Cliche v/s The Daily Unusual

In the creative field, one of the things we, rather desperately, steer clear of is cliche. The reason for this aversion is that judgements in this business are, first, made on how original your ideas are, or aren't and then on how practical they might be. But, sometimes, this obsession with being creative can be damaging. Very.

Cliche has certain advantages; the greatest of which is familiarity. When you know something, you don't have to be told what it stands for. And if you have to come up with a name for a product , it might not be such a bad idea to carefully look at a name that sounds cliched. The Melting Pot is one such name.

Most people in the advertising business will tell you that The Melting Pot is a run-of-the-mill name to go with for an organisation that offers a range of creative services. They will also tell you that it's the first name that comes to mind; something creative people are absolutely against plumping for because they've been brought up on a diet of constantly trying to come up with ego-swelling ideas of startling originality. (Not always such a good thing to strive for.)

Yes, you must try and do something people haven't done before. But, you must not get caught up with always trying to be different. You need to find the middle ground. You cannot let your ego drive a business decision. The danger of letting it do so is that such a decision might end up being impractical. And that's why you need research.

If you're stuck between trying to decide whether to go with a name that is clutter-breakingly original and something that's not, research it. At the end of the day, it matters less what you think of your name than what your target audience thinks of it. What you need to be careful of, though, is making sure you're researching it properly.

For example, if your name is unfamiliar, make sure it has a tagline. (Taglines are a very important part of the branding mix.) Consider what your name will look like in a logo - after a while, names become design elements. Think about how easy it is to type your name as a url; if it is hard to spell out, stay away from it.

All this to say, The Melting Pot might not be such a bad idea, after all, when compared with a name like Bhelpourri, Missmash or Mixed Fruit Jam. How bad or how good an idea it is, research will tell you.

Incidentally, if you need some brand related research to be done, do get in touch with us. We do it well and our reports are beautifully written, well compiled and generously embellished with colourful bar charts, pictures and wise aphorisms. Not to mention in an universally accessible pdf file formatted for power points.