your customer wanting to pay you to advertise your product for you and wear it on a t shirt or have it on a mug or, you know, any of the other gazillion places that your toy name could appear. So yeah, that, that's great. And I mean, I think it's just so, you know, the, the name will last longer than any other investment you make in your toy, right?
[00:05:22] So think of it that way, or in your company, right? Your name is going to last longer than your most loyal employee, right? You'll refresh your logo over time, but your name will stay the same. You might change your tagline, the name will stay the same. You'll launch new toys. still have the same name of your company.
[00:05:43] Azhelle Wade: And what that makes me think of is people are often asking me, Aijel, should I trademark the name of my toy? And it, you know, for toy inventors and entrepreneurs, That answer varies, but the reason you would trademark your toy is because you intend to invest significant time and money in promoting it. So you want to promote a good name, right?
[00:06:04] You don't want to be starting and promoting a bad name and then you have to change it and now you've spent all this time promoting a bad name.
[00:06:12] Alexandra C Watkins: Oh, exactly. So yeah, you do need to protect it. And if anyone needs a referral to a trademark attorney, Just send me an email. I, I, it's Alexandra at eatmywords.
[00:06:24] com and I will hook you up with a great trademark firm. But yeah, it's important to protect your brand and, and definitely if you decide not to trademark your name. At least do your diligence and, you know, have an attorney, trademark screener, search it to make sure no one else is using it because, yeah, you don't want to get the, the dreaded cease and desist letter.
[00:06:47] But the thing
[00:06:47] Azhelle Wade: I'm pointing out is, is the importance of trademarking comes. from use and promotion of that name. So like, you do want to trademark and protect when you know you're going to put time and money into it, and then that goes back to what you originally said. You're going to put time and money into that name, and it's so important that it's the right name from the beginning.
[00:07:06] So like, don't even get started, right?
[00:07:09] Alexandra C Watkins: Oh, yeah. No. And the last thing you want to do is launch with one name thinking, well, I'm in a hurry. I can't think of anything good, but I'll just rename it later. Like don't do that. Just get it right from the beginning and don't spend any, any money or time redoing it later.
[00:07:24] Okay,
[00:07:25] Azhelle Wade: before we go into your techniques for, you know, checking your name, making sure you have a good name, I have to ask you, can you share, like, anything about the story of how you came up with the Baconator? Because that's something that most of us know. We, do you have stories to share around
[00:07:42] Alexandra C Watkins: that? Yeah, so the Baconator, so I was freelancing for another firm who got the assignment from Wendy's.
[00:07:50] They were a strategic name development. And they gave me the creative brief to name a new bacon cheeseburger for Wendy's. And something that really struck me in the creative brief was it had to be a name that the truck drivers would Be comfortable ordering. And like, so that's where the Baconator, like that was a huge inspiration for me.
[00:08:11] It was just thinking of a truck driver ordering it. And what's so awesome about the Baconator. First of all, the Baconator has its own Wikipedia page, right? It's old. It's sold 26 million units the first six weeks it was introduced. There is son of Baconator, Baconator fries. There is. Pringles has Baconator flavor, so yeah, it's taken on a life of its own.
[00:08:37] I saw a license plate the other day that said Baconator that someone sent me, and I'm absolutely sure a lot of people have named their dog the Baconator. Can you
[00:08:46] Azhelle Wade: go back in time? Do you remember, just, I would love to hear your entire thought process, like, I got the brief, I sat down, I started writing down this, and then I started looking at this.
[00:08:55] I would love to just, like, feel like I'm watching a movie of you
[00:08:58] Alexandra C Watkins: naming this. Yeah, I have, there's certain names that I, I definitely remember when inspiration struck. I mean, one of my, sometimes, and sometimes they come really fast to me. And then other times I've spent a lot of time, but one that came really quickly was I was naming a.
[00:09:17] A wedding brunch, and this is for a hipster hotel in San Francisco, the Hotel Vitale. And they wanted cool names for their wedding services so they would be more appealing to people getting married who would want to book them. So it was, it was called, you know. wedding brunch. Not really exciting. So I asked my client over the phone, what do people drink?
[00:09:41] What do people eat and drink at wedding brunches? And she said, oh, they drink Bloody Mary's. And I'm like, there's your name, Bloody Married. So that became the name.
[00:09:52] Azhelle Wade: So good. And this, I remember from your book, this one, you have direct correlation to bookings and sales developed by this name, right? Can you share?
[00:10:02] Yes.
[00:10:02] Alexandra C Watkins: Yes. So I'll tell you, there was, there was five names that we did for them. So we took boring names. All the names were in a binder that the bride and groom could look through when they were touring the hotel and talking about services. So there was co ed wedding shower. Which became Shower Together.
[00:10:20] There was, the rehearsal dinner became Meet the Parents. the post reception bar rental became last call for alcohol. And then we had bloody married for the brunch and there was a, oh my gosh, it just slipped off my brain. I knew what it was. So, you know, when you go to, when you go to a hotel, either, you know, for a wedding and a big group, a reunion, a conference, something.
[00:10:50] Yeah. Yeah. It was called the, they called it the group rate, you know, just ask for the group rate, you know, it's pretty standard. So we named it the entourage rate. Love it.
[00:10:59] Azhelle Wade: And tell me, how did that affect sales? All these names?
[00:11:03] Alexandra C Watkins: Oh, right. So just by changing the names in a binder, that's all they did. So they couldn't attribute it to, Oh, we had a new logo.
[00:11:11] We had a campaign. No, all they did was change the words in a binder and sales went up by 25%.
[00:11:18] Azhelle Wade: Oh my gosh. The best, probably the best investment they'd made in a long time. Yeah. There was one quote in your book, people, and it was a statistics, I think it was a quote you pulled from statistics, people, 50 percent of people, I believe it's 50 percent buy on emotion.
[00:11:33] Can you
[00:11:34] Alexandra C Watkins: restate that for me? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. More than 50 percent of buying decisions are based on emotion. And a good way to think about this is, If you, if you buy wine, unless you are really a wine connoisseur, most, most and most people aren't. They shop by the label. So, you know, how often have you seen a name of a wine and you just appreciated the name that made you smile, so you bought it.
[00:11:58] Mm hmm. Yeah. That's buying on emotion.
[00:12:01] Azhelle Wade: Love it. Okay. Let's get down to business. I feel like we have. interested people now. They're like, okay, 25%. Okay, Baconator. Okay. So tell us how we can apply this to toys. So let's talk about some of the tools that you use to identify whether a name is good or bad. You have SMILE and you have SCRATCH.
[00:12:21] And what are those acronyms mean?
[00:12:23] Alexandra C Watkins: Okay, so, so smile and scratch, it's, there, I have a test called the smile and scratch test and it is a 12 point name evaluation test and it's based on my philosophy that a name should make you smile instead of scratch your head. Smile is an acronym for the five qualities that make a name awesome, scratch is the flip side of that when you should scratch it off the list because the name makes people scratch their head.
[00:12:52] So smile, the good, the good part, the S stands for suggestive. You want your name to suggest something fun. About your product? It can be not well, it doesn't. Well, yeah. Toys, I mean, come on. Yeah, it should, it should just suggest something about your product. It can either be what it does or it can be like just a feeling that they get using it.
[00:13:15] and a feeling that what for everyone
[00:13:17] Azhelle Wade: that you say, I'm gonna interject after you finish the letter and share a toy. If I can think of one or relate it if I can. Yeah. You share one. Okay. So you share for
[00:13:26] Alexandra C Watkins: smiles. I have them too. First smile, you're you for suggestive. What do you have?
[00:13:31] Azhelle Wade: Well, just that one, it makes me think of Little Rebels, which is a, a smaller com, a smaller brand, but her brand is a bunch of, like it's a women Empowerment plus line, but it's, it's called Little Rebels.
[00:13:45] So I feel like the Rebels might be the suggestive piece.
[00:13:48] Alexandra C Watkins: Yeah, I like that. Yeah. Okay. one of my, suggestive toy name that I like is a company name called Fat Brain. Yes. Because I think Fat Brain says smart, but fat. Fat is a funny word. Yes. It makes people laugh. And when I talk about why we're named Eat My Words, I often say, because we started out naming things that make people fat and drunk.
[00:14:10] And that just always makes people laugh. So fat brain, fat brain is a really creative way to say like, you're going to get smart. And a playful way. Yeah. It's playful. It's fun. It appeals to kids. It makes people smile. It's super memorable. Yeah. It's, it's got everything going for it. So that's one that I love.
[00:14:31] So, the M in smile stands for memorable. Everyone wants a memorable name, obviously, but what makes something memorable? Well, what it is, and this is scientifically studied, is that something is memorable if you're, if you already have an association with it. So if you, if your brain already recognizes it, it's going to be easier to remember because it's not going to be foreign and new to you.
[00:14:57] So an example is hula hoop. Right? People know what the hula is, right? It's a dance. We know what a hoop is. The product is in the shape of a hoop. The hula hoop, and it's got that great alliteration too, which also makes it memorable because, you know, the words start with the same letter and lots of toys do that.
[00:15:17] I'm just going to give you, I wrote down a couple, see and spell, slip and slide, beanie baby. and yo yo. Right? Okay. Those are all fun names
[00:15:27] Azhelle Wade: too. Yeah. I see where you're going. I see where you're going. Okay.
[00:15:30] Alexandra C Watkins: Yeah. So you want your name to have, be familiar instead of something that people, they're, they don't know what it is.
[00:15:38] Especially with kids too. It's going to be harder for kids to relate to. Would
[00:15:42] Azhelle Wade: LOL surprise fall into that one?
[00:15:45] Alexandra C Watkins: LOL. Well, people, yeah, people know LOL and surprise. They know LOL. Yeah. Okay. All right. Next one. Okay. Let me give you an example. Okay. And it's not, and it's still around all these years later.
[00:15:57] It's Tamaguchi. Do you remember?
[00:16:00] Azhelle Wade: Tamagotchi? Oh, maybe it's Tamagotchi. Yeah, Tamagotchi. Okay, well, this is already a proof of concept of why it's
[00:16:06] Alexandra C Watkins: Tamagotchi. Right. But I remember when it first came out. I waited in line for hours. This is when I lived in San Francisco, and they were selling them at FAO Schwartz.
[00:16:15] And yeah, I stood in the big line. And, yeah, but that name, it was so foreign to people, right? Yeah. But yeah, so I think it could have had a cuter name, but you know, I was glad to see it today when I was looking at toy names that it is still around and popular. Now they make it in a wristwatch, which I thought was really fun.
[00:16:35] yeah, so that's the M and the I in SMILE stands for imagery. When people hear your name, if they can picture it in their head, it's going to make it easier for them to recall it later from their brain's dusty filing cabinet. So an example of a name, a terrific imagery is Beast Lab. Right? You hear Beast Lab and you can just imagine, even if you've never seen the product, you can imagine creating a beast, right?
[00:17:03] Like it's just so, like, Beast and Lab are both two really good names. And like, it's also giving, it's a very emotional name. Like it's like, Ooh, I'm going to create something. And it sounds a lot of like, it's a lot of fun. And it is cool.
[00:17:17] Azhelle Wade: I just played with that toy. Did you really? Yes. Like yesterday. Oh my gosh.
[00:17:21] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
[00:17:24] Alexandra C Watkins: you have a fun, you and I both have really fun jobs.
[00:17:27] Azhelle Wade: I'm a little jealous of your job, I'm not going to lie. When I'm reading this book, I'm like, Oh my God, what a great job. Okay. What, so that's M, wait, no, that's I, sorry.
[00:17:36] Alexandra C Watkins: Yeah. I, imagery. And then the L in SMILE stands for LEGS. And LEGS means your name lends itself to a theme.
[00:17:44] So one that, that I like a lot is, another kids learning company. a kid's toy company. It's LeapFrog. So LeapFrog, of course, we all know LeapFrog, the childhood game. And then LeapFrog, of course, there's all the puns that go along with frogs, all the frog lingo. But like they have a product that with many different iterations of it, and it's called the LeapPad.
[00:18:09] So it's like a, you know, almost like an iPad, LeapPad. So, you know, Lilypad, Leapad, so that's a name with legs, but I think a lot of toys have legs in just that the toy can lend itself to other iterations of the toy, but, and another name that could have had legs. Oh. Well,
[00:18:30] Azhelle Wade: I have to say here. You're going to give me examples.
[00:18:33] Well, no, no, no. No, it's not that. When you, when I got to the legs part of the book, you had me looking at my own brand and I was like, Oh, why am I not extending the toy stuff to all of my services? Because I believe this is where you kind of talked about your services, right? And how you name your services to fit in your brand kind of, like ecosystem or theme.
[00:18:58] Alexandra C Watkins: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like I have a new one and it's called Fun Size, you know, like the, like the Halloween candy Fun Size. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's like a smaller serving. So yeah, Fun Size, we have Supermarket Special. So yeah. You see, you
[00:19:13] Azhelle Wade: need to, I was like, so I would, I was like reading this book, I've marked up this book incessantly with all the names I was inspired to come up with while I was reading it.
[00:19:20] So you, listener, you need to get it right now. but. I was like, yeah, like my toy. Right now I have a toy clarity call and that's like the intro call. But I'm like, that's not it. It's like the toy something to go with the toy coach. It has to be, it's something else. And I'm, I'm excited to dive into that after yeah.
[00:19:39] Yes.
[00:19:40] Alexandra C Watkins: I think that's great. Yeah. You can have a lot of fun with that. Yeah. And you should also have a thing when you have a name with legs. You can also have a theme song. So, for instance, at Eat My Words, my theme song is Sugar Sugar by the Archies, and my backup song is The Candyman. What do you do with those songs?
[00:20:00] sometimes if I'm doing a webinar, I'll play, or I'm being introduced on stage, they'll play the song first, just like to get the crowd warmed up. So yeah. That's such a
[00:20:11] Azhelle Wade: great idea. Yeah. I like you
[00:20:15] Alexandra C Watkins: can have fun. And, and a name of legs, like, you know, you can extend it to your, you know, your wireless network, your guest.
[00:20:22] Network or guest password, like, you know, and eat my words, the, the guest, our office is called Candyland. Like, we
[00:20:30] Azhelle Wade: have a lot of fun. You know what? That's great. Wow. Okay. And what's after legs?
[00:20:36] Alexandra C Watkins: after legs is E stands for emotional, and this is obviously really important. You want your name to make an emotional connection with, with your target audience.
[00:20:46] So, and I think so many names do that. I mean, one that I love is Tickle Me Elmo, and you know, that was the best selling toy one year. So yeah, and anytime, I think anytime something's fun, obviously that's a huge emotional connection to make. like yo yo we talked about. Yo yo is just a fun name, right? Or wiffle ball.
[00:21:08] Wiffle is a really cool word. I think a lot of times with toys too, if there's a lot of coined or made up names, so like Gumby, Gumby, right? Or Canoodle, or Frisbee, or, you
[00:21:21] Azhelle Wade: know, Slinky. There's a couple of brands I'm thinking about. There's one, Pixicade. Which is it's like a digital game that you create yourself and then you play it, but it's got this like old school look to it, so it's like arcade with pixels, and I feel like it has this vintage feeling to it when you hear the name, and there's this other one called marbles, which I'm not sure, like I love that one, but I was curious what you would think about it, I love it because it makes me think of marshmallows and they literally look like little marshmallows, and it's spelled phonetically.
[00:21:52] Absolutely. Which I know is good in your book. Wait, what's it called?
[00:21:57] Alexandra C Watkins: Marbles. Marbles, like M A,
[00:22:00] Azhelle Wade: marbles. M A R M A L S. Oh, marbles. Marbles. I don't,
[00:22:07] Alexandra C Watkins: I'm, I'm not in love with that one, but I just, you know, I saw those little squishy toys. huh. Are they called Yeah. There's many brands. There's
[00:22:17] Azhelle Wade: Squishables, there's Squishmallows.
[00:22:21] There's a few more that come out, yeah.
[00:22:24] Alexandra C Watkins: But what's so weird about Squishmallows and the word marshmallow is it's spelled mallow. Have you ever noticed that?
[00:22:31] Azhelle Wade: I have. Yeah. And it tripped me up for a while. When I would write about Squishmallows, I kept having to check myself. So yeah. And that is a really good point.
[00:22:41] So that's something that you point out. You pointed out in the book, you don't want a name that is hard, easy to misspell, right? Because you don't want to have to ever. Oh, I love the examples. Can you share the examples you gave in your book of you don't want every time you're on a sales call to be explaining?
[00:22:55] Alexandra C Watkins: Right. So this was the example I give is a children's. It's an organic baby clothing company and it was named Species and it was spelled S P E E S E E S. And you know, can you imagine like working there and like making calls all day and you know, leaving voicemails and this is Stacy at Species and you know, spelling your name Stacy with an E, spelling out Species.
[00:23:24] And then the reason Species said on their website that they spelled it. That they named it Species is because that's how babies would spell Species if babies could spell. That's ridiculous. Totally ridiculous. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. The word right out of my mouth. Ridiculous. Yeah. Okay.
[00:23:43] Azhelle Wade: I have to say your smile, guidelines.
[00:23:47] I was at a toy industry event last night and I didn't have any cards, which as I'm saying this, I'm reminding myself, I need to get cards ASAP. I didn't have any cards. This woman said, can I get your card? I'm really impressed with the video you just took. And I said, I don't have any, but my name is the toy coach.
[00:24:03] And she looks at me and she smiles. And I was like, Oh, Alexandra. So she smiles and she's like, Oh, that's so easy to remember. Yeah. And she really quite enjoyed it. And I bring that up also to say when I was first starting my business, I knew right away it was not going to be my name. My name is beautiful.
[00:24:23] My sister made it up. I love it. I love when people learn it. It's, it's, I feel like it's a little sexy, like I love my name, but it's not a good business name, you know, until I become like Beyonce famous. This is not a good business name, right? So we need a name that's memorable. And in your book, you talked exactly about that once you started explaining the scratch test and you had another, you had a client who knew her name also was not going to be it.
[00:24:49] so please, I would love you to tell us about the scratch test as well. And how do people know when their name just isn't
[00:24:55] Alexandra C Watkins: it? Yeah. Thank you. That's, and yeah, the toy coach is great. It's super simple. It's easy to remember. And it's also. something that people need. And so when they hear it, I'm sure it does make a strong connection because they're like, I need a coach.
[00:25:10] I need somebody to tell me how to navigate this process. So yeah, it's perfect for you. But yeah, when people use their own name, it is hard. like your name, like Your name is hard for people to spell and pronounce. And yeah, I was asking you, how do you spell it phonetically? And you told me A H A H J. Yes.
[00:25:31] That was perfect. Right? But yeah, I'm sure people butcher your name all the time. Yeah. And you don't want them to do that with your company name or product name. So scratch, that S in scratch stands for spelling challenge. And we've talked about that a little bit. you, you don't want your name to look like a typo.
[00:25:50] Now, I will say this, toys sometimes can get a pass because like, you know, Trix cereal, T R I X. Yes, yes, yes. Or I think of Bratz, B R A T Z, right? Yeah, yeah. So I think ending the name with the X or a Z is okay. Yes. But if you can avoid it, avoid it. but a lot of people spell their names. Incorrectly, because they want an available domain name, but look, put the word toys in your URL and then you're fine.
[00:26:27] You'll get the name.
[00:26:29] Azhelle Wade: I want to share a story because before I was the toy coach, I started a company called Costumize Me, and it was a costume, an event wear company. So the name was, I really love. the name. I still do like the name. However, I did come into an issue with the spelling because of SEO. So even if somebody could spell out, costumize me, hopefully, you know, there's the first problem.
[00:26:55] When they put it in, Google says, Oh, did you mean, and they just changed it. So sometimes when I was in the early days and building it up, My website wouldn't come up because Google would automatically fix the spelling.
[00:27:10] Alexandra C Watkins: And that
[00:27:11] Azhelle Wade: just adds more power to your argument of you want, you don't want the spelling to be kind of incorrect.
[00:27:18] Alexandra C Watkins: That's interesting. And I've never thought of that. Thank you for that. I will, when I write the third edition of my book, I'm going to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good one. The first C in Scratch is copycat. So. It was interesting how you were talking about all the squishables because it sounds like there's a lot of squishable names, but yeah, you don't want to be a copycat.
[00:27:42] I mean, you don't want people's first reaction when they hear your name to be, you know, kind of to roll their eyes and think like, Oh, they copied so and so. Plus, you open yourself up to trademark infringement when you
[00:27:54] Azhelle Wade: do that. I remember when everyone was doing I everything I felt was so
[00:28:00] Alexandra C Watkins: Yeah. I'm so glad we're past that.
[00:28:02] Right.
[00:28:04] Azhelle Wade: Right. So, what's after, copycat? R in
[00:28:11] Alexandra C Watkins: scratch stands for restrictive and not is where your name locks you in and it limits future growth. I can't think of a toy. I'm sure they're out there, but I couldn't think of a toy or toy company that's done that. But I guess, you know, an example would be if you,
[00:28:32] Azhelle Wade: I think I might have one.
[00:28:35] What about hair durables? You're like, what is that? It's a doll line and it focused on hair product. The reason I think it's limiting is obviously the hair focus, but the durables locks an age range. Doesn't it?
[00:28:53] Alexandra C Watkins: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it does. It
[00:28:55] Azhelle Wade: makes you visualize young and cutesy. And it actually wasn't really young and cutesy, it was more like Bratz Barbie.
[00:29:03] Alexandra C Watkins: Oh, yeah, you got to be careful. When you go young, you're going to turn off the older kids and it's always better to go a little older and be aspirational than to go younger and try to appeal to everyone.
[00:29:16] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, I'm thinking that one. I'm trying to think if there's something. And give us examples of non toy items that might kind of inspire me.
[00:29:25] Okay.
[00:29:25] Alexandra C Watkins: Let's see. So we're on restrictive. Yeah. Oh, well, so 1 800 FLOWERS sells way more than flowers, 24 hour fitness, right? 24 hour fitness is no longer open 24 hours everywhere. Hotels tonight, you can now, used to be just to get a hotel for the night. Now you can reserve a hotel up to a year in advance.
[00:29:49] Azhelle Wade: Okay. I do have one. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay, Goliath Games. So they are actually rebranding to like, Toys and Games, I think, or it's, it's Goliath Toys and Games, I believe. I'm sorry, friend, if you're listening. I know, like, the presidents are listening to me. but yeah, they were originally Goliath Games, and they have amazing games, they're well known, but now they're trying to expand, and they do have to do a little bit of a rebrand, because what happens in the toy industry, when you go to these toy trade shows, You'll your name will be on a floor plan and buyers will look through the floor plan and see the show specials and see who they want to visit.
[00:30:24] So if your name says you do games, then the buyer looking for toys may say, Oh, maybe that's not for me. So that restrictive as to what you sell, it's very, Oh, and actually another one, my friend Ron over at South Beach bubbles. So they do bubbles. This is a better one. South Beach Bubbles, they do amazing bubbles, but now they're expanding into toys and games.
[00:30:47] So you'll see their logo has been updated to say South Beach Bubbles Toys and Games, but that, that is
[00:30:52] Alexandra C Watkins: one. Yeah, I could see that. Well, leases are easy, easy changes than changing your name completely.
[00:30:59] Azhelle Wade: Yes, yes. Yeah. It's not like Hotel Tonight. Like, literally, that's the whole name. You can't just take out the tonight and fix it.
[00:31:05] Right. Right. Hotel tonight and tomorrow .
[00:31:09] Alexandra C Watkins: Right. But like a better name for hotel tonight that's cheeky is get a room. Right. Oh. 'cause that, right. I think that was probably the original intention of hotel tonight to be get a room, be like sassy. Yeah. Yeah. But get a room works any day of the year. Right.
[00:31:27] Azhelle Wade: Love that. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. Yeah. Okay. I, I have a, I have a, I'm gonna write down a question you're inspiring a question for me that we need, this is gonna be your closing question, but, okay. Go on. What's your, what's. Okay. What's the A?
[00:31:38] Alexandra C Watkins: The A stands for annoying. And annoying is when you spell something backwards, for instance, or you have a number in your name, anything that's going to cause friction for your customers, you don't want in your name, right?
[00:31:54] You want your name to be frustration free. So, I don't see it. In toys very often, can you think of any that are annoying?
[00:32:04] Azhelle Wade: I can, and you know what's really funny? I can't remember the whole name because once it gets to that number, it, it like makes my brain short circuit. So it's, it's a studio I believe called Create, but it's an eight and it's like creative something, creative studio, but there is a toy studio that does that.
[00:32:25] Alexandra C Watkins: Yes. So that's a good, that's actually a really good segue for me to say what something I love to say is just because it's creative doesn't mean it's a good name, right? So, right. We R-A-T-Y-V, you know. Oh yeah. That is a very creative, but is it a good idea? No, ,
[00:32:49] Azhelle Wade: what did you, what do you think about Toys Russ's
[00:32:51] Alexandra C Watkins: name?
[00:32:52] Oh my god, don't even get me started on that name. That Oh, why? I actually wrote about it. I wrote about it I know you did. I know. I wrote about it in my book. I wish I could remember exactly what I said, but I think I said it manages to break, like, it manages to violate, like, what, seven
[00:33:09] Azhelle Wade: different... No, no. It violates rules in seven letters or something like that.
[00:33:12] Oh,
[00:33:12] Alexandra C Watkins: yeah. Yeah, it's right. Yeah. Like, it's... It's grammatically incorrect. Like, yeah, you're teaching kids grammatically incorrect. Like, yeah, the, oh my gosh. No, the name is so wrong.
[00:33:23] Azhelle Wade: So wrong. And, and then the, I remember when I was a kid, I, we used to go to Toys R Us all the time. Love Toys R Us. And the R was backwards.
[00:33:31] And I remember it just confused me to no end. Like, I was so confused by it. And I was just like, maybe it's broken. I remember thinking like, did it fall? I don't, I don't know. It's like so confused. I didn't understand what the branding was as
[00:33:47] Alexandra C Watkins: a kid. Yeah, that is a silly name. I forgot that was in my book.
[00:33:50] Yeah.
[00:33:51] Azhelle Wade: Oh yeah. You had a few toy references in your book. This is Kismet. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. So your next C, what's that stand for?
[00:34:00] Alexandra C Watkins: That stands for the curse of knowledge. And that is where only insiders get it. So, if there was, I don't, this is more of something that tech companies are guilty of. Okay. So, or people that, okay, if you name your company something in a foreign language.
[00:34:24] So, like, I'll give you an example. I think a lot of people know the kitchen, kitchen utensil store, cooking store, Surla Taub. But it looks like it's spelled Surla Table. Yes. Right? That drives me crazy. Yeah. People, I'm sure people pronounce it Surla Table because it is the word table, right? It doesn't...
[00:34:46] And it's, it's like kitchen stuff. Why wouldn't it be table? But yeah, that's like when people get to be a little too creative for their own good. And then it's gonna look, it's gonna, this is what happens when you have a name like that. It's going to frustrate, it's going to frustrate people. It's going to embarrass people.
[00:35:03] And that, that actually goes right into the H, which is hard to pronounce. Right. Here's what happens when you have a name that's hard to pronounce. Let's say your company was Surla Top, and I was introducing you to someone and saying like, Oh, she has this amazing kitchen company called Surla Table. And then you would like have to correct me, which would be embarrassing for you.
[00:35:24] It'd be super embarrassing for me for saying it wrong. Right? So like, it just, it frustrates everyone. So you know, think of a good way to relate to that is think of... Think of being in a foreign restaurant and wanting to order something on the menu and you didn't know how to pronounce it. So maybe you pointed to it or you try to like say what some of the ingredients were of the chicken.
[00:35:49] Yeah. Or you just didn't order it, right? No one wants to embarrass themselves or, you know, like we all want to avoid the cringe.
[00:35:56] Azhelle Wade: So the last two from scratch make me think about in sales, you always think about you want to give people an easy yes. And when you put barriers, like they don't even want to say your company name, you know, that is, is taking away money from your sales.
[00:36:12] Like they're afraid to come into a store and say, Oh, can I get the, nevermind. What dolls do you have? I'll pick whatever I, you know, like, you don't want that to happen. So that's it. That's a great one. So, okay, you sparked a question for me. If people are listening to this and they're thinking, but like, Alexandra.
[00:36:35] All the good names are taken, and I think the name I have is good enough. Like, should I really spend my time trying to figure out, like, everything's taken? What would I do?
[00:36:45] Alexandra C Watkins: Everything's not taken. Otherwise, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be in business. No, it, it, It's your stock, but I can either help you get unstuck or, you know, we'll come up with something for you.
[00:36:59] But yeah, no, we, we come up with so many names and we have many different ways of coming up with them and all of our sources for looking for ideas, but yeah, not all the names are taken. They're really not. And we, we make up new names all the time. So just, we invent new words. Do you
[00:37:16] Azhelle Wade: have a story, a story at all about a, maybe a client that you worked with where their name drove PR for them?
[00:37:24] Yeah.
[00:37:26] Alexandra C Watkins: Yeah, the frozen yogurt franchise that we named SpoonMe, they got so much mileage out of the name SpoonMe. I mean, that was one of those names where people loved the name. You know it's a good name if people loved the product or company before they've even tried it, right? It's a SpoonMe before they were open.
[00:37:50] Instead of saying, coming soon, their sign said, spooning soon, on the, on the doors to their stores, it said, no shirt, no shoes, no spoon. And most of their stores were in Utah, where nothing's open on Sunday. So it said, no spooning on Sunday, and in their hour, you know, it would have the hours and the minutes.
[00:38:13] Oh, that's really cute. Yeah, spooning on Sunday. Yeah. And they had, you know, t shirts like, shut up and spoon me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A bumper sticker that said, if you're, if you're driving this close, you might as well spoon me. Yeah. So they got. Tons of mileage out of their name.
[00:38:28] Azhelle Wade: You, you have inspired me to no end.
[00:38:31] I really like, really, you, you have inspired me to no end and I, and I have to say any listeners listening, get Hello, My Name is Awesome. This book is incredible. You will just write all over it the way I did. I'm sorry. I use my books like notebooks. I have to, like, that's all my inspiration comes in. but I do, we're, we're not done.
[00:38:49] So one of the key questions I wrote down for you, how do you stay so fresh? and witty. What are you reading? What are you watching? What are you listening to? How do you keep your mind so on top of it?
[00:39:04] Alexandra C Watkins: Well, okay, I told you I surround myself with toys like this is my, oh, that's my clock, right? It's like a little robot.
[00:39:12] It's like a little robot and he has roach clips for hands. yeah, so I surround myself with things that are really colorful and fun. Like you can see my Barbie, Ferrari, Barbie Corvette behind me. I've I'm not new on the Barbie bandwagon, but I'm going to be Barbie for Halloween. You are? Oh, fantastic.
[00:39:32] Yeah. Yeah. We're having a big Halloween party. I'm super, because I don't have to be over. I
[00:39:40] Azhelle Wade: live in San Diego. Yeah. Oh, okay. All right. Well, I can't, I can't come over. All right.
[00:39:47] Alexandra C Watkins: I surround myself with fun things and yeah, I'm looking out over I have a, I live in my Barbie dream house and I have like, you know, two giant pink flamingos floating in the pool. Their names are Maui and Wowie. I have just, you know, we have our, we were one of those houses on Halloween that always has cool decorations.
[00:40:09] And one year, so we have this pirate in our palm tree outside. We just decided to keep it in the tree, you know, because like the kids love it. Yeah. Like, you know, I just have fun all the time. So his name is Artie. And then we started adding pirates. And so now, one year I was bringing in the skeleton pirates, and I was like, I put them in the backyard because our decorations had been, it was like almost Christmas, you know, the Halloween decorations and stuff.
[00:40:37] And so I'm like, okay, I'm just going to put everything in the backyard for now. And I'm like, wait a minute. I'm going to just leave these. We have a tiki bar. So one of the pirates is at the tiki bar. Another one is like by the pirate chest that we have. And so yeah, we have a surfboard fence with all these colorful surfboards.
[00:40:54] And yeah, I just, I'm a big believer in like color. Stimulation. Yeah, total. Like you have it right behind you, right? I know.
[00:41:03] Azhelle Wade: I love color. I, yeah, I need. To see new things. I love when I have like a picture or something on my wall where every time I look at it I'm like, oh, I never noticed that. You know what I mean?
[00:41:14] Yeah. I didn't notice that brush stroke. Like, that's
[00:41:16] Alexandra C Watkins: so nice. For anybody that's watching this instead of listening, you can see, oh wait, oh my gosh. What is that lady back there? That's my skateboard. And then this is my, that's a skateboard. Can you? Yeah, that's a skateboard. And then that's my pink. Oh, I love
[00:41:34] Azhelle Wade: your space.
[00:41:36] Alexandra C Watkins: She's
[00:41:36] Azhelle Wade: got a blue wall and a white brick
[00:41:38] Alexandra C Watkins: wall and a baby pink,
[00:41:40] Azhelle Wade: a baby pink fridge that says names, like a license plate that says names and dream job. Can
[00:41:47] Alexandra C Watkins: you see my stuffed animal sofa? Okay.
[00:41:49] Azhelle Wade: Her sofa is partially clear with stuffed animals filling the clear portion. And that is the, that is the coolest sofa I've ever seen.
[00:42:00] Thank you. That is really cool. Yeah. We would be friends. We got to hang out. So, wait. Oh, no. You, oh, you inspired me. So, a great idea for toy companies listening and if they want to work with you, you should think about this. So, oftentimes toy companies will pitch buyers like programs, right? Like two feet, four feet programs because if you sell in a program, you just make more all at once and you get a bigger statement so you can, you can usually generate more sell through.
[00:42:29] Thank you. With your naming strategy, I don't know that I've seen a line intentionally executed with a naming strategy as part of it. So I'm in a buyer meeting, you're always showing them the visuals, and you're always showing them the function of the product. And you're trying to get them to be excited about the game.
[00:42:49] But like, what if you're also getting them excited about the name? So you sell them maybe like the base product, which is like the holiday item, the higher ticket item. And then as you show them the refill packs or the smaller packs, like the lower price points, all those names connect back to that larger item.
[00:43:07] So whether it's all pirate themed or whatever the theme is, so that with every introduction of a new product, you're getting, giving that buyer another smile on their face like, Oh, that's so cute. How it aligns with that first item. That's what you started making me think of when you're talking through your, your backyard actually.
[00:43:25] Yeah.
[00:43:25] Alexandra C Watkins: Absolutely. And another thing you can do too is you can talk about like, the language of your product. So let like what your, what your fans are gonna call themselves, right? Yes. Yes. So, you know, there's of Lemonheads or you know Mm-Hmm , beanie Boosters or . Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. It's, yeah. So there's, yeah, you can, there's a lot of ways to get people excited just through words.
[00:43:50] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, I really, I think that's, that's a great way to go about it. I haven't seen that done. Okay. let me, I want to, I want to focus a little bit before we go on like your favorite product you've ever worked on, but I kind of also want to hear about like the worst name you've ever heard. So, okay, give me, first give me the worst name you've ever heard, whether it was something that was brought to you to fix or just
[00:44:12] Alexandra C Watkins: something you saw.
[00:44:14] Well, the worst name ever is spelled X O B N I. Yeah. You probably remember it from my book. I do. And it's Zobni. And Zobni is inbox spelled backwards. And what was the company? And that's an example of an annoying name. Oh, it was like an inbox software. Yeah. They're no longer around. Everybody, yeah. But Zobni, Zobni and Species is the other one.
[00:44:42] Like, why would anyone name a kid Zobni? a kid's company species. It's just so weird. It's like, it's like very sci fi, right?
[00:44:53] Azhelle Wade: Mm hmm. I don't like it. And you said in your book, it rhymes with feces. Like, why would you do that? Yeah, it rhymes with feces. Yeah. Why would, why would you do that? And what was your first maybe big win in the naming world?
[00:45:04] What was that? Do you remember that first one where you were like, Oh, I'm pretty good at this? Yeah,
[00:45:09] Alexandra C Watkins: yeah, it was. One of my favorite names, I did it for The Gap. when I was first starting out, they had, a whole bunch of beauty and bath products. And this was a travel makeup kit. And I named it Dash because it was like a little dash of color and you're dashing out the door.
[00:45:29] Oh. And the tagline I did was, a little color goes a long way.
[00:45:34] Azhelle Wade: Love it. Simple and perfect. No explanation needed. Oh, you're another great point of people why you need to work with Alexandra. I literally was on a pitch meeting with a buyer today and he said, we need products that explain themselves because we don't have our associates can't go to every single person in our store and explain every product.
[00:45:56] So the more people can understand your product from reading the box, the better. So that is where copy naming taglining is so
[00:46:03] Alexandra C Watkins: important. Yeah. And I think like a name, where's the one that I saw? oh, Slip and Slide, right? Or See and Spell. Those are fun names, but they say what it, what it is. Like, that's all you need to know.
[00:46:18] You know, Beast Lab is one of those. Shrinky Dinks. Love that name. And Shrinky, another thing just, for names of toys, lyrical names that rhyme or that, that have that same sound are really good. Etch a Sketch, Rock Em Sock Em, Shrinky Dinks, Light Bright, those are all lyrical.
[00:46:40] Azhelle Wade: Yes, and alliteration. We love on a good alliteration.
[00:46:43] Love alliteration. If you can get an alliteration in. Okay, my closing questions for you today, I've got two of them. What is the best piece of advice you received while starting your naming company?
[00:46:56] Alexandra C Watkins: Oh my gosh, the best piece of advice was only do what you love and what you want to do, not what everybody tells you to do.
[00:47:04] And that's why we just do names and taglines. We don't do logos or, you know, all of that other stuff that, you know, part of all the other parts of branding. We just do the things that I get excited about and just, I've been doing this almost 20 years and I was just telling someone yesterday. I was just reflecting yesterday on how much I absolutely love what I do.
[00:47:26] And I know how much I love it because yesterday I was presenting names for a new garden soil, potting soil. And like I had the name, Dirty Harry. And like, what was another one I had? Under My Thumb. The client loves rock and roll. So Under My Thumb, you know, Gold Thumb instead of Green Thumb. And I had, Dirty Secret.
[00:47:46] Yeah. All that stuff. The cute. But. But I needed to come out, they only, they only were supposed to get one round of names, but they, they really liked a couple words like dirt, they liked the word dirty and I'm like, I'll do more. Yeah, I'll do more. No problem. That's how I knew I love my job when I'm willing to do something extra and not charge for it.
[00:48:07] Just because I love it. And I want to do it. Oh
[00:48:10] Azhelle Wade: my gosh. Okay, my closing question for you is my favorite question to ask. Alexandra, what toy or game blew your mind
[00:48:18] Alexandra C Watkins: as a kid? Well, oh, Spirograph. I love Spirograph because it let, do you remember that? Oh, yeah. It let you, yeah, it let you draw. I can't draw. So anything that let me, like, draw and, like, create something.
[00:48:35] Azhelle Wade: That was beautiful. It was like a controlled, so you knew you were going to get something good, but you didn't know what it was going to be. Yeah,
[00:48:42] Alexandra C Watkins: yeah, yeah. But Rock'em Sock'em Robots is my favorite toy name. It's just so much fun to
[00:48:46] Azhelle Wade: say. It is a lot of fun to say. And Alexandra, if people want to work with you, they want your services, where can they reach
[00:48:53] Alexandra C Watkins: out to you?
[00:48:54] Go to eatmywords. com and you'll see our menu. We have a, we have, if you're, you know, an entrepreneur, you're under a million in revenue. you can do our fun size service and, you can also, just, if you just want my opinion on a list of names, you can just hire me to review your names. I can do that as well.
[00:49:18] I also have an online course that's really fun called How to Create Super Sticky Brand Names. It's really colorful and entertaining and you'll learn a lot and it's, the whole thing is a step by step process and you can either do it independently or you can have me as your, as your name coach. Thanks.
[00:49:36] Azhelle Wade: With the review of names, do you give, suggestions on how to fix or is it just yes or no?
[00:49:43] Alexandra C Watkins: Yes. It's not a brainstorming session, but I will tell you like why something works, why something doesn't work and how you can improve it. So yeah, I will, I definitely would drop a lot of breadcrumbs.
[00:49:55] Azhelle Wade: Oh my gosh, I just went to your website and now, and it, the first line says, your brand name shouldn't look like someone got drunk and played Scrabble.
[00:50:04] I mean, if this woman shouldn't be in the toy industry, I don't know who should. Okay, Alexandra, it was a pleasure to
[00:50:10] Alexandra C Watkins: talk to you. Oh my gosh, I love this. This is so much fun. Anytime you want to do like a webinar or like, I want to be on a podcast with you. And somebody else I know that has a dream job, like we just need to go talk about our dream jobs.
[00:50:24] So
[00:50:24] Azhelle Wade: I have a friend with a podcast about called women with cool jobs. We could do that. I do. Yeah, that can happen. Let's do that. And I want to say for anybody listening who also wants to support this podcast, go to thetoycoach. com forward slash podcast and buy the book from my link. Thank you.
[00:50:42] Alexandra C Watkins: Yeah, do that.
[00:50:43] Yeah,
[00:50:44] Azhelle Wade: bye. Hello, my name is awesome from my website link. Thank you so much. Okay, toy people. As always, thank you so much for joining me here today. I know there are a ton of podcasts out there. So it truly means the world to me that you tune into this one. Until next week. I'll see you later toy people.
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