What’s in a name?

There are times when a great name for a product can be just the ticket. Welcome Fred.

What’s Fred’s story?
You won’t find out much at http://www.fredbrands.com/. Fred has a blog (fredspot.com) to let you know what he is into
and he has 390 myspace friends (myspace.com/fredwater). Fred wants to be your friend.

Who is Fred?

Water.

Americans are addicted to bottled water. We spent $15 Billion last year on bottled water! That’s a lot of money in this economy for something we can get for free out of the kitchen sink. At Whole Foods, the upscale grocery store, bottled water is the number-one item sold per unit.

Fred is based on marketing. In no small part because it was founded by an ad agency’s chief strategist, Adam Gayner of Thread. In a sea of waters (get it!) their idea was to be different from the ground up. Every other water brand is fighting over who is the purest, they want to be the water with personality. Fred is the every man, not trying to be a high end brand, they push their retailers to keep its cost down. Even the odd bottle is meant to be different than how you would hold other waters. What’s in the bottle is naturally low mineral domestic water and with ad copy like “Friends with Benefits”, “Fortified with Irony”, and “Real Water Flavor” you get the sense that Fred doesn’t take the water industry status quo too serious. But that’s the point.

Fred’s unique spin on water branding will have success in New York and California, but will it play in Nebraska and Indiana? Their opinion of water may not be ready for Fred. One thing about that odd name ...

You won’t forget it.