Hello, My Name Is Awesome: How to Create Brand Names That Stick by Alexandra Watkins
Alexandra Watkins is the founder and Chief Executive Boss Lady of Eat My Words, a branding firm that specializes in creating names that make people smile instead of scratch their heads.
Alexandra first got hooked on naming when Gap hired her to create cheeky names for their first line of body care products. Soon after, she broke into the business by talking her way into Landor (one of the biggest branding firms in the world) via a Match.com date. With her fresh, unconventional naming style, Alexandra soon became a go-to resource for countless branding and naming firms around the country. And Landor sent her enough business to open her own firm. Since then, she’s generated thousands of names for snacks, software, sunscreen, social networking sites, sportswear, shoes, sugar scrubs, serums, and seafood. (And that’s just the S’s!) She’s also named lots of things that make you fat and drunk.
Prior to Eat My Words, Alexandra was an advertising copywriter, working at leading ad agencies up and down the West Coast, including five years at Ogilvy and Mather, where she helped launch Microsoft Windows and learned the language of Geek Speak. In the mid-nineties she jumped on the dot com gravy train, and rode it until it crashed in her San Francisco backyard. Alexandra took the money and ran, spending a year in Australia, New Zealand, Bali and Fiji disguised as a 21-year old backpacker. Upon her return, she followed her true passion and became a namer and soon after started Eat My Words.
And interesting fact…
Alexandra has eaten her way through over 45 countries where she’s sunk her teeth into local delicacies including barbequed squirrel in Tanzania, ostrich carpaccio in South Africa, stewed camel meat in Libya, and, lobster marinara in Cuba. Her favorite food is JIF peanut butter, which she once survived on for two days on the remote island of Amantani in Lake Titicaca, Peru.
Listen to the Interview:
Show Notes
Hello, My Name Is Awesome: How to Create Brand Names That Stick by Alexandra Watkins
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die Hardcover by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal
Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal
Nyr Eyal’s Indistractable Interview
Alexandra Watkins’ Company website
Hello, My Name is Awesome book website
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