“Somebody’s going to be lactose intolerant, somebody’s not going to eat meat. You’ll be lucky if you’re eating anything more than just a gluten-free crust with cheese on a good day.”

— Steve Manning, a founder of the Igor Naming Agency, noting why so many streaming services are choosing the ‘+’ branding.

“It’s the one that survives, because everything else is eviscerated. It’s the least objectionable choice to a massive audience.”

I’m a sucker for these types of stories about how brands land at their branding choices — which are almost always bland at best and bad/confusing at worst, likely because of the above.

A couple other fun quotes from Tiffany Hsu’s piece of The New York Times about the most recent naming trend:

Alexandra Watkins, whose branding firm Eat My Words came up with Smitten for a California ice cream business and Neato for a robotic vacuum, said she tried to avoid names “that look like someone got drunk and played Scrabble.” She acknowledged having once sold a client on a name that included “plus” — and was surprised to earn $30,000 for it.

Mike Carr, the co-founder of the branding company NameStormers:

“I can’t say how many times I’ve seen this happen — there’s always a next generation, a version 3.0 or 4.0,” Mr. Carr said. “So does it become Paramount Plus Plus? Paramount Plus Plus Plus?”

‘Paramount++ for You++’ will ring a bell for a certain crowd…