No Sugarcoating Here: Why CTC is a Bad Move for Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Cinnamon Toast Crunch is running a new print ad with this headline: “Fix Up A Bowl of CTC,” which makes me cringe.

Converting your brand name to an acronym is rarely a good idea. Why? Let’s review:

1.   Leads to Confusion – Since the emphasis in this ad is a big bowl of cereal and a small pix of the box, I didn’t even understand what product they were advertising! 

2.   Lower Recall Rates – If the goal of a solid brand name is flawless recall, then it’s hard to justify an acronym as research shows that they are 30% less memorable than real words.

3.   Acronyms Can Stand for Many Other Words– A quick search of CTC leads you to CTC Mold Service (eww!), CTC Ltd, and CTC Trading Company, plus this lovely meaning: Cost to Company. Even worse, there are many vile images online of how entrepreneurs are interpreting the brand. (You can look all by yourself 😊)

4.   Hard to Protect Your Trademark – Before all of you start hollering at me about KFC, AT&T, or IBM, please recognize that these are multi-billion-dollar brands that have earned their place through the years. Further, each one stands for real words including the “f” word of “fried” in KFC. However, many companies have lost their trademark bid because the USPTO often claims that their acronyms can stand for other terms and are not unique or ownable.

5.  

– As someone who now has a hearing problem, it’s difficult to hear the difference between “c” and “e” and a host of other letters. For anyone working at an alphabet soup-named company, I guarantee you that they slowly pronounce the name often during the day. In fact, I was recently on the phone with customer service at Williams Sonoma, and they requested that I email them at wsgc.com, which is also challenging to hear.

The next time you’re tempted to turn your brand name into an acronym, the simple answer is don’t!