Tweet Sweet

It’s always interesting to research the variations on your company name to see how others might perceive the name you’ve chosen. Here are a couple things I’ve run across while online:

Tweet - 80’s slang
Remember my posting about why I chose the name Tweet Sweet? Well, the Urban Dictionary online backs me up in my definition. The first posting reads: “Tweet: A mid-80’s preteen slang for cool. Derived from ’sweet’. ‘Those shoes look tweet!’”

Tweet - Kinda like baby talk
I ran across the word “twee” which in British English or English English, is from “tweet”, a baby talk alteration of “sweet”. It is used to denote something that is overly sweet, knowingly cute or overly precious. It’s a strongly negative word, and a very useful one, that is in common British use.

Tout de Suite - speedy delivery?
After seeing a random posting online that mistakenly said “tweet sweet” in place of “tout de suite”, I investigated what this obviously French phrase meant. Sometimes shortened to just “tout suite”, or in the anglicised form as toot sweet, it means “immediately” or “right away”. As in “if you’d like to catch the movie, you better leave tout de suite.”

After writing down the Chocolate Cottage’s address from Google Maps (See review from yesterday), I thought I’d do a quick search to find their website and find out what they offered in their shop. I first typed “www.chocolatecottage.com” in my browser and found a nearly blank page stating that this page “had been suspended”. Hmm. Probaby a different business.

So I went to Google and typed “chocolate cottage” utah. The first item pulled up in the list was a WARNING LETTER (yes, in caps) from the Food and Drug Administration. I read the letter, and it was mostly regarding some technicalities on the labeling of their chocolates. They had labeled everything “dark chocolate” or “light chocolate” and apparently it was supposed to be “milk chocolate” and some other very minor things. But my point?  I’m big into user experience, as a graphic designer and UI designer, it’s part of my job. This experience would have scored an “F” for an online user experience. Even though they were easy to find online in an address directory, they had no web presence, and the first thing a natural search turned up for them gave me concerns me about the safety of their product. Even cute little Mom and Pop stores should be aware of how their business is percieved online.

A couple weeks ago, one of my workmates was looking to buy some chocolates for his girlfriend (now fiancé, yes, things do move fast here in Utah in that respect), and another workmate mentioned a shop nearby. I remembered this previous conversation yesterday and asked my workmate what the name of the chocolate place was, and where it was located. That’s how I ended up at the Chocolate Cottage (See review from yesterday).

He didn’t remember the name, but typed “Chocolate” and “Sandy, UT” into the search field on Google Maps, and located it on 106th South here just a few miles from my employer. Since I’ve talked about the naming of Tweet Sweet (MY future sweet shop) in a previous post or two, I thought to make a note of the naming of Chocolate Cottage. Putting your product in the name of your company (Chocolate) – what do you think? A good move? In this case it put them at the top of the list in Google Maps for our search. It makes it clear that they sell chocolates, but it does seem to round down their offering quite a bit. What about the other confectionaries they had there? What if they wanted to do catering?

So I went through a stage a few years ago where I was addicted to Hot Cocoa. I drank it literally all the time during the cold snowey Utah winter. I had purchased every flavor that was available here locally and had mixed them up with cream and chocolate bars trying to get a richer and richer flavor. That’s when I wondered - we have coffee shops, why not a hot cocoa shop? That was the thought that spawned in my mind the concept of drinkable deserts, and the desire to have a sweet shop.

It wasn’t until May of this year (2006) that the idea of calling my future desert shop Tweet Sweet came to me. In high school, I hung out with a close-nit group of friends who would often come up with funny phrases or sayings that we would use with each other to remind us of events, or have perhaps “personal” jokes that only us 5 could understand. This is where the phrase “tweet sweet” came from. Anything that was cool, awesome, very good, or otherwise we would call “sweet”. Anything that was above and beyond sweet was “TWEET sweet”. To be called tweet sweet by one of our gang was one of the highest ratings you could achieve.

Every good name needs a good story - that’s what I’ve always thought. For a recent long plane ride I purchased the book From Altoids to Zima by Evan Morris. If you enjoy trivia, history, branding or any combination of the 3, you’ll enjoy this book. He shares stories of many of our favorite brands - some that worked, and others that didn’t. Since this blog is not about branding specifically, I won’t go into details but Morris lists in his introduction 6 criteral for successful naming:

1. It must be simple
2. It must be easy to remember
3. It must be impossible to mispronounce
4. It must not infringe on any existing trademark
5. It must not have any negative connotations in English
6. It must not mean anything nasty in another language

Something I also noticed about Tweet Sweet once I had begin to type it and use it was that on a QWERTY keyboard it’s all typed with the left hand. And would you guess? I’m a southpaw.

One of the first decisions someone will make about their company will be it’s name - it’s a core essential element to every brand. So what kind of deciding factors go into creating a name? (Which in my mind is one of the most difficult parts to commit to.)

And what in the world do you call the greatest sweet shop of all time?

Lady Godiva and Godiva Chocolates
Let’s take a big brand like Godiva Chocolatier. Godiva was founded more than 75 years ago in Brussels, Belgum when Joseph Draps named his chocolate company in honor of the legend of Lady Godiva. In short, Lady Godiva rode through the town of Coventry in 1057 wearing nothing but her long flowing hair in a deal to reduce taxes from their Lord (her husband). To demonstrate how honorable the Lord’s serfs were, they stayed inside with their shutters closed as instructed, and Godiva successfully convinced her husband to reduced the taxes.

So, a chocolate company named after a celebrated historic figure who’s name also means “gift from God”? You decide if it’s a good chocolate name. But have you ever refered to a chocolate as a “Godiva”? As in “Let’s get a Godiva today.”? Still, I’ve got to admit that Godiva and chocolate are inseperable.

Milton and the Hershey Chocolate Company
Most everyone I know will be able to understand that I’m talking about chocolate when I mention a “Hershey Bar”. Hershey is another one of those names that’s synonymous with chocolate. As with many company names, Hershey didn’t start as a brand name, but the name of its founder Milton S. Hershey. Milton founded the Hershey Chocolate Company in 1893 after launching a successful carmel company that he eventually sold. He spent years perfecting the recipe and brought the treat which was once only a luxury for the rich to the common man. Milton Hershey is an amazing historical figure, an entrepreneur who’s legacy lives on today.

My question is, do you think Godiva Chocolatier would have performed as well by being named after it’s founder? “Draps Chocolatier”? Naming a company after it’s founder isn’t always so successful, but overtime - does it matter? (More on that in a later post) Perhaps a Draps Bar could could have been just as successful as the Hershey Bar.

V Chocolates
So you haven’t heard of V Chocolates before? Well, you should check them out. I was given a box of V Chocolates toffee at an open house I attended for Omniture a couple years ago. I was immediately impressed by the quality of the packaging, which a fellow designer told me was the award-winning work of Blain Olsen White Gurr Advertising here in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Ron Best, the founder of V Chocolates leaves the interpretation of his company name open to your own imagination. He suggests that it could sound like “vie”, the French word for “life”, but also offers a genuine “V” apron in exchange for other ideas “vmailed” to him. My first thought on the “V” was simple - Valentine - though nothing on the teal and rusty orange packaging would give me the impression of a cheesy red-heart box of chocolates you see crowding the stores starting in mid-January.

So whether you name your company after a 9th Century ‘diva, emblazen it with your family name, or even leave the whole company name open to interpretation, does it really make a difference in the long-run? “What’s in a name?” asked William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” (How about make that “taste” as sweet?)