Uniting Naming And Promotion

X-13D? What kind of name is that for something you pop into your mouth?

Doritos turned naming conventions upside down with its savvy plan in 2007 to generate buzz – and, oh yes, a new name – for its new flavored chips. How? By submitting suggestions on the Web, prompted by these eye-catching black bags of cheeseburger-like chips with the ‘classified’ moniker.

“This is the X-13D flavor experiment,” said the text box on the bag. “Objective: taste and name Doritos flavor X-13D.” This was followed by directions to a website that linked to yet another website. And when snack-happy teens got there, they encountered something like an underground government operation with ambient noises and transmission glitches.

Bloggers blogged like crazy debating the new product, its taste, what to call it, and even where to find it. (Doritos sold the black bags on eBay weeks ahead of shipping it to stores.) And that was precisely the point. Doritos’ VP-Marketing told Business Week that the promotion was “all about enticing teenagers and spreading Doritos buzz online.”

Entice they did, with at least 100,000 naming suggestions logged. Will Doritos actually use one of them? That’s anybody’s guess. Will the offbeat new chips even return to market after the initial shipment of a million bags sells out? That’s also anyone’s guess.

Kids chattering, product moving, buzz building … this is not your grandma’s snack food anymore. Nor your grandma’s naming protocol.

For more on brand naming order Brand Aid, second edition, A Quick Reference Guide to Solving Your Branding Problems and Strengthening Your Market Position

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