Naming a fund…
As I mentioned in a post last week, we’ve been speaking with advisors around the country. In those discussions, we hear a lot about products (typically funds but also SMAs and annuities). Something striking: how few FAs get a fund’s name right. Many FAs know specific details like effective duration, turnover ratio, or up/down capture ratio. But, they rarely get the name right. Because many product names are so long they either rely on the ticker (Oh, I really appreciate the process behind JSOAX. Very straightforward for strategic income.) or mix up the words (It’s the FundCo High Income [pause] Opportunity Strategy [pause] fund.).
Only one fund was consistently referenced frequently and correctly: PIMCO Total Return Fund. Not surprising considering how frequently the fund makes news.
These experiences (along with some other marketing work ) reminded me of the difficulties in naming a product. You want to use terms familiar to your target. You also don’t want to blend into the others, especially in industries with many choices.
That led me to … contact lens solution. Saline? Yes. Walk into any pharmacy and you’ll see seven or more brands. Below are four I tried recently. The names are “Biotrue®,” “PureMoist®,” “renu® fresh™,” and “OcuTec®.” All 3 companies (B&L, Opti-Free, and Abbott) lean heavily on legal ownership of their names. Two interesting points to me. First, they could all be anything (I swear the wipes we used when the kids were small were “PureMoist.”). Second, there’s no “contact” or “lens” in the name.
