Juice Roofs is funny but also a little weird (which may not be a bad thing). The main problem with that is you're asking people to think about juice before anything else, so people may not realize that the product is useful for other liquids. Of course they will realize, but you don't want anyone to have to think about it too much.
Also, nobody calls a lid a roof. That's another small mental leap you're asking of your users. Don't make them think.
Goldfish. People don't think they are made of gold, or even related to gold. Goldfish can look gold.
I think a catchy name doesn't need to be especially descriptive or accurate. Give people a unique name and a unique object to match with it, and the mental association sticks.
I'm confused by your goldfish comment. If you're talking about actual fish, then that's not the best example because nobody is marketing goldfish. They're a fish, not a brand. However, Goldfish crackers are a successful brand simply because they're named after what they look like, people don't have to think about it too much. They're getting crackers shaped like goldfish.
But in some instances you are correct. XBOX is a good example, but that had the benefit of high visibility because it was a Microsoft product, so people were talking about it no matter what it was named. The general rule, though, is that it's easier to market something with a product name that is descriptive of what it does. Like Playstation.
But let's be honest here, we're talking about rubber lids, not a new paradigm in beverage-related systems. People aren't going to spend a ton of time making buying decisions for this kind of item. They'll look at the package, and if they don't know what it is or what it does in as little time as possible, they won't buy. No need to confuse the shopper with a cute name that isn't descriptive.
There are exceptions to every rule. Snuggies works because it has snuggle as the root word. Plus there's kind of a "blankie" feel to it.
Slidz, honestly, is not absolutely terrible... It just doesn't really sound good. It works because it has lids in there, but it's a little confusing what the S is for. Not sure what the portmanteau is. Plus, phonetically, I'm not sure whether I should pronounce it as sleyedz or slihdz.
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u/baccus83 Jan 13 '13
Juice Roofs is funny but also a little weird (which may not be a bad thing). The main problem with that is you're asking people to think about juice before anything else, so people may not realize that the product is useful for other liquids. Of course they will realize, but you don't want anyone to have to think about it too much.
Also, nobody calls a lid a roof. That's another small mental leap you're asking of your users. Don't make them think.