In a recent product naming project, we challenged our creative team to come up with a product name that could be as awesome as...the Snuggie. Some people laughed, some started scratching heads and others sat waiting for the inevitable (and inevitably lame) punch line.
But the Snuggie is no joke – it is a fantastic, ridiculous and powerful name for a fantastically, ridiculously stupid product. What is essentially a cheap airplane blanket with arm holes cut in it made the cover of Ad Age in January after selling out after 4 million sold (but you can get on the waiting list!). Face it - it’s a blanket with arms and a terrible as-seen-on-TV commercial, but the Snuggie kills it…because of the name.
Snuggie sounds personable, warm (both emotionally and presumable temperature wise), and it’s completely non-function related (the "Arm Blankie 2000XT" it is not). The word Snuggie is somehow both childlike, childish and ambiguously naughty. Maybe even a little fun – and when is the last time you thought of a blanket as fun? It even works in daily language: no one wants to ask you to go to the closet for the sleevy-blanket, but “Hey honey, can you grab the Snuggie” somehow sounds (reasonably) sane.
The Snuggie is a perfect example of things that make you pull your hair out one day that become the measuring stick to judge your creative work product the very next day. Rumor has it the Snuggie folks are cutting a deal with the NCAA for officially licensed Snuggies, coming soon. God help us all.
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A classic win for consumer-centric marketing in the long fought battle between product managers, merchants engineers & manufacturers against those of us in the noble marketing profession. Why those guys don't stick to six sigma, material science and other really boring endeavors I don't know, but I couldn't agree more with you about the Snuggie name and will take as a victory for creative marketers everywhere.
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