Hey all - I'm looking to launch yet another trading site in January and am trying to get inspiration for how to create some truly memorable USP-hollering, credible-yet-fascinating-sounding new product/service names...

Any suggestions for places that have some off the wall, creative, benefit-laden vivid product names, for inspiration?

Example instead of saying something boring like "breakout charts", I need to come up with something that's more insteresting, yet retains credibility..
eg like "skyscraper patterns revealed" etc..

ideas for where to get inspiration for fertile new-product names?
The industry is irrelevant, any industry with fascinating product names is fine -- anyone have any good sources (sites, catalogs) .. to share?

ken

I'm NOT answering your question directly, but my thoughts are this...

1. Above all, pull out your thesarus. (My greatest tool for this.)
2. Best: Look at other industries, and make parallels. ***
(I'll come back to the above a little later.)
3. Take generally assumed parts of your business and "make" them proprietary (in the mind).
4. Try to stick to alliteration and rhymes (for recall and credibility).
5. Use suggestive terms that picture actions in the mind.

For example, a dentist in my local area specializes in general anasthesia. They do it because they serve a niche of people who HATE dental work. They prefer to be put asleep. Now, a lot of dentists offer that very option. But they call themselves... Dream Dentistry.

Anyhow... Back to #2...

*** What I meant in #2 is a couple of things. For example, you can look at an entirely different industry that's, in concept or process, similar to yours. Then Google it. And see what kind of names they use.

The second is, you can use a concept- or process-similar industry, an pull parallels from commonly known names or phrases and extend them to yours. Here's an example...

Roger Dawson is a pro motivational speaker who's niche is "power" negotiations. So what he did is looked at negotiation as akin to chess playing.

So first, he called his tactics "gambits" (a gambit is a chess move). Then called his tactics with chess-like names, like "The Higher Authority Gambit." If I were Roger, I would also call some of his strategies (and they're not unique strategies by all means, but he could make them look unique with names), like "The Hook The Rook Gambit," "The Blind Bishop Maneuver," "The Switch-The-Pawn Play," "The Knight Never Kneels Gambit," et cetera.

Mark Joyner is well known in Internet marketing. But what people haven't realized is that he "branded" his "unique" (ahem, not-so-unique) strategies using his military background. (Mark Joyner, before Internet marketing, used to be a military intelligence officer working out of Asia.)

From "Mind Control Marketing," to "1001 Killer Marketing Tactics," to "Confidential Internet Intelligence Manuscript," to "Guerrilla Marketing Bombshell" (his seminar with Jay Conrad Levison, who also used the "guerilla" approach to brand his marketing).

(Joyner's book, Mind Control Marketing, which you can buy at Amazon -- I have a copy and LOVE it -- is filled (yes, filled to the rim) with miltary references, cartoons and illustrations, and stories and analogies using the military, and extended to the marketing realm. Cool tactic, if you ask me.)

Look at others.

Look at "Chicken Soup For The Soul." "Hypnotic Writing." Tony Robbins' "NAC" (his take on NLP, where NAC means Neuro-Associative Conditioning, rather than neuro-linguistic programming). Et cetera.

Again, goes for analogies and metaphors that people can associate with (in their brains), particularly to brand strategies that are not really that unique but perceived as such because of the power of word association, psychology and mnemonics.

Great tips as always, thanks -- I need to remember the alliteration/rhyme part, so the title elements all fit together like a winning card hand and are fun and easy to say .. convey excitement..

one resource I'm re-looking at for title ideas and article title 'hooks' is the covers of old cosmo magazines, they have superb titles, like the enquirer, for thought-starters.. amazing that 1970-era cosmo titles have the same content (17 Ways to ... something to do with sex) as the 2004-era ones.. whatever works... good to learn from.. www.cosmopolitan.com

interesting examples re chess/military .. good 'playing fields' from which to draw metaphors and titles.. will look for others as well... thx much..


ken

Hi Ken,

Here's something I tried with a friend who happens to be the world barefoot waterskiing champion.

He's got an instructional DVD which sells for $39.99.

It sells well, but we wanted to add some sizzle to it.

We got to thinking....wouldn't it be cool if there was some sort of lotion you could rub on your feet that instantly allows you to barefoot waterski?

So we came up with a product called "SlickFeet50" and set up a whole website around it. When you buy "SlickFeet50" -- which sells for $39.99 -- you get the 2 hour instructional DVD for free as part of the complete SlickFeet50 Barefoot Success System.

So we're selling the "Magic" as John Carlton would say...and packaging it with the "Reality" of what they need.

I would imagine you could do the same thing with some sort of Magic Glasses that allow you to look at intraday charts and "see" trading opportunities other people can't see.

That's essentially what you do anyway isn't it?

Show people how to see things differently through your specialized knowledge...

So they get the "glasses" (or whatever) for the price you would sell the info product for -- and the info product is included as part of the complete success system.

Anyway...we sent an email to Lane's list that said:


Hi Ken,

I wanted to make sure you heard about this from me before you
read about it in USA Waterski.

http://www.TheFootersEdge.com/confession

Let me know if you're on my side.

Lane


Take a look at the link...it's been amazing response.

Dean

Hi Dean, thanks for the ideas - interesting pitch ... re the accessory as featured product.. plus it's a product that can be re-ordered when the first supply runs out, for a backend sales process.

Nice twist on the "it comes with a DVD" vs featuring the dvd as the main product.

Good copy at the end of the letter, personable.

Ken

Hi Dean,

Given what you've said in your post, I'm assuming that "slickfeet50" is simply a figment of your imaginations and a marketing gimic, rather than a "real" product. What is it? Just some foot lotion or talcum powder?

Anyway, whilst I admire the ingenuity of this approach, in the UK you would get done for false advertising and Trading Standards would be after you because you're making false claims about the foot lotion product. I imagine I could make my feet waterproof by rubbing vaseline all over them, assuming that skin absorbs enough water to be considered non-waterproof. If it turned out that what you were selling for $39.95 was simply vaseline or moisturiser with no proven special properties, (regardless that the true value lies in the video because you are offering this as a freebie), you could face criminal charges. It would be like me selling butane gas described as "rocket fuel - fly like Superman" and then charging £40 per can when it's 99p in the supermarket - I think the relevant authorities would take a pretty dim view.

Or have I misunderstood something?

Maybe the point to take away from this idea is create packages that don't sound/look like anything else on the market. I am currently studying a writing technique where we are learning to do precisely this - create metaphors/concepts and describe our services in ways that DON'T look/sound like something you've seen before. It will be interesting to see what I come up with!!

Jane

Hey ...!

Amusing UK V US debate re flashy names for new websites.

Flashy is good. (So is garish glitz in my book.)

I live in New Zealand, a 'British' colony where we have a wonderful view on the world through our independent window. (Our movie director Peter Jackson recently put together the Lord of the Rings Trilogy here in Middle Earth.)

New Zealand is all about the frontier, 'newness', it is about ideas and also about our creative partners - ergo: The US culture helped PJ create the LOTR movies. The UK culture by contrast allegedly nicked a 100% New Zealand idea (Ladies Night) and turned it into a so-called 'British' movie. (The Full Monty)

We find the Queen and the President equally pivotal to our lives ... meaning most of the time we are instead busy with other vital things, such as creating passionate online / web communications that eliminate the distance between our tiny islands and the markets.

It also means we can distinguish between the stultifyingly practical British viewpoint that lacks magic, and the sometimes ridiculously optimistic, over-magical American view. So we can take the best from both the old and new worlds.

So this also means I can give an unbiased viewpoint

Here goes:

The "slickfeet50" foot-lotion for bare foot water skiers is an hilarious hot concept and the product of a (magical) mind open to any possibilities rather than the primary concerns being whether it is legal or not.

Personally, I go for the magic every time.

It is also the hallmark of a group that still has an empire. (He said caringly)

Jonathan