Name Critic rates Q-tips

Q-tips®
Technical
Presentation
Our Rating
10
8
Background:OK, we all know what they are. In fact, this name is so well known it is in the category of Hoover, Xerox and Walkman. In other words, in danger of becoming the generic word for the category. Somehow “cotton swabs” is just not the same!In a sense this is a descriptive name. At least that is until you start to think too hard and suddenly you realize you don’t know for sure what a Q is. But it feels right. And Q often, as is the case here, has a cute feeling to it. Regardless, Q is a powerful, underused letter in naming.

As for the visual logo, who even knows it offhand. Yes, you might argue who cares. But what about the millions of non-English speakers, especially those whose native language does not even have a Q. For their sake, and many other reasons, you still need a look and logo. The only reason we didn’t give it a perfect score is that we think it is starting to age a bit. But with such market saturation, perhaps no one cares.

Usually we provide an exact website address here, but just for once we can’t find one. Of course, this is such a well known product, and you really don’t need to explain it any more. Anyway, it is one of the brands of Unilever, even though they do not mention it on their corporate website at www.unilever.com. Goes to show you how in consumer packaged goods, the product brand is stronger than the parent corporate brand.

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