Bad Arse Branding

naming wine and alesMy son and I stumbled across these two bottles within a few hours of each other and needless to say both caught our eye. Ben even asked what I thought of Bad Arse Branding – as he called it. Obviously only some providers have the personality to pull off such brand programs. But how do you know it will work for more than a very small percentage of consumers? More importantly, how do you not corrupt the rest of your offerings?

The Arrogant Bastard Ale pictured here goes to great lengths to explain their brand story – as if they feel really guilty and have to defend it.  But it starts with “You will probably not like this ale…” They were right. It is awful. So are they are just trying to market a bad product by playing these name and brand games?  I don’t know.  But what a waste of everyone’s time.

Secondly, it is hard to believe that Fat Bastard is actually a French Wine (well a Frenchman and an Englishman). Took me a while to find the name of the winery. Maybe they purposefully hide it in the small print so they don’t offend their loyal followings. Nice to see how they do tell the story behind the name though, even though they confess no one remembers where the hippo came from. Is it sitting on pedestal? Is that a chain arrangement below for him.  Or just a hippo taking a leak in the pot?

All I can say is Proceed with Caution.

Posted in Branding, Consumer Goods, Wine Names

Recent Naming Articles

Brand insider articles from an experienced marketing team.

Mar 2023: Pricing your naming project

Oct 2021: The devil is in the trademark details

Mar 2019:The Power and Value of a Trademark

Jan 2019:4 common branding mistakes

Oct 2018: You named it What?

Linked In

Share this page on LinkedIn:


See his industry naming commentary (where he takes a critical look at names) via the blog on this site