What we name things matters. What we call things impacts our perceptions of them and our perceptions impact how we react or don't react to a product or a service.
Marketers typically spend a lot of time and resources on selecting an appropriate name for new product or service. The marketing trash bin is full of good products that failed because they had a name that didn't connect with customers, or worse, had unintended connotations!
I wonder, for example, how much the famous flame-out of New Coke would have differed if the marketers in Atlanta had chosen a name that didn't remind everyone that the formula for their beloved Coca-Cola had been changed. Would a wholly different name made New Coke a success?
Renaming happens a lot in politics. Recently, Republicans realized it would be hard to drum up opposition to the new health care law if they used then formal name of The Affordable Care Act. First of all, it is a boring So they dubbed the new law Obamacare. This made it seem more like an ego-driven project of one man, not an affordable national health care program.
Sometimes, a rose by another name is just a thorn bush.
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