Let’s
say you were starting a business. Any business. You could be celebrating
parties, providing anything and everything from cakes to balloons,
clowns to invitations. Maybe it’s a landscaping service. Perhaps
a restaurant.
Whatever.
Your
business intentions aren’t the important part of our journey.
For this essay, I want you to consider just one thing: The name.
What would you call it?
As
they have for virtually any and every thing, the rules have changed.
Andy they’ve changed because that’s what happens. Change. Time
moves on. The world shifts and adjusts and evolves and swirls.
The rules have, of course, changed. At the simplest of foundations,
the considerations of one day (or age) are not as significant
at another time.
(Example?
Sure. Consider phone books. In the good old days, lots of businesses
selected names beginning with the letter A so they would be among
the first businesses in any listing. Now, phone books are gone
and search engine results don’t lean into the alphabetical order
that provides additional benefits for Acme Party Supply or AAA
Lawn Service.)
As
we move along, we should consider the saying about a rose by any
name smelling sweet. But, honestly, does it? Is that true of any
situation? Sure, the saying itself wasn’t intended to be about
roses or even flowers. Deeper meanings about how you could use
just about name and it was the reality, the content, the substance
that mattered.
Still,
I would contend that for a business, the name can matter. Noreaster
Snow Removal is quick and simple. You and I have an idea what
we’d be looking for and receiving as service from them. Noreaster
part even leans into the heaviest of snow issues, suggesting strength
of the business purpose. Name your place Belly Button Lint and,
well, not so much.
Allow
me a sweeping lane of narrative, and my point seems to be that
this essay is in many ways about whether or not Belly Button Lint
can work as a strong nickname for a business. And, it sort of
is just that. But let’s step away for a moment and consider the
point of origin for this train of thought.
A
couple of weeks ago, I’m in a car with someone and we’re discussing
someone we both know. Specifically, we’re discussing the business
they run. And his first idea went something like this:
“It
all starts from the beginning. Come on. Belly Button Lint? Why
would you name your dog walking service Belly Button Lint? Doomed
before it began.”
Admittedly,
there’s a lot to unpack there. Like, A LOT. We should start by
saying the company involved was neither named Belly Button Lint
nor a dog walking service. Next, yes, the company is having some
issues and the main points of our conversation covered that many
of those problems should have been anticipated (and right from
the start they were not).
Is
it the name though? Could Belly Button Lint work? We have to admit,
it is quirky. It is unique and memorable.
Suppose
the dog walking service started out simply, as a batch of efforts
to make a few extra dollars that grew and grew and grew, to the
point that it was kind of an established thing before the person
running it could think it even was even a thing. Decision was
made to hire one or two additional people to help fulfill all
the requests for work, and a move was being made to formalize
it and replace the business model of you saying you needed a dog
walker and friends recommended you call Jackie or Bill. Turns
out, Jackie and/or Bill have a daughter, and when they asked her
for a name, she came up with Belly Button Lint.
In
all of that we have quirky, unique and memorable with a cute backstory.
Nothing wrong with that. We also have a foundation for the business
to build on. So…
Could
it work in every situation? Is it a cute idea in every situation?
Sometimes a rose isn’t the answer.
If
you just called your place Pizza, slapped up a sign and started
a website, I don’t know if it would work. I’d bet against you
if every other place in a twenty-mile radius was also called Pizza
and had a generic website that didn’t do much to separate one
from another. Part of it, a large part, is about identity. Branding.
All
of which leads us to this: the trick may be finding that place
between original and functional.
How
many times have any of us needed something—some flowers or a sandwich—and
driven by plaza after plaza because nothing stood out, and yet
there was place after place that would have provided the most
amazing chocolate chip cookie ever for our craving of the moment?
I don’t know, but after experiences with GPS units over the years
along with getting used to the offerings of new neighborhoods,
I can tell you I have scratched my head plenty of times looking
for something only to later shake my head in disbelief and surprise
when I actually found what I was looking for behind a curtain
I repeatedly never looked behind.
The
idea that many of you are reading this while shouting the names
of search engines and apps at the screen actually just supports
my point. Remember the first leg of our journey, where I pointed
out the times are changing. Websites and apps are, literally and
figuratively, the phonebooks of today’s world. Great tools, modern
tools, and yet not always the resource you’re looking to utilize.
Instead,
consider the friend and the dog walking service. What would it
take for you to step into Belly Button Lint? Given the right circumstance,
that might just be a million-dollar name.