You might not know Marc Hershon by name but chances you are familiar with his names. That’s because Hershon is the man behind some of the most memorable brand names of our time including BlackBerry, Swiffer, and Dasani. What’s in a name? More than you might think. Marc Hershon breaks it down on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. 

About Marc Hershon

Marc Hershon is senior manager of naming and verbal identity in the San Francisco office of Landor, where he’s responsible for using storytelling and creativity to develop brand voice, copy, taglines, names, and nomenclature systems for corporate and consumer brands.

Marc comes to Landor from Lexicon Branding, where he worked for more than 20 years and served as creative director from 2010 to 2014. During his time there he helped to create such memorable brand names as BlackBerry, Swiffer, and Dasani. As a solo consultant for several years, Marc worked with clients such as Garmin, Sony, and Christopher Ranch to create nüvi, Crackle, and Monviso, respectively.

Marc’s creative endeavors reach beyond brand names. His several screenplays produced made-for-TV movies for the Hallmark Channel, including Santa Jr., Monster Makers, and Wedding Daze. In 2009, he coauthored a business book entitled I Hate People!, a how-to manual on how to deal with difficult people in the workplace. Marc is an award-winning editorial cartoonist for the Half Moon Bay Review, publishing a weekly panel for the past decade and a half.

When he’s not writing and drawing, Marc can be seen performing and teaching improvisational comedy in and around San Francisco. For the past three years, he has also been host and executive producer of Succotash, a comedy podcast that features other comedy podcasts and interviews.

As We Wrap …

Recently Dave Cutler gave the show a shout about our recent episode featuring everyone’s favorite brand evangelist Guy Kawasaksi. Thanks for listening, Dave!

Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show.

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Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet!

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