What’s In A Name?
July 13th, 2010Is there any connection between what something is named and what it does? [PLEASE CLICK ON TITLE TO READ ARTICLE].
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about labels lately and questioning how much impact they have on behavior. What I’m wondering is if names can be the harbingers of action or if that’s just a shallow and ultimately worthless supposition.
About a year ago I wrote a blog post titled “The Problem With Newspapers Is The Word Paper.” My point was that if media companies spent more time concentrating on selling us what we want – the news – and less on delivering what we only thought we wanted – the paper – they might not find themselves in the troubled spot they’re in. But unfortunately the title newspaper put equal significance on both of their offerings.
When Tom Cruise was ranting and raving about psychiatry not being a science, Lewis Black pointed out that the actor knew what he was talking about because Tom Cruise belongs to a religion “that’s got science right in its name!” (The video is hilarious. Click here to watch.)
So my question is whether there’s any correlation between the label and the action.
Sure I know that it’s a joke of convenience to point out that every time you see a building on fire it’s always surrounded by fireman therefore it’s likely that fireman caused the fire itself (after all, they’ve got fire in their name). But let’s look at a more timely and relevant example – the damage done to both personal fortunes and the world economy by Wall Street and the real estate industry, both of which employ people called brokers.
If playwrights write plays and house painters paint houses then doesn’t it stand to reason that real estate brokers would break real estate and stock brokers would break stocks? Or is the argument as fallacious as assuming that just because olive oil comes from olives and peanut oil comes from peanuts then baby oil comes from babies?
Would Ralph Lauren have been as successful if his eponymous company used his given name, Ralph Lifshitz? Can you imagine bringing home or receiving an expensive perfume bottle branded “Lifshitz” for Valentines Day? (Hey Ralph, if your Lifshitz does your tuchas talk?)
I’m not suggesting any of this makes sense, only that labels do have enormous value and perhaps important consequences if only because of our perceptions of what the labels stand for. And while it may appear to be a shallow argument, there’s a lot to learn from the way we name products and people.
Tags: Branding, Lewis Black, Naming, Product Names, Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lifshitz, Tom Cruise
I’m not suggesting any of this makes sense, (and you are right)
As always, this was readable and spot-on. I had hoped you would tackle the age old issue of parking on a friveway vs driving on a parkway, but I guess we’ll have to wait for that.
Have a great rest of the summer.
Well written Bruce, Tickled my funny bone, Tom
This is an interesting semantic game. I suppose that I could take it to the next step by suggesting that trailer parks cause tornadoes. But, then the word tornado is not in the term “trailer park”. I think it’s more interesting to look at the impact of choosing the right words to create the spin you want. The Army chose to name their war in Iraq, Operation Iraqi Freedom, despite the fact that Iraqi’s didn’t ask to be freed. The President’s advisors talk about “jobs created or saved” because the unemployment numbers don’t look so good.
Alternatively, other names/titles are unremarkable because they are don’t work to change our perspective. The late George Steinbrenner was called “The Boss”. As if anyone didn’t know? And, I was recently asked to leave an Old Navy store because it seemed redundant.
Excellent article!
Thank you for making me laugh. This was you at your best. It is fun to stop, contemplate and marvel sometimes.
It’s Brand, and it’s all subjective, depending on what cultures have influenced you (in the universe), how you developed and what you value. Some cultures, for instance, assign real power to names.
Well my dear friend Bruce,
You have opened up a most extraordinary topic! As in the bible…”in the beginning there was the word,” may speak volumes as to the true power to creating the future.
About 10 years ago in the city of Umann in the Ukraine I was a participant of some 8,000 men from around the world during a spiritual odyssey celebrating the Jewish New Year. I was an invited guest with a contingent of Orthodox Jews from Monsey NY. In a room with a cadre of Grand Rebbes was the question; how one reads and understands Torah, with the closest intrepretation to what GOD truly means. After listening closely to an intense dialogue, and clearly a novice among learned scholars of Torah, I asked the question; What if GOD wrote Torah “from the future”, and how would that alter our perspective to life? There was dead silence, until the lead Rebbe responded to the group, “please listen to Mair Cohen’s question again
Point being; Listening, speaking, reading and actively participating in life generated from our past may be hugely limited to creating our future from our past, as against creating our future from the future! Sounds strange, but perhaps not.
In my work with people, including generating language from a future that has not yet happened in a future tense creates another critical reality that becomes empoweringly real and therefore the ability to take unreasonable actions occur as totally logical and real!
Bruce the slight shift in language, although initially uncomfortable has produced around me some truly amazing breakthroughs for a relativity large group of commited individuals. I also am aware that in your industry aspects of what I am saying, does in fact happen. Yet, by and large for the majority of the world community our fundamental language is overwhelmingly past based and therefore inside the very fiber of life itself.
What’s in a Name (word)? Everything and anything! The challenge; Being complete with life and history as we know it to BE! There is a small contingent of futuristic and courageous people in the world who are growing in numbers passionately commited to such a world.
Thanks for the stimulus you represent that allows me to connect to my essence and deepest self, and taking your time to be with my long answer to your short question.
I am honored by our relationship, Martin.