What’s in a name?

Matt’s wife has finally given birth to a bouncing baby boy (hurrah!). The happy parents have come up with a lovely name, but it reminded me of a news story where I read that a girl has changed her hated name, 'Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii'. It brought to light that previously officials refused permission to name twins Fish and Chips. However, other parents have been allowed to name their offspring Midnight Chardonnay, Number 16 Bus Shelter and there's even a set of twins called Benson and Hedges!

It got me thinking again about names and their importance; this but time it’s domain names. Most company names will easily ‘slot together’ when you remove any spaces, for example Price Pearson becomes pricepearson. Nice, tidy and simple; but have a look at the link below which shows the unfortunate domain names some companies have ended up with!

Unfortunate Domain Names (Please be aware some of these names may cause offence)

So when it comes to domain names… think before you buy!

The proof is in the pudding...

Your marketing material is very important. It’s out there, working for you as a salesperson and as we all know, first impressions are very important. Therefore, it’s vital that it’s perfect and gives exactly the right first impression.

Here at IceBlue we believe in proofing everything. We know that aoccdrnig to rseearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae, so it's easy to miss little mistakes. Therefore we check, check, and check again; and maybe once more for luck. While we have proofers on site, most items get passed round the whole office to be double- and triple-checked.

Last night I spotted something which (aside from making me laugh out loud) proved my point about checking and double-checking things; an advert in my local paper which boasted

“Free 5kg bag of charcoal when you buy any of the above packages *while socks last”

Did you spot it? Well, what socks have got to do with anything is beyond me but be warned - once they run out of those, you can’t have any charcoal!

Another prime example occurred a few years ago but is most definitely still worth a mention; a Christmas hamper supplier somehow managed to release thousands of copies of their annual catalogue without spotting the huge bluebottle fly perched on top of the turkey in the main picture. How that one slipped through (the picture, not the fly!) is beyond me, but I would put money on the fact that it probably didn’t do their sales or reputation much good!

Howdy Doody!

The office has undergone a bit of a shuffle around recently, moving over the road to a building with a real roof, stairs and everything; so it’s quite literally onwards and upwards. We’ve also now put all the creative heads in one space which means the ideas are flying around thicker and faster than ever – along with the office banter!

Creative Director Emma is back in the office after giving birth to the lovely Summer (who can often be found in her cot in Em’s office happily gurgling away). Now we’re all on edge every time Matt’s phone rings as his wife is due to pop any day now too!

With all these babies around the place, it got me thinking about the importance of names; in particular, product and company names. One product which has been getting a lot of press recently is the new energy drink called ‘Cocaine’. The controversy and media surrounding its release has simply served to provide free publicity for a product which so far I haven’t seen one advertisement for – and yet everyone I know has heard of it. In short, though there will be those who are very much against the product and will probably boycott stores selling it, it also perhaps proves the expression “there is no such thing as bad publicity”.