Sam Horn - POP! Stand Out in any Crowd

How do I work? I grope.” - Einstein’s answer to a reporter asking how he created so many innovative ideas




Are you looking for an innovative, attention-getting brand that gets your business noticed?

Describe your company. What do you sell? What do you offer? Write down key words you use frequently when explaining what you and your organization do.

Those are your Core Words. They are what you “play with” to come up with a one-of-a-kind brand that helps you POP! out of your pack. Just as a jazz pianist “riffs” off standard chords to make new music, you “riff” off your Core Words to make an attention-getting brand new name.

Want to know how to create a “Half and Half” word that combines two aspects of your business or product to create an innovative brand name that belongs to you and you alone?
The Washington Post runs an annual contest that showcases the hilarious and high-potential results of doing just this.


“Its popular contest - The Style Invitational - invites readers to combine two names of the 100 horses eligible in today’s Kentucky Derby to “name” the resulting foal. Here are a few of the winning entries in today’s edition of the Post (page C2, Saturday, May 3, ‘08).

Arizona + In Orbit = AZ The World Turns

Pyro + Mapmaker = Your Heatin’ Chart

Casual Conquest + Total Bull = I’ll Call You

Clemens + Attempted Humor = Mock Twain

Fierce Wind + Big Brown = Hits the Fan

Revenge is Sweet + Oribit = What Goes Around

Signature Move + Total Bull = John Hancrock

Sea of Pleasure + I’ve Heard It All = Yachta, Yachta, Yachta

U.S. Treasury + Visionary = I See Debt, People

And my personal favorite?

Mapmaker + Behind at the Bar = Atlas Chugged

Are you thinking, “How would this help me come up with an attention-getting brand for my business?”

I think “Atlas Chugged” (playing off Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged) is a PERFECT name for a college-town bar.

“I See Debt, People” (playing off the memorable phrase from the movie Sixth Sense) is an amusing, attention-grabbing title for an article on how to get out of credit card debt.

“Yachta, Yachta, Yachta” is a smile-inducing slogan for a marine services store or boat Realtor.

(Of course, give credit where credit is due - to the originators of those phrases in the Post.)

Want a couple more examples showing how this works? A participant in my POP! Certification program last weekend told me about his favorite restaurant in San Antonio - a fusion restaurant combining Chinese and Mexican food. The name? Wokamole.

Perhaps you’ve seen the restaurant chain that blends Italian and Chinese food? Ciao Mein?

See how this works? Want to be walked through this process so you can produce attention-getting brands and “Half and Half” names and slogans for your company?

Buy my 3 hour CD series “Create Purposeful, Original, Pithy Names, Brands and Slogans that Help Your Business, Product or Services POP!” Listen to these CD’s while commuting or working out to kick-start your creativity and word-play your way to an attention-getting brand.

As Shari Peace, President of Peace Talks says, “I’ve been working on niching my business and wordsmithing my topics. Sam’s POP! techniques are by far the best resource I’ve discovered. Her concepts are creative, concrete and practical. I know everyone tells her this, but her ideas really are worth a fortune.”
Sam Horn
Sam Horn's other sites;
Tongue Fu!®
POP! Stand out in the Crowd
Take the Bully by the Horn"s