What’s in a Name…

…does the rose still smell as sweet monthly?

It was announced in the "New York Times” last week that the venerable (hey, ten years in the this modern communication age qualifies…) weekly public relations news magazine, PRWeek, was becoming a monthly…but still keeping the same name.


Not only is this industry tabloid reducing the number of issues, but its physical size as well…shrinking down to standard magazine size. Oh great…now, it will no longer stick out on the reception area coffee table, but now will get shuffled amongst the other media rags relegated to the seldom read, but purely authoritatively decorative category. More importantly however is whether this size and frequency metamorphosis will alter the content, and thus affect its interest and value to the PR industry, i.e., its ‘brand.’ The publisher of course, says no…but only in time and a few issues will ultimately come the answer.

It raises an interesting issue, however. Just how important is a name in branding a company’s product or service? And if circumstances, economic or otherwise, dictate a shift in how those products or services are delivered, should the name change as well? In most cases, I would say no, not as long as the product or service itself does not change. But, in PR Week’s case, I’m not sure it matters since it is doubtful that the name has little to do with the content and a lot more to do with its time of delivery…and frankly, most of us are already getting our PR industry news and gossip on a hourly or minute-by-minute basis on line or by tweet. So, I can certainly understand the reluctance by the publisher to rename it, “PRMonthly but a little smaller.”

I like to believe that a company name can and should be very much a part of its ‘brand. ‘ When I founded my company twelve years ago, I pondered a variety of names…from ego-centric initials to multiple names (some even fictitious, but with great gravitas) before being advised by someone younger but much wiser than myself to keep it simple…”just name it for what the company does then you’ll never have to change it…or forget what you’re good at.” It was a good exercise to go through, and one I’ve advised to other entrepreneurs and spin-offs. Find your core competency and embrace it. In our case, we named ourselves INK inc for what we deliver to our clients, nice and simple. Over the years our ‘brand’ hasn’t changed…either in essentially what we do or in what we call ourselves.

Ok, maybe in today’s fast paced world we should change it to INK/Video/Social Media/Tweet inc. After all, that’s what we now do….nah, it doesn’t seem to be quite as catchy.