Overseas Oreo: Kraft names new global snack company 'Mondelez'

"MONDEWHAAAAT?"

The sarcasm was palpable in the one-word headline that appeared in The New York Post on the day after Kraft Foods revealed that it planned to name its new global snack business "Mondelez," an interpretation of a mash-up of the Latin words for "world" and "delicious." But that wasn't the only dig.

One blogger teased that she would've been "stifling giggles" if she'd been in meetings to determine the name. A Forbes contributor suggested a trick for remembering how to say it: "Just think Bush Administration Secretary of State. You know, Mon-de-leza Rice." Crain's Business Chicago tittered that it bears close resemblance to a vulgar Russian term.

Michael Mitchell, a Kraft spokesman, said executives took all the joking in stride, and he's quick to point out why the Crain's observation didn't alarm the company: "The name has to be mispronounced to get that unfortunate meaning."

The made-up moniker, pronounced "mon-dah-LEEZ," became a punch line after it was unveiled in March. On Wednesday, Kraft shareholders will decide whether to approve the name for the company's business that sells global snack brands such as Oreos, Fig Newton and Cadbury.

The four-month odyssey of how "Mondelez" was picked – and how it was received – illustrates the great pains companies take to come up with powerful names for their businesses, products, and services. For them, it's akin to parents obsessing over a name for their newborn: It's a moniker that sticks for better or worse, so it better be good.

"You have to generate thousands of ideas, even if it's just for a cookie," said Nik Contis, the global director of naming at branding company Siegel+Gale.

That's just what Kraft did after it decided to split into two publicly-traded companies – one for its North American grocery business that makes products like Oscar Mayer and Miracle Whip and the other a bigger company to focus on selling snacks worldwide.

It was clear to executives at Kraft's Northfield, Ill., headquarters that the name of the snack business would have to appeal to a global audience. So the world's biggest maker of sweet snacks started the arduous process of picking a name in November by soliciting suggestions from its 126,000 employees.

On its internal website, Kraft proclaimed that it would host a naming contest. The announcement included a "mood video" set to music and showing images of life milestones, such as a wedding and a baby's birth. Employees were encouraged to make suggestions through an "Idea Kitchen" page, where they could see and build off of the suggestions of their peers.

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