What’s in a name? Sometimes, it’s everything.

When it comes to brand equity, nothing carries as much weight as the company name. Second to that is usually either the product name or a tagline. At my last job I was fortunate enough to participate in several tagline sessions and one naming session, where the top minds available would work together to come up a small set of words that were at once catchy, informative, memorable, and accurate.

But in coming up with these words, each group took on an inherent risk. Good or bad, the way these phrases were to be interpreted would be linked to much of the marketing success of the company involved, and through a very thoughtful process, we had never hit an unfortunate speed bump. But this isn’t always true in the marketing world, and sometimes what seems to be a brilliant name or tagline can end up having an unfortunate impact on a company’s bottom line.

I had originally intended to write about the attempted image overhaul of dishwashing products Electrasol and Jet-dry into a single product line called “Finish”. It struck me as strange that a company might attempt to abandon the equity established in the product names so quickly, and even though they are doing a pretty complete job of addressing the change-over, it still struck me that it would take a lot of time, energy and money to rebuild the strength of such recognizable names.

But then something even more unfortunate happened, and I realized it would make for a much better story.

In Denver, TV station KWGN has been named and renamed several times in the last dozen or so years. First it was known simply as “Channel 2”, but then it was bought out by Warner Brothers and became known as “WB2”. Eventually the WB backed out of the venture, and it eventually gave rise to “CW2”, which seemed fine enough, except for an ever-revolving door of logos. But within the last month, plans were revealed to launch a new name for the station. Commercials featuring the local broadcasters tried to build excitement for the name, constantly reminding (perhaps warning) viewers of a key phrase…

“The Deuce is coming”.

Yes, KWGN will now be known as "The Deuce". Now, while it’s fair that the word “Deuce” is simply another word for 2, the station probably should have investigated more heavily into the possible interpretations of the world. Some people may infer poker reference from it. Others may simply see the number two. But another popular slang usage of the word means poop, and for some people with a less mature sense of humor, that’s going to be the interpretation that sticks. Suddenly certain catch phrases that the station tries to lob into advertising takes on a very bad meaning. I’ve already seen spots promising that “The Deuce is coming”, “The Deuce is going to be hot”, and that “The Deuce is going to be huge”. Suddenly people are snickering at the simple request to “Watch The Deuce”, and while you would wish people would just grow up and get over it, there isn’t enough marketing dollars in the world to constantly evade the… Deuce storm… that will inevitably arise.
Let’s face it. Poop jokes may not be classy, but they do have a lasting quality in the minds of certain stakeholders.

The point being, renaming may seem an easy way to generate new interest and excitement for your brand, but it has to be done carefully, first considering what you could lose in the way of dropping the old name, and second with a very complete examination of what the new name can mean.

Even now as I am reconsidering my re-entry into the marketing work force in favor of continuing my education, I am forced to reevaluate the purpose and worth of this blog. While it’s something I enjoy doing, it simply may not be achieving the goals I have set forth for it, and if I am to step away from marketing as the primary drive behind this blog, I will have to consider its name and aim.

Fortunately “Jason’s Creative Strategy” is something that applies to all walks of my life, and therefore, no matter how the emphasis may evolve, the bolg may retain its name… for whatever value it may have now.

But more to come on that later.