Intentional Misspellling of Business Names

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Andrea calling from San Diego, California.

Hi, Andrea. Welcome to the show.

Hi, how are you doing?

Excellent, thank you. What is up?

So I had a question for you.

I was driving around in the neighborhood and I saw a restaurant

And I noticed something that marketing people seem to do

And that’s where they take a word that you know

And then they change the spelling of it

To define like a new product or a new service.

And this happens all the time, but I saw this restaurant called Curiosity, which is a curry place, but based off of the word curiosity.

So this happens a lot in marketing.

And my question was, is there a term for this activity that marketers do?

Because since it’s been around for so long, I thought there might be a way that that’s defined.

Well, yeah, they’re literally creating new words.

Onomastics, which is the study of language and new words. And there are companies out there,

Many of them, that you can hire to help you name your product or name your business.

And so it’s naming. It’s just the naming business. Yeah.

Oh, wow. Onomastic.

Onomastics, yeah, is the study of words that are names, any kind of name, not just company names,

But people name or thing names.

Yeah. And if you want to do some reading about this, there’s a great blog by our friend Nancy

Friedman called Fritinancy, F-R-I-T-I-N-A-N-C-Y, which the name means the chirping of crickets,

Actually.

And she comments on…

She works in the field, right?

Yes.

She comes up with names.

She’s a professional namer, and she’s got some great insights about these kinds of things.

I learned on her blog that a few years ago, Downey, the people who make the fabric softener,

Released this product called Unstoppables, but it only had one P in it.

So it looks like Unstopables.

But they got challenged by that.

And they responded, their PR people responded,

That the name was actually designed to embody the playful and feisty spirit of the new product’s unique form.

The name puts a spin on the word unstoppable, similar to how Unstopables put a new twist on your laundry.

Now, whether you believe that or not, I think maybe they were just covering their tails.

I don’t know.

Andrea, one of the reasons that they do this is they want to own a word.

They want it to be theirs and they don’t have to pay to, say, buy the domain name or they don’t have to compete with others for the identities that might be associated.

So they come up with new words.

I worked in advertising for a long time and there’s a particular kind of copywriter who loves to do this and just mess with language because they think it’s creative.

And they don’t realize that a lot of their customers are getting stuck on this creativity and air quotes there.

And really it’s confusing and diluting their message.

Well, I’m glad you were both able to clarify that

Because I did not think there was a word for it.

I thought there should be,

But there’s no way I would have guessed on a mastic.

Well, that’s the study of names,

But naming, they just literally call it naming in the business.

They might have their own custom terms for it,

But it’s something that businesses do all the time,

For public-facing words anyway.

Andrea, did you find it effective?

Do you like that kind of thing,

Or do you find it off-putting?

I like it,

And, you know, I mean, this particular use of the naming of this restaurant triggered me enough to email you guys.

So, you know, it’s stayed in my mind for several weeks.

So you haven’t gone there to have curry yet.

Not yet, but I think I should now.

Yeah, it’ll satisfy your curiosity.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks, Adrienne.

We’ll talk to you again sometime.

Thank you very much.

Bye-bye.

All righty.

Bye-bye.

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