[thelist] evil buzzword alert

Naming a company is not a simple matter... I'm one of those sell-out
types that reads business books a lot, especially those that relate
to the modern economy of internet business and services.

I recently read "Selling the Invisible" and while I'm still trying to
reconcile
some of the principles asserted in the book with other things I've read
and experienced, I really enjoyed the the stuff about naming companies.

The author had several principles on how to judge the quality of a name:
*  Meaning per syllable - the more meaning conveyed in the shortest
    possible name, the better
*  Uniqueness - why would you want a name similar to anyone else?
    In an already acronym laden society, names like "IBM" just won't
    cut it anymore.  People remember things that suprise them.
*  Names shouldn't be overly-specific about what the company does,
   "Tom's Bowling Supplies" is going to have an image problem if
   he tries to increase his revenue stream by becoming a general
   sports equipment retailer.  So he changes the store's name and
   loses all name recognition.  See the point?
*  When in doubt, use your very own name.

He also wrote at length about the impact of a name and how being
remembered for anything (even bad service) is better in the long run
than not being recognized at all... because people want safe and
good-enough.  They tend to forget the details and just remember
the name.  They feel better about working with a company that they
have heard of then one they haven't.

Anyway, it's a great book, IMHO.

Back to the point, I agree with Scott.  We muck around with this stuff
all the time, so all these e- and @- names are pretty bland to us... but
the majority of the people in the world are still suprised by them.

I like the name "e-volution".  It seems to say "We make e-commerce
practices better."  Or something like that...

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Scott Dexter [SMTP:sgd@ti3.com]
> Sent:	Wednesday, May 31, 2000 2:22 PM
> To:	'thelist@lists.evolt.org'
> Subject:	RE: [thelist] evil buzzword alert
> 
> (suggest "e.volution" --at least that's a little more suave)
> 
	[Atkins, Chris]  Yeah, I like that a lot better too, even builds
	off the "dot in dot-com" noise.