Kraft to Mondelez

Kraft’s 2012 spinoff of its snack division as Mondelēz International birthed one of the most phonetically tortured brand names in history, with CEO Irene Rosenfeld forced to issue formal pronunciation guides. The made-up name, costing an estimated $250,000 in consulting fees, was so universally panned that it registered a 30% lower consumer recall than its predecessor in initial testing. This stands in stark contrast to #8 Monday, which at least was a recognizable word; Mondelēz sounded like a pharmaceutical company to 68% of surveyed consumers, according to a 2013 brand perception study. The name remains a benchmark for corporate neologism failure, a cautionary tale that cost the company goodwill it never fully regained.