Make Your Business Name Easy to Say

A while ago, I got an email with a frightful warning: The writer said that the name I'd chosen for my blog—RIMtailing—was generally understood in his neck of the woods to refer to an obscene physical act involving not so much the neck as the tongue. The writer advised that if I invited people to look in on my blog, those people were mighty unlikely to say the name aloud in mentioning my blog to colleagues.
     I promptly did online searches in three slang dictionaries. No mention there of rimtailing at all. Not even with its proper etymology as a mashup of the "Retailing In Motion" acronym and "retailing."
     All this did remind me, though, that we want to make it easy for people to say the name of our business. After all, we don't want to create any impediment to them mentioning us to their friends. So I'm thinking about Emigh Ace Hardware in Sacramento, California, which features above the store entrance and alongside the store name, a picture of a girl in coveralls saying, "Call me Amy." And I'm thinking about the GEICO gecko. But I'm also thinking about the fashion house in the United Kingdom called fcuk. Some businesses might intentionally choose an edgy name because target market members get a kick out of saying it.
     As for me, if "RIMtailing" does have negative associations which make people hesitate saying the name, my mission is to restore a sterling reputation to the term. And as soon as I'm done with this, my next task is to see that consumers worldwide have only the most positive associations with another business name I can easily imagine being unfairly dinged: They install lawns. Great company. Deliver right to the customer's door. Business name is Sod To Me.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers