Page 89 - Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing - PDFDrive.com

tissues kleenexes. Xerox does the same to keep the word “Xerox” from
becoming a synonym for “photocopy.”

Why the fuss? Because these companies do not want their name to become
generic. They want their name to stand for their product.

Just as sophisticated marketers do not want their brand names to become
generic, you do not want a generic name as your brand. A generic name is not
your name; it is everyone’s.

Three Twin Cities companies call themselves Financial Services Inc.,
Financial Specialists Inc., and Financial Counseling Inc. If someone from
Financial Specialists called you, isn’t there a great chance that months later you
might think that call came from Financial Services?

Do you want people not to know who you are? Not to remember you? Not to
be impressed by you immediately? Not to be able to tell your company from half
a dozen others?

Generic names encourage generic business.

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know

Among advertising people, it is assumed that companies named Creative
(Something) are not creative.

That’s partly because a name like Creative Design contradicts itself. The
name, after all, could not be less creative.

The same is true of Quality, as in Quality Cleaners. Doesn’t that sound like a
cleaner that might break your buttons?

Never choose a name that describes something that everyone expects from
the service. The name will be generic, forgettable, and meaningless.

Distinctive Position, Distinctive Name

What does the brain remember best?
The authors of Brain Book answered this. They studied human memory and

concluded that the mind best remembers things that are “unique, sensory,
creative, and outstanding.”

Advocates of distinctive names argue that distinctive names are more apt to
be remembered—and being remembered often is the key to getting business.

But another argument for distinctive names rests on a basic principle of