StartupRealities

StartupRealities No 133 CountryBranded is a brand agency which helps companies develop products and services under brand names that contain relevant country references with positive associations, e.g. ScottishWindpower, JapanElectronics, BrazilBeach. The agency also helps such companies establish a credible association with the given country, including procuring raw materials from there, setting up an office in the country or hiring local staff. CEO QUOTE "Don't we all have country associations in our minds? Champagne and luxury goods must be French; fashion is Italian; automotive technology is German; and robots must be Japanese. CountryBranded steps on these associations and builds on them. Small wealthy countries are an easy sell: no one has anything against Scotland, Belgium or Norway as they are not in the news much and most people around the world have never even met a Scottish, Belgian or Norwegian person. So even if the product is not directly associated with the ...

StartupRealities No 101 HologramBadge is an events technology company which has developed hologram technology to project as a virtual hologram badge the name, position and company of a conference delegate above their head at big events and gatherings. This helps to find more easily the right person and facilitates networking. Mini-projectors, attached to the back collar of delegates, project the hologram badge above their head. CEO QUOTE "Have you been to a conference recently, before the Covid-19 lockdown? When you go to one, you end up staring at people's chests to read their name badges. Sometimes clever people lift up the badge close to their neck or pin it on their shoulder to make it easier for others to read. But even this extra visibility is suboptimal if you are looking for a stranger in the crowd. This is how our hologram badges help: they are projected above the head of each delegate, for all to see," said HologramBadge founder and CEO Holly Badger. Ho...

StartupRealities No 99 SponsorGodfather is an advertising and public relations firm which links up corporations with expectant parents who would like to name their child after the corporation in return for an annual sponsorship fee. The options are giving the child a middle name which is the company's exact name, or giving the child a first name which is similar to the company's name. The sponsored children and their parents are free to legally stop using the company name and change the child's name at any time, upon which the sponsorship payments get terminated. CEO QUOTE "You know the phrase 'give a dog a bad name.' Well, our firm does exactly the opposite: we give a child a good corporate name. Some parents are concerned that their child may get bullied by other children if they have a name like CocaCola Smith or Amazon Jones. On the other hand, the corporate name creates a community: the Amazons of Chicago, the Amazons of New York, etc., so it is a gre...

StartupRealities No 55 PunUnintended is a naming agency which tests possible company and product names with social media groups for punsters, pranksters and jokers. This avoids costly renaming mistakes down the line in case of inappropriately chosen names that have a negative association, or invoke an unpleasant rhyme or joke. CEO QUOTE "You all know the story of the Chevrolet Nova failure in Latin America: no one had bothered to check that No-Va meant No-Go in Spanish. This is why we exist: we make sure that no potential Georgie-Porgie or Peter-Peter-Pumpkin-Eater lurks in the name of your company or product. We test it to the extremes of creativity: if our punsters, pranksters and jokers cannot come up with a negative connotation, rhyme or joke, no one else can," - said PunUnintended founder and CEO Puja Untana. Chevrolet Nova - 1962 (Source: Wikipedia )