“In marketing, can you be too clever?”
Marcia Yudkin, one of my favorite marketing writers, asked this question in an April 2015 post that is as relevant now as the day she published it.
Her answer is “yes,” and she cites the example of a company, TeuxDeux, that creates a to-do list app for PCs and mobile devices. (The app has the same name.) “TeuxDeux” is fake French Ms. Yudkin notes and, even if you know French and therefore how to pronounce the name, you’d need to write it down to be able to find the site—and buy the app. Hm. Can you see the problem here?
The TeuxDeux site is full of childlike merriment and perhaps more than a touch self-congratulatory. The principals seem to think that a silly name is a virtue even though Ms. Yudkin and I think it probably stands in the way of commerce.
One comment Ms. Yudkin makes is about the challenge around communicating the name to others. She says, “Imagine trying to convey the product’s spelling over the phone or on the radio. That’s a nightmare scenario.” Lest you think I’m roasting TeuxDeux in a mean-spirited way, in the spirit of full disclosure I confess that the name of my organization has caused some problems. Some folks don’t really understand what I’m saying when I say “Written Right.” One Brit friend got chuckles out of referring to my august establishment as “Written Rotten.” And my bank got the name messed up on my business debit card.
Ah, what’s a girl to do except carry on—I do like the name, after all—and eschew cleverness going forward?
kritchanut / 123RF Stock Photo
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