Don't Name Your New Product "Aciphex"

Say it out loud. It's ridiculous. That is not an area where you really want "effects".

I always wonder, having been in many meetings myself, what the feelings in the conference room were when "Aciphex" was chosen as the new product launch name. Surely at least half the room met in the hall afterward and giggled.

My friend Ruthie has a theory about restaurant successes and failures. She says a restaurant will fail if people are embarassed to say the name of the restaurant to someone they are meeting. Especially if they are meeting there for a first date or a business appointment.

She uses as an example "Fish City Grill". Just say it a few times. It can go very wrong.

We have a restaurant locally which is excellent, but I have yet to hear anyone say the name. The name of it is "Estancia Churrascaria." It's a Brazilian steakhouse and quite delicious. However, this is what people say - "Hey - you want to go to Estancia?" or "We need to go to that Brazilian steakhouse - you know, the one on 290 near Brodie?" or, what I do, "Hey - meet us at Estancia blahbittyblahbittyblah."

Branding has very much to do with a good name. Someone recently observed that the most visited websites in the world right now are single, two-syllable words. Facebook. Twitter. Apple. Google.

A lot of people recently have asked me for help with Etsy, Twitter, Facebook. My best advice is this: Think carefully about your name. Make sure it doesn't limit you to one product, one type of craft, or one person. Martha Stewart is an anomaly. Most businesses need to be bigger than the person that starts them. So choose a word or words that mean something to you. Make sure no one else is using them. Then make sure if you say them out loud they're easy to remember, easy to associate with something about what you do, and that they don't imply that embarassing noises or lights are about to come out of your hiney :)

Anyway, a transition at this point is impossible with that image in your head.

So let's talk about this card. It's not original - I saw this adorable card and decided I would use it for my Christmas Party/customer appreciation Saturday. I wanted to do something everyone could go home and recreate without buying something new, so this punch art card was perfect.It's really simple. The mom's head is the 1 3/8" punch, and the babies have 1" heads. The mom's body is the large oval, and the noses are all hand cut from the small oval. The snow and the mom's nose are with the retired 1/4" circle punch, and the babies' noses are with the 1/8" punch. The baby's body on the right is the 1 1/4" punch. We hand tore the snow and glittered it with dazzling diamonds. The background is Ballet Blue, and I sponged the edges of the bears with Ballet Blue too. All supplies Stampin' Up!

It's sweet, isn't it?

I hope you are having a nice windup to Christmas. Today is the solstice, so we all got a little less sun and a little more time inside with the cookies today. :)

You know what? Make me laugh - since it's Make me Laugh Monday - and I'll send you this card! One rule - the laughs must be holiday themed!!

Loveyameanitbye.

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