Igor Naming Agency is an American
naming agency. Based in
Sausalito, California
Sausalito ( Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge.
Sausalito's ...
, Igor is known for its "almost militant embrace" of using real and natural-sounding words in naming. Among others, the company has named
Gogo Inflight,
''
Cutthroat Kitchen'',
TruTV
TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable Television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts reruns of Television comedy, comedy, Reality television, docusoaps and reality shows, with a rec ...
, the
Aria Resort, and consumer products for
The North Face
The North Face is an American outdoor recreation products company. The North Face produces outdoor clothing, footwear, and related equipment. Founded in 1968 to supply climbers, the company's logo draws inspiration from Half Dome, a distinct ...
and
Target.
History
Igor Naming Agency was founded by Jay Jurisich and Steve Manning, who met while working at the Sausalito naming agency, A Hundred Monkeys.
In addition to naming,
Jurisich and Manning worked with agency founder Danny Altman to create The Shinolas, an annual award given to the year's worst brand name. Judged by Ben Cohen of
Ben and Jerry's
Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin (name), Benjamin, Benedict (given name), Benedict, Bennett (name), Bennett, Benson (given name), Benson or Ebenezer (given name), Ebenezer, and is also a given name in its ...
,
Jerry Harrison of
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.[Talking Heads](_blank) , Bob Camp, co-creator of ''
Ren & Stimpy'' and others, Shinolas were awarded to products including the
Oldsmobile Achieva, and Cruex, a cream to soothe itches.
Jurisich and Manning left A Hundred Monkeys in 2002 to co-found Igor Naming Agency. In addition to established companies including
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...
,
EA Sports
EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...
, and
MTV, Igor worked extensively with companies founded following the
dot-com downturn of 2000. They advised against the industry-standard practices of using invented words, convening focus groups for market research, and choosing company and product names based on the availability of a
URL.
In late 2002, Igor launched ''Snark Hunting,'' a blog about company names, product names and the impact of naming and branding on popular culture. As more blogs related to branding began to appear online, ''Fast Company'' wrote: "The best stuff comes from ''Snark Hunting,''" highlighting a post which "riffed on
The Gap's new Forth & Towne store concept for middle-aged women, noting that it uses an ampersand rather than risk the acronym FAT."
In 2004, Jurisich and Manning co-wrote ''Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide.'' Regularly updated, it is available as a free download.
It has been used as a resource in academic settings as well as by
B2C
Direct-to-consumer (DTC or D2C) or business-to-consumer (B2C) is the business model of selling products directly to customers and thereby bypassing any third-party retailers, wholesalers, or middlemen. Direct-to-consumer sales are usually transa ...
companies, startups, and incubators.
Jurisich left Igor in 2011 to found Zinzin, also a naming agency. Manning has served as CEO and managing director since Jurisich's departure.
References
{{reflist, 2
External links
Igor Naming Agency''Snark Hunting'' archives
2002 establishments in California
Companies based in Marin County, California
Branding companies of the United States