Simmer Branding Studio

Simmer Branding Studio doesn't just give you a bunch of names and wish you well. Our proven methodology combines storytelling, screenwriting, and almost 20 years of helping other companies to create powerful and memorable brand names. We work with you to understand and develop the message that your new brand is going to bring to the marketplace.

We also help you to establish your story behind your new brand, so that the message is clear: whether it's to your industry, your customers or the press. Finally, Simmer Branding Studio makes sure you have a terrific set of names to move through the process with, so that you won't be caught short by any surprises that might pop up on the way to getting your product, service or company rolled out on time.

In addition to both of the principals at Simmer Branding Studio being accomplished writers of books, articles, and film, Marc Hershon formerly worked at the prestigious Lexicon Branding, Inc.

With our system, Simmer works with you to discover new brands and brand identities which can help set your product, service or company way ahead of the competition.

Our Most Recent Credential

Our most recent brand is the most personal that we've done: I Hate People! It's the title of a new business book with attitude that the two principals of Simmer — Jonathan Littman and Marc Hershon — have written. Debuting in June, I Hate People! is published by Little, Brown & Co. and represents the end of phony niceness in the workplace. Focusing on a dedicated worker we call the Soloist, the book helps to identify and, by doing so, avoid the entanglements that often arise in the workplace by those we call The Least Wanted.

It wasn't easy fighting the tide of political correctness — the word hate is not one eagerly embraced by those in the publishing conglomerates. But a visionary editor, Junie Dahn at LB, saw that the book had real potential to break through the noise and clutter in the business book arena. The early response has been more than favorable. We'll see what happens.

In the meantime, please visit our attendant blog for the book, I Hate People...But It's Nothing Personal. There you can read a lot more about the book, the ideas behind and a link to quickly purchase a copy in advance of its June 10 release date!

Simmering

At Simmer Branding Studio we've moved away from traditional brainstorming and engage in a creative process we call "simmering". Sometimes a typical "simmer" might be an hour or two, focusing strongly on a particular challenge. More often, however, a simmer can stretch over a couple of days, spent in and out of the office, at the library, the bookstore, the coffee house or at home in front of the TV. Notes are taken and exchanged, via email and in person, and the simmer continues until we've achieved what we need in order to move on to the next stage of a project.

Do You Nunu?

Isn't it funny when a word gets so overused it ceases to be what it means? Like "innovation". This poor little word has really gotten put through the wringer in the past 20 years, to the point where anything said to be innovative somehow seems to be not so much so. Since we create names we took at as a challenge to create an idea that feels like innovative should feel but doesn't. With that in mind, we simmered on it for a bit and came up with nunu. Pronounced "noo-noo". Or, better yet, "new-new" -- as in an idea that is so fresh that it is newer than new. Plus it's more fun to say that "innovation"...

Brands Aren't Just About Names...

After we finished naming nüvi, the GPS device, for Garmin International they came back to us and asked if we could lend a hand designing their new corporate logo. They knew that we're not in the design business but felt that our 4th Dimensional approach to challenges could help their designers to kick loose to some new thinking. We engaged a graphic designer friend who was no stranger to the idea that there is no box when it comes to creativity and he helped us to get Garmin thinking different. In no time at all their 15 year old logo was history and the nunu idea we helped to create now graces all of Garmin's fine products as well as the façade of their flagship retail store in downtown Chicago.