V. Language Series: The Poetics of Entrepreneurship -- Naming
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” (from Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliette) it’s true -- but would it be as easy to market if it were called
hydrangea, cleome, or zanthoxylum?
The power of naming is an aspect of entreprenuership that should never be
overlooked, especially in this era of internet commerce which emphasizes the
importance of branding.
The power of a name became clear in the early stages of the abortion movement
when some brilliant anit-abortionist wordsmith (or marketing consultant?)
landed on the phrase “pro-life.” What then was left to their opponents --
“pro-death,” or “anti-life”? Pro-choice was a decent comeback.
Acronymns give speakers a false sense of power in that they can create an us
vs. them culture. I remember discussing the “year 2000 bug problem” with a
group of e-commerce software developers in Pittsburgh, PA (1997) when a
consultant from The Valley arrived and threw “Y2K” in our faces as a
gauntlet. Here’s a case where, with a little de-coding, the name actually
makes sense and is obviously filling a need; it caught on quickly.
So what qualities should a good name/concept possess:
clarity -- does it describe what it is
brevity -- short ‘n sweet ‘n simple is always better than complex
punch -- make it catchy, memorable but never at the expense of clarity
My choices for strong naming examples:
Garage.com
Office Depot
Performance Art
Think Tank
24/7
Whole Foods
Bad choices:
e-Bay
any overlong web address
URL -- (universal resource locator)
ATM -- (automatic teller machine, or asynchronous transfer mode)
TCP/IP
When you are in a position to name a product, company or concept, think
deeply about the power of language and use it well.
