Sunday, December 30, 2012

Shades of Not So Clever

I tend to break or loose sunglasses so I go with the cheap kind I buy for $2 at the not really a dollar store. They usually have some cool sunglasses to choose from so I stock up knowing I will need them eventually.

Raybans, which are really quite nice, go for $120, which equals 60 pairs from the not really a dollar store. While I could afford to buy a pair of Raybans, I couldn't afford to replace them several times a year. $120 is about 12 years of $2 sunglasses for me.

Somehow I wound up at Overstock.com and bought a couple pairs of $10 sunglasses. A selling point for  one pair came was that it comes with a protective pouch. That pair arrived the other day and today I got to try them out.




Pretty sweet. They look cool. They cut glare without making things dark. I am a satisfied consumer.

The "protective pouch" which appears to have cost 2 cents and offers no crunch protection. No biggie, as Maureen pointed out it will protect them from getting scratched. Whatever I'm easy.

I took a closer a look at the pouch; it has a slogan on it: "A shade above the rest". At first this seems  clever, "shade", sunglasses, etc. But insistently you realize that a single shade ain't much of a difference. Being marginally above your competition sure ain't a real selling point. Yet somehow this insipid slogan is now permanently attached to their product as long as I own it or until I lose the pouch (odds are the pouch gets lost in a week or less). At least it doesn't a registered trademark icon attached to slogan, which is a huge point in their favor.

It constantly amazes me how many badly named businesses I see (CollisionMaxx for example - any sane person would want minimize the collision to the point of it no longer existing - RestoreMaxx or RepairMaxx is what you'd want. Ditto any business with "concepts" in their name that sell anything that is not just an intangible idea), and businesses with idiotic slogans. I offer my services for free. If you don't know what to name your business or it if you have slightest doubt that your slogan isn't really all that clever, just email me. I'm here to help. I'm a  giver.