On the software side of my life, I follow a handful of people who not only share content, but consistently good content.

A potential addition to this list lately is Dave Gerhardt. Here’s a recent example of his angle:

In his list of 10 Commandments for Modern Marketing, at #6 on his list is:

“It won’t stick unless you name it.”

This is something I can go back and forth on, but his case has gotten me leaning toward naming rather than not. Why? Because if there’s anything we need help with these days, it’s getting messages to still be in their brains somewhere after they scroll past it.

Crabbe
As I was leaning this way, I noticed a tweet from Crabbe Mountain.

View this post on Instagram

Save the Date! Fall Festival 2019 coming at ya Oct 12th.

A post shared by Crabbe Mountain (@crabbemtn) on Aug 19, 2019 at 3:18am PDT

Think about this for a second. This is a one-day festival that has zero information about it on the Crabbe website (other than the fact it will happen).

But simply the fact that it’s a name helps plants this seed in your head.

One Step Further
Now, a one-off name is great. But if it can be part of a great naming-convention, that’s when you open some powerful doors. Epic is always the example I think of with this.

Season passes used to be just season passes, now we have the Epic Pass. But the power of Epic is not just the name of the pass, but the naming convention they’ve stuck to (despite eye rolls at times from many of us), that all revolves around their core message which happens to be the pass. Everything – from their summer activities and transportation to day tickets and podcast (pictured at the top) – all tie back to that core message.

Yeah, sometimes they have to stretch, but that consistency has paid huge dividends.

One Tool
You can absolutely overdo names. I know I have and perhaps that’s why I’ve waffled on them in the past.

But if you’re wresting with a message that you really need to make a bit more sticky, asking yourself whether there’s a name for that product or event or chapter in your story can be a great tool to turn to.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.