Thursday, August 20, 2009

Subliminal, Symbolic or Simply Silly?

Oops! Where has August gone? Spent some time in Utah, and in Oregon at a conference, and suddenly I notice the month speeding past.

Reading the ads this week, I noticed something about the naming of Target’s store brand for the first time. They call it Archer Farms.

Did the symbolism leap out at you right away? Target? Archer?

Here’s the question: Does this exist elsewhere? Is it a good idea to include this kind of related words in your writing? Is there a term for this that I’m forgetting, or perhaps never knew? Would it work in fiction? I guess then we'd call it a play on words.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kathy - I can't believe your post has been there for 2 days and there are no comments!

I think the marketing world must have a term for cleverly naming products with words related to the store name, but I have no idea what it is. Maybe no one else can either....

Now I'll be paying more attention to ads.

Adele

Kathy McIntosh said...

To get people to post on your site you need to visit theirs; it's a reciprocal thing. I've been remiss about that.
Thanks for your comment, Adele.

Lynda Lehmann said...

Surely there's room for it, Kathy. I guess the titles are just metaphoric. But I'm not keen on the name "Target" if I associate it with "Archer." Sounds aggressive.

Time will tell whether or not this was a good marketing decision.

Thanks for your recent kind words on my blog. It means a lot to me that when visit, you may feel more peaceful.

Wishing you peace and beauty and happy writing!

Kathy McIntosh said...

You're right about sounding aggressive, Lynda. And maybe that's their aggressive marketing.
I always love visiting your site. I'd say it rocks, but I don't say that, and besides, your site soothes and caresses the senses, it doesn't rock anything, except maybe dulled emotions.

Conda V. Douglas said...

Yes, Kathy, there is a term for this sort of thing, which I can't recall. And didn't Margie Lawson mention it as a good thing to use in your writing?