Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Company Names, Language, and All That

Even a business that spends nothing on advertising should pay attention to "marketing." Sometimes that simply means doing a good job so that the neighbors will keep coming back, or choosing an appropriate name.

In my youth, before the Internet, Telstar, and international direct dialing, common sense was enough for most marketing decisions. It still is, but I think we need to make more of an effort to learn about customers and clients today.

That's particularly true when a company starts attracting attention in other countries. For instance, someone introducing a chain of landscaping services in another country might think that combining two family names might make it seem more 'local.' I think that makes sense, but Bush-Hacker Landscaping might not be a good name: even if those really were names of the company's American partners.

That brings me to a company name I ran into recently. It's headquartered in Japan, and translated its name into English for use on this side of the Pacific. Toyota and Honda did something like that for their American branches, and have done pretty well.

In this case, though, I don't think the folks who decided on the English translation were entirely familiar with American English. Over here, the outfit's name looks and sounds entirely too much like "[redacted] Wannabe."

Vaguely-related posts:

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Candles that Burn in Circles, Stores, and a Holiday Visit

It took my son-in-law and me about a minute to start talking shop this weekend. He and #2 daughter were 'home for the holidays.' Happily, both she and my wife understand and tolerate their husbands.

Folks at Spiral Light Candle have been keeping up with orders during the holiday season, but it's been a scramble. Still, that's a good sort of 'problem' to have.

Customers at Artistic Treasures (13625 Quinn Street NW, Andover, Minnesota) offered to help unpack the store's shipment of candles: and bought out their supply of Spiral Light's products. Artistic Treasures reordered, had a similar experience with the second shipment: and ordered a third time before the week's end.

Artistic Treasures is on the north side of Minnesota's Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. You can stop in to see if they've still got our candles in stock. Or, not. Your choice:


View Larger Map

I've known folks to organize shopping excursions specifically to pick up Spiral Light Candles: but that's not necessary, now that we've got a pretty good online store.

On the other hand, there's nothing quite like visiting a store in person: which is why I keep updating Spiral Light Candle's Find a Retailer page:



My son-in-law's 'candle that burns in a circle' has come a long way in the last year.

"Spiral Light's Spiral Burning Self Filling Candle - YouTube.flv"

SpiralLightCandle, YouTube (January 9, 2012)
video 1:31

Related posts:

("Following" list moved here, after Blogger changed formats)

Small Business Watchers