Why You Should Be Careful With Your Brand…

Branding, PR and marketing are big business these days, with companies regularly spending tens of thousands of pounds on effective, branded marketing campaigns. How frustrating would be it to spend all that money just for someone to point out that elegant sounding Swiss name actually means ‘testicle’.

‘That would never happen’, I can hear most business owners say, ‘we would have done our research’. Admittedly, most people avoid foreign names and just stick to words they know. It’s amazing though just how tricky the English language can be if you don’t think it through, as the TV company ‘CANAL TV’ found out to their embarassment:

Even if you’re company name doesn’t have any obvious flaws, your URL may highlight some unfortunate coincidences…

Company name: PEN ISLAND
URL: penisland.net

Company name: WHO REPRESENTS?
URL: whorepresents.com

Company name: THERAPIST FINDER
URL: therapistfinder.com

Company name: EXPERTS EXCHANGE
URL: expertsexchange.com

Company name: MOLE STATION NURSERY
URL: molestationnursery.com

Company name: AMERICAN SCRAP METAL
URL: americascrapmetal.com

Company name: SPEED OF ART
URL: www.speedofart.com

Company name: KIDS EXCHANGE
URL: kidsexchange.com

Which just goes to show if you don’t spend time properly considering your brand, you just might end up being remembered for all the wrong reasons. On a slight side note, I’ve seen Pen Island and Therapist Finder on numerous blogs and websites … so it’s either an unfortunate coincidence or a fairly effective linkbaiting technique!