MARKETING EVOLUTION
WHAT’S IN
A NAME?
By Marion Wakahe
M
y name is Marion. A name
when mentioned will make
me turn in the direction of
its origination, a name I immediately
note if on a book, television screen,
etc. (and spend a considerable
amount of time looking at, probably
10-20 seconds before I shift my
focus elsewhere), a name that makes
it easy to relate with people sharing
the same name, and I believe most
importantly a name if misspelled
or mispronounced gets me deeply
offended.
There is more to a name than just a
combination of letters. Names are our
unique identifiers; during the years
of our existence we mould our names
(consciously or subconsciously)
through our personalities and the
outstanding characters that we are
associated with.
One would say for example “Marion
is very generous” and therefore when
one thinks of Marion one thinks of
a very generous person. To a large
extent we guard our names realizing
that the person cannot be separated
from the name nor the name from
the person.
In his book “How to Win Friends
and Influence People” Dale Carnegie
notes that one of the quickest ways
to win a heart is to remember a name
and salespeople who manage to do
this achieve significantly higher sales
figures than those who do not.
The reason for this is very simple;
the most important thing to me is
my name and the fact that you’ve
made the effort to remember my
name means you understand what
‘‘ There is more to a name than just a
combination of letters. Names are our
unique identifiers; during the years of our
existence we mould our names (consciously
or subconsciously) through our personalities
and the outstanding characters that we are
associated with.’’
26 MAL 12/16 ISSUE
is important to me and therefore
by understanding that my name is
important to me you also understand
other things that are important to me
and so obviously what you are selling
must be important and I should
consider it.
The question then is “Why are names
so important?” There are a number of
reasons as listed below:
Names simplify the process of
description allowing for the creation
of a visual identity to that person
or object. Imagine a world with
no names. It would be daunting
going around describing things e.g.
yesterday I went to the national park
and saw this animal that was huge
with very big ears, a long trunk and
tusks. At the end of the day it’s easier
to just say I saw an elephant!
Names address our inherent nature
to own something that is unique to
us and that cannot be taken away
from us. I’ve heard it in a number of
movies with lines such as “You can
take away my wife, my children, my
wealth, my company, etc but you can’t
take away my name” or “at the end of
the day all I have is my name.”
Every person’s inherent desire is to
own, names serve this purpose very