Anyone who knows me well knows my love for ice cream!

So yesterday my wife told me, “Häagen-Dazs just confirmed its most popular flavor of the year. Any guesses?”

“It’s vanilla or chocolate.”

“It’s vanilla. How did you know?”

I didn’t. 

But I’ve observed that if you ask a bunch of people to agree on a unanimous ice cream flavor, it’ll be either vanilla or chocolate. 

During brand-naming exercises, if you start by asking people for their suggestions, the most common responses are likely to be the most obvious and popular ones. 

For example, if a new dry-cleaning shop opened up in town, there’s a good chance it’ll be named Town Cleaners. 

A simple Google search will reveal that there are 800+ Town Cleaners in the U.S.!

But that’s the exact opposite goal a good brand name should achieve for the brand. 

Brand names need to be more coffee toffee than chocolate and more rum raisin than red velvet.