Verb-alizing your company's name

What if your company's name became a verb? What if your company's activity, its product/service excellence, its marketing dominance, its efficiency, its growth so dominated an industry...nationwide...heck, worldwide...that your company's name or product name was transformed into a verb, that everyone used fluently and correctly and everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) knew and appreciated and smiled when they heard your product name or company name...verb-alized.

Would that be a good thing?

I think it would be.

My corporate endorphins would be through the freakin' roof everyday, all day, to see our company name, Conference Calls Unlimited, turned into a universally acceptable verb. "Hey, yeah, did you Conference Calls Unlimited'd it? Heck yeah, and it was great..." Or how 'bout this: d'ya get some CCU for that travel problem? Why we sure did. (left unsaid is how great it was, how it saved em a bunch of money, how great our service was...)  Thanks.

Or how 'bout this: You guys just got ccu'd. would become synonymous with justng having a great customer experience. I'd be VERY comfortable with our name being co-opted like this. Yes. Absolutely. I'm excited just visualizing it.

But others don't feel the same way. It's reported that Google's attorneys get pouty a bit when you say " I googled their name..." and Kleenex...despite all the free advertising from millions saying their name every day..."Could you hand me a kleenex" when what they want is a tissue sold under the brand name Kleenex or with properties similar to said brand...is reported to still be upset.

Nancy Friedman, blogging at Away with Words, has an interesting post on this topic: Branding Weirds Language.

Channel Conflict: ATT & iPhones

IPhones go on sale at the end of the month for ...$599? Yes, that's a bit pricey. But wait, there's more...as in more costs. Signs are that ATT Wireless, the exclusive provider partner with iPhones, will require a 2-year contract for data-transfers...

Hmmmm, yes. Makes sense. As wi-fi access continues to grow towards universal, at least ubiquitous (hey, we've got it here in rural Iowa...), it makes sense for a provider to require its customers to sign a 2-year contract chock full of penalties for early departure.

It's consistent with ATT's customer-centric approach.  Back in the day, back in the early 90's, when competition in the long distance market knocked on ATT's exclusive door...(by virtue of a court order) ATT's response was to contact their high-usage customers and lock them into 2 year contracts at fixed prices...Before their customers realized what competition in a monopoly can do for exorbitant prices...they were locked into a contract with ATT at prices 100% or more higher than prevailing market prices by the time the contracts expired.

Now, ATT's doing it again with their deal with iPhones.

The question's been raised if iPhone will boom or bust. If it busts, it'll be hard to tell if it wasn't the 2-year data contract with ATT that spelled its doom.

Link from Russell Shaw, ZDNet, Report: iPhone cool stuff access will require two-year data plan.

Paris Hilton Updates....sigh

Flipping on the news this morning, MSNBC to be exact, I saw the ad for Joe Scarborough and his show Scarborough Country and their program Monday night. It's about Paris Hilton...It'll be an update on her ordeal, blah-blah.

I flipped to CNN Newsstory. There they were broadcasting an indepth discussion of whether blondes have more fun, how did we, as a nation, come to this understanding.

....sigh.

Does anyone hear a violin playing in the background....? It's just me, I guess.

My next role, roll, in life

The Boys in the Band are in AARP.  Funny story.

I think it's my next step. Honey, fire up the amps; I'm goin' on tour...I'm a little young to open for the Mick and Keith and the boys, but that's ok. I've got a connection with Steve Miller. Maybe I can open for his tour this summer or next. Fly like an eagle, baby.

Inflation: ONLY energy prices rose

Yep. Inflation outside of energy remained well-behaved...shouted the NY Times article (reg'n req'd)covering the .9% rise in inflation. Yippee. Only the prices for the resource which drives our economy, enables us to get to our offices, power our electronics, power the air-conditioning to make our offices and homes bearable in the summer, winter, fall and spring...power our hospitals...ONLY those prices rose during May...and, heck, only 10%.

And hardly anyone complained.

As frogs, we're getting used to this warm water...