“You Got My Company Name Wrong!”
Well, it happens. People refer to me as “Mary Smith” sometimes too. People make mistakes. However, we shouldn’t make it any harder for each other than it already is, given the amount of data we all carry around in our increasingly crammed brains.
For example, I have no right to get huffy if I decide to spell my name MaRe’ and somebody types mare.
In naming your company (or product) – don’t get too cute. I really don’t have the bandwidth to remember you’ve gotten creative in spelling, capitalization or punctuation, especially in an otherwise mundane, common phrase or word (such as Mary.) This can also make it much harder for people to remember you, much less find you online, even when they want to.
Further, it’s not other people’s job to know, remember (or care) why you insist they always use the full name of your company. So what if there was a similar company with part of your name and you want to avoid confusion. Not your customers’ responsibility to keep track of such things.
(Yes, if you’re paying a creative agency for help, they should know the correct spelling, etc…but if they’re responsible professionals, they’ll also strongly discourage you from getting too cute. And, they’ll do some research re potential confusions and conflicts before locking in on a URL or “official” name. You want people to remember you, not feel like they’re back sweatin’ it out at the fourth grade spelling bee.)
Be grateful people remember you, even if they may get the name slightly wrong. (As I am. Mary. Mare. Mar. Smith. Schmidt. Whatever. With a name that’s the German equivalent of the most favored “I’m cheating on my spouse” motel registration alias, I’m glad to be memorable at all.)
Yours,
MaRe’ Sshm-IDTe’ THE! Marketing Troubleshooter, The Woman Not The Guy In The UK. (and, remember ALL Caps on “THE” and never call me simply a “marketing troubleshooter” I don’t want to be confused with “the guy.” NEIGHHHH!)
Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, emarketing, social media, entrepreneur sanity check
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Ha Ha. Reminds me of the speaker who told the story about the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble.
C’mon people, consider: what did they do right? How can you say thank you? Where does appreciation come into the picture?
Or, to put it another way: play nice!
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