--On May 20, 2010 Chuck Durfee <browncoat@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Let me be blunt. I agree with Stephanie and Seth. I think that over the
past couple of years, in an effort to restructure the organization,
Looney Labs has lost its brand identity and ultimately its way.
The reasons we need to make this change are all about brand identity. One
of the things we have been doing as part of the restructuring of my
no-longer-quite-so-tiny game company, is to study our customer base and
determine who our fans are. Our fans are geeks! Adults who play our games
both with their friends and with their kids. We have taken a hard look at
all the random branding we had cobbled together over the years - we even
called in branding and PR experts and conducted surveys - and we decided
what to keep, what to polish, and what to get rid of.
The lab coats and tye-dye and happy flowers are all fabulous branding and
make a Looney Labs fan instantly recognized. The name Rabbit and the
wearing of rabbit ears is confusing to the brand and turns off many of
those in our target market, so it really needs to change even though a
bunch of our long time fans so so love being rabbits.
Here are Andy's reasons again if you have not read them:
<http://wunderland.com/WhatsOld/2010/WN.05.18.10.html#Rabbits>
Demolishing the old Rabbit program before a replacement was ready and
then after such a long wait bestowing the inglorious moniker of Lab
Assistants on a disenfranchised fan base are clear signs that Looney Labs
does not value us fans the way it used to, which is a real shame.
As a Rabbit, I felt like I was a part of something special. As a Lab
Assistant, I feel like I would be a tool of an unfeeling megacorporation,
which only reinforces my discontent with the direction the company has
taken.
Please trust me when I say we still love you guys! I'm still me, we are not
becoming an unfeeling megacorporation. I'm finally building you that web
site I've been saying for years I would build, and it's going to be
awesome. We had planned to have the beginnings of the new fan club site to
point you guys to before we brought up this conversation... but Origins is
looming and we didn't want to drop this on our fans at the show.
I'm sure the Rabbit name will live on in many ways for many years, I myself
slip and call you guys my rabbits all the time still. Please don't throw
away your lab coats just because they say Mad Lab Rabbit on them! Trust me,
I know how hard this change will be. But as we brand the new web site, we
are dropping all reference to Rabbits, and going with a new name for our
official Demo Team. We are doing this for good solid business reasons...
please don't think this means we don't value our fans!
We have spent the last couple of years brainstorming with ourselves and
various rabbits and advisors trying to come up with any other name that
would work... and couldn't come up with anything. Only recently did we
come up with Lab Assistant and we have been trying it on over the last few
months as we have been digging in on the development of the new fan program
and the new web site. It works really well - which is awesome - since we
have been really struggling with not having something else to say instead
of Rabbits. But until we found a name that works, we were planning to
launch with no name and ask everyone to try to help us come up with a
name... so please feel free to brainstorm! If you can come up with
something better, we will consider it... the name Lab Assistant is not set
in stone. (Yet, she says, with chisel in hand.)
Some criteria for a new name for the fan club:
* can't be another animal name
* short, catchy, easy to spell, easy to remember
* grownup sounding, not kiddie sounding
Lab Assistants isn't exciting, but it does the job well. It can be used in
a sentence in all the necessary ways, and it sounds like a Lab Assistant
should be wearing a lab coat. I like it - but I'm open to changing my mind
if you guys come up with a great name!
-Kristin (of the Looney variety)