What To Do About The Name

Garth Beyer

Isn’t this the first thing to do when coming up with a business or a book or any venture? Gotta name it.

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As much as I’d argue to do the hard work first, I know we won’t. We sell ourselves on the idea that we can’t take any steps until we have the name down. That’s okay as long as we don’t take forever to come up with a name. (That’s where I come in.)

The first two tips came from yesterdays post: choose a name that incorporates something common and something uncommon. Here are five other tips to picking a name:

1) Forget words that start with A and words that are only three or four letters long. It’s unnecessary. If the business is remarkable enough, we’ll remember all the letters. There are very few people who will forget www.projectexponential.com (HT Michelle Welsch)

2) Understand that people need to pronounce it. Here’s some hard to pronounce brands. Want to discover even harder business names? Google companies that store and sell private information like Acxiom, Epsilon, BlueKai, V12 Group. All businesses that don’t want to be found.

3) Make a list of all the words associated with what you do and how you want your customers to feel. Breaking out the thesaurus will help here. Mix and match the words to follow tip number four.

4) Combine two words. Squid-do, Garth-box, Copy-blogger, Skyy-Gamut, and so on. Think of it like a phone number with “www” being the area code.

5) Don’t listen to what anyone thinks. Don’t ask for your family’s opinion. Don’t run it by a friend. YOU decide the name. I attempted to explain yesterday that you make the name, the name doesn’t make your book, your business, your venture. People never attributed Apple with design until Apple gave them a reason to. People never attributed millions of photos with Flickr until Flickr showed them they could.

That’s the scariest part of it all, isn’t it?

If you’re relying on the name to give you the leverage, the exposure, the attention you think you deserve – well, you’re in for one hell of a lesson.

 

Stay Positive & Still In Doubt?

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What’s The Character’s Name

Garth Beyer

I wrote a 50,000 word novel for National Novel Writing Month. I didn’t think of a name for the main character when I was writing it. Oddly enough, I did name every other character in the book. Any time my main character’s name was supposed to come up while writing, I typed “[insert name here].”

I did it because I didn’t know what to name my character. Halfway through my novel, I laughed at the idea that the way I’ve been writing “[insert name here]” implies that the reader of the novel is the main character.

All said and 50,000 words done, I had to insert a name. I went with Alexander Preston. There’s no definitive reason behind it. Summed up, “Alexander Preston” is something common and something uncommon. Want to know how much time I spent picking out the name? 2 seconds.

I thought of one stupid name and then I thought of Alexander Preston. I can’t believe how many hours some writers spend thinking of a name. Better yet, I can’t believe how many days businesses spend thinking of one.

Here’s what most miss:

The name of the main character doesn’t make the book. The name of the business doesn’t make the business. Branding isn’t about throwing out A and then B, C and D happen.

It’s about making B, C and D happen in a way that people attribute it to A.

To all the writers and folks determined to create one startup after another that read my blog. Don’t waste time like others have. You can come up with a great name in an hour.

And if you don’t know how, I’ll be writing about it tomorrow (or tonight if I have time).

 

Stay Positive & [Seriously, Just Insert A Name Already]

Don’t Be The Best

Garth Beyer

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The problem with Ivy league schools or the problem with any Grade A school is the same problem as top, Grade A businesses. When you go into them, naturally you want to excel, to be the best, to have others in the school or business look up to you.

The problem with enrolling in an Ivy league school or any Grade A school is that once you’re in, it’s damn difficult to be the leader of the school, the smartest, the best or even part of the top ten percent of students. In an environment where genius is the norm, there’s seldom ways to get past that.

Do you see the complexity behind this? Let’s look at it from the business angle.

Perhaps someone knocks at your door right now and tells you that you are to start working with Apple’s design team tomorrow morning. You might be an extremely talented designer, but when you meet the team tomorrow, everyone will be extremely talented. You will all be gray. (Well, according to Ive, you will all be colorful. Alas, still the same.)

There’s a misperception between the school/business relationship I’m presenting.

Let me suggest you reject the Ivy league school and not work for Apple’s design team. Don’t be the best. Create the best.

Harvard doesn’t need you. Nor does Apple’s design team. But, Drexel University does. But, that Startup in town does. But, students at Purdue do. Microsoft does (ha).

It’s irrational and much less satisfying to be a big fish in a pond of equally big fish. What matters – and you might not realize this yet, but you will – is that to feel the happiness we all habitually seek in life we must make small fish into big fish, small ponds into big ponds.

Holding hands is great. I’ll kumbaya any night of the week. But extending my hand out to pull someone up – I’ll do that any hour of any day, all hours of every day.

There’s an ol’ saying: the only time you should look down at someone is if you’re reaching out to help them up.

Perhaps that was meant to be a motivator, a goal, a call to action.

 

Stay Positive & Are You There To Answer(?)

Photo credit and HT to Jesse Jackson for the saying

The Only Three Reminders You Will Ever Need

Garth Beyer

1) Stop thinking about what you want. Think about how you want to feel.

2) Instead of looking for what will make you happy, focus on what you’re good at.

3) Rather than planning to get ahead, find a way to help others.

 

Stay Positive & Learn Them, Memorize Them, Review Them, Daily

Biggest shout out to Michelle Welsch for writing these

In A Glass Please

Garth Beyer

It’s not coincidence that wine tastes better in a wine glass. Not scientifically, of course.

Scientifically, the wine tastes the same in a wine glass as it does in a styrofoam cup.

The same goes for how you feel wearing a suit. When I put one on, I feel like I’m important, I feel like I can walk into a room and own it, I feel respected. Are we any different wearing a suit as we are wearing shorts and a sleeveless shirt, scientifically? I’m still me. You’re still you. Scientifically.

One more example,

Treat yourself to a cold can of bud light. Then treat yourself to a cold glass of bud light. Which tastes better?

We have these world views, these wonderful world views that in the most simplest form are summed up into that which we want to believe, is true.

We become more outgoing and astute when we put on a suit because that is what we believe a suit will do. The wine, the water, the beer, the tea, the coffee – tastes great in whatever glass we have it in because we believe that it will. So it goes…

The single best story punctures through the noise in two ways:

1) It parallels a worldview that we already hold.

2) It makes a promise that we will feel a certain way when we have or use the product.

Marketing, branding, advertising – whatever you want to label it – has one goal. To get people to attribute a feeling with a particular product or service. It’s damn difficult. That’s what makes marketing so valuable.

 

Stay Positive & In Marketing, Numbers Are Little, Worldviews Are Huge

My Concern With Google+

Garth Beyer

Google+

An incredible change is occurring with Abercrombie & Fitch and they have nothing they can do about it.

There’s a guy giving Abercrombie & Fitch a brand readjustment by giving their clothes to the homeless.

You can watch the short video here.

By all means, participate in the activity, but the activity isn’t exactly what I’m writing about.

Did you notice at the end of the video he suggested that you share the video on Google+ “if you actually use it.” That should frighten people not using Google+. It certainly concerns me.

It’s not the first time people have joked about Google+. And after the frustration of needing a Google+ account to use YouTube, there’s even more hatred directed at it.

Yet, the more we (yes, I’m guilty) hate on Google+, the more Google+ establishes its niche. We are reinforcing the idea of those using Google+ are “in” and anyone else who didn’t push through Google+’s low, doesn’t deserve their attention.

You can look at Google+ like the rich girl analogy made by Kate Knibbs,

“Google+ is like that rich girl with all of the coolest toys who tries to throw a party but everyone’s already made plans to hang out at their usual place and besides, she’s getting a little too eager. And although the numbers do indicate that there is a growing interest in using the network, they may be grossly exaggerating how many people consider Google+ a social media destination.”

Or, you can expect the rich girl to begin inviting the average kids, the drifters, those she doesn’t know and doesn’t have plans. That can be quite a number. And if the rich girl so wishes, she can resent all those who didn’t give her place a try instead of their “usual place.”

You’re better off getting “in” now, even if you have to develop a dual personality. You might not be let in later.

 

Stay Positive & Why Yes, I Did Post This To My Google+ Account…

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The Worst Way To Get New Customers

Garth Beyer

is to tell people that they’ve been doing something wrong. Especially to tell them they’ve been doing it wrong all their life.

Doing It Wrong

Electric can openers don’t sell because their marketing team call people who use the hand-held can openers dumb.

Ipods don’t sell because they say people using Walkman’s don’t understand what it means to have music in their pocket.

Even pizzerias don’t get new people to try their pizza by advertising that people have been going to the wrong place.

If what we do, use or eat gets done what we need done, the how doesn’t matter and surely doesn’t make it wrong. Hell, some even take pride in their traditional ways.

Yet, over and over I see people advertising their product or service by announcing someone has been doing it wrong.

  • “You’ve been baking that cake all wrong! Read our step-by-step guide on how to bake that cake!”
  • “You’ve been doing it wrong all your life! Buy our ten-in-one tool!”
  • “Can’t sleep in hotels? You’ve been doing it all wrong!”

A lot of the products and services that use this marketing approach might be right, but saying someone is doing something wrong doesn’t scale.

What scales is telling a story, showing what the product or service does (letting the user choose if what they’ve been doing is actually “wrong”) and marketing the feeling that the user will have when they use the product or service. That(!) scales.

 

Stay Positive & Seriously, Marketers, You’ve Been Doing It All Wrong

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