Feb 26 2011
Those few words make you a winner! or not…
As we learn in school every day, words are the power. Once out there, they can yield tremendous success, unimaginable wealth, worldwide fame or a passing grade for their author. People are prepared to pay the really big bucks for those sequences of letters that enchant people’s imagination. Whether it be slogans, brand names, company names, or the plain old regular name. For example, “Just Do It”, “M&M”, “Microsoft” and let’s say “Justin Bieber” put together are worth more money than many countries’ GDP. But as Karma and the Gauss curve teaches us, for every “up” there is a “down”.
Winston Churchill said that “History is written by the victors”. It may have been the case for you, Winston, but it is not anymore. Today history is written by the random people on the internet. So what would have been lost and forgotten in the early XX century as just another unsuccessful attempt at earning money, will now live on forever in the endless abyss that is the World Wide Web.
Exhibit A: The list of 10 Worst Business Names provides examples on when it’s sometimes good to consult your idea with your teenage son or daughter before investing millions of dollars into business cards and TV commercials.
Exhibit B:
Um, what were you aiming at guys? Because in the light of the BP oil spill, your logo does not give the greatest message.
Exhibit C: is of the more serious kind, were a company managed to be so mysterious and lofty in their campaign, I wonder if even they know what they actually do. Patrick Schaber, The Lonely Marketer, analyzes their slogan further here.