The name “prunes” comes with a stigma leading people to think of them as a yucky (apologies to those who like them — just reporting the facts) food item to help relieve (ahem) backup. Furthermore, the poor prune got a reputation of being associated as a product for older people — turning off the younger generations.
In 1999, the California Prune Board — with help from Ketchum Public Relations — got the idea to change the name and went to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to request changing the official name from prunes to dried plums. Not only did it get approval, but it also changed its name to the California Dried Plum Board.
The result? “More than 563 million media impressions have been generated to date. Interest in the name change was immediate. We received a groundswell of media attention from such much-watched outlets as ‘NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw’ and ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ to an entire series of Mallard Fillmore comic strips.”
This backs up Marcia Yudkin’s recent Named at Last newsletter article, “Naming Can Change Perceptions.” She uses “Math Club” as an example. What do you think of when you hear that? Nerds, intellectuals, uncool, not fun, right?
Yudkin tells about Karen Treber of Frostburg, Maryland who wanted to change the name to make math cool. What do kids think is cool? Sports and athletics. Treber coined “Mathletics” to promote these (shh…) math club events. Yudkin writes:
In keeping with the appealing name, learning activities involved doing things like slicing pizza to understand fractions and measuring the perimeter of the gym with a ruler. Nearly half the student body turned out for the school’s first after-hours installment of “Mathletics.”
Even better, a year later, for the first time, 100% of the school’s fourth graders passed the state assessment test in math. The new name had paved the way for a change in image and performance.
Another example from Yudkin is tapioca pudding, which often appears in the “10 most hated foods” list in the U.S. and U.K. I must admit I’m one of those who wouldn’t try it because the name and the mystery food sounded blech.
“Probably many people who know only its negative reputation and not its taste could be persuaded to give it a try by renaming it in comparison with something more beloved or more glamorous, such as ‘vanilla mousse,’ a ‘white sundae’ or ‘Thai pudding,'” Yudkin says.
She’s right. I’d try it if I knew of tapioca pudding as “vanilla mousse.” To explore renaming a product, Yudkin recommends brainstorming negative and positive qualities, then explore names that combine the two qualities and get rid of the name seen as negative. What are other examples of products’ names that have negative connotations?