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Although Animal Farm is one of my favorite novels, George Orwell really annoyed me with 1984. Well, just kidding, I really liked that book too. I was just bitter that he picked my birth year to predict a totalitarian world where privacy and civil rights didn’t exist anywhere. I mean, I thought 1984 was great year for a baby. Anyway, he might have been onto something, just a decade or two too early.

Though mainly non-partisan when it comes to politics, it was hard not to see the door to our liberties close slightly with the Patriot Act of 2001. A statue that allowed the government to selectively access telephone, email, medical and financial records to protect our “freedom”, it made everyone wonder … is anything private anymore? Well, not really. And with the crazy technological boom of the past decade, it’s made the line between what is private and what is public not only blurry, but pretty much invisible.

Insert the social media craze. Whether searching for a job, investigating a crime, or just trying to spread a plethora of fast knowledge, outlets such as Facebook and Twitter have become catalysts for studying human behavior and examining an individual’s thoughts. Now some of these thoughts are being filed into public record … and studied.
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According to The American Marketing Association (AMA), a brand is defined as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.” Key word here = differentiation.

My job entails creating new identities for companies … products, services, new corporations. In doing so I strive to create a moniker that stands out from the competition; a name that effectively positions the offering in a way that offers distinction and memorability.

So why is it that iPhone apps don’t appear to operate under the same guidelines? I was searching for a calorie counter app the other day – type in anything related to calories, exercise or fitness and you are inundated with apps that promise to trim your waistline and increase your cardio stamina. Problem is, aside from the price and the star-based feedback, how do you tell them apart? At first glance alone, how do you differentiate?

Here are the results of my app search for ‘calorie’: Continue Reading »