Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

Laura:

First, what difference does it make which name is most appealing to us? Are we your target audience? Is the product just for marketing professionals? You've probably selected an inappropriate audience for your survey if you plan to apply the results to an audience of "the average homeowner" (whomever he or she might be) and experienced organic gardeners.

Second, isn't it likely that the name that would be most relevant for an experienced organic gardener would be sub-optimal for "the average homeowner," and vice versa? When you lump these two together, you're almost guaranteed to get an answer that's less-than-ideal for both of them.

Third, your survey is flawed from a technical point of view. There's no context and too many alternatives. If this is a serious project and you really need the right answer, you probably ought to consult with a market research professional and consider a concept test in which you vary the name to match the concept (and the target audience). Just asking "Which name is most appealing to you?" is like asking, "How much is dinner?" There's no context and no way to determine what would make a name appealing (or where I want dinner ... at home or at a fancy restaurant).

I responded to the survey to see what would happen if I actually selected a name. Answer: nothing. Please ignore whatever response I gave, because I just clicked on whatever was closest to my cursor! (Probably as useful as if I'd actually read the name candidates, I know. I'm not in your target audience.)

It's difficult to even look at such a long list of similar names and select a preference. While they all clearly indicate "environmentally friendly", they are all extremely generic and remind me of every other green product I see on the supermarket shelves. NONE of them made me think gardening or pest control.

Unless you were planning to combine these names with a clear tagline, I would have no idea if you were marketing cleaning products, food, garden products, T-shirts, pet food, or something else. Something like The Natural Gardener would be clearer.