The recent Dove debacle – the literal definition of “whitewashing” – is just one in a seemingly endless and accelerating series of brand-damaging misfires by marketers who believe they are too clever by half. Oh Dove, did we not learn from the ill-fated objectifying by non-objectifying the female form as soap containers? It’s part of a trend, and I would argue the inevitable result, of the fragmentation of the marketing discipline. In focusing so strongly on the technical asp

Shakespeare was wrong. With apologies to The Bard, there is a lot in a name. A rose by any other name may smell as sweet – provided you could convince someone to inhale. I think that might be a harder sell if the name were, say, “Skunkweed”. David Placek, President and Founder of naming agency Lexicon2® Branding, puts it this way: “… nothing will be used for a longer period of time or more often than a company’s name. It’s not just a creative exercise. It’s a strategic one.”