aye – mo

Bad:
‘aye – mo‘ (pronunciation only listed)
The company is focused entirely on selling cell phones, cell phone replacements, upgrades, and service plans. They can get you into AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Cingular, Nextel, and probably several others neither of us have ever heard of. I think this is a great idea. Dealing with cell phone companies is such a pain that if you deal with a company focused on servicing people with cell phones, perhaps it wouldn’t be so painful. So why do I think this is bad?

Question: When you hear a radio advertisement for a company called ‘aye – mo‘, if you were going to look for a store location, where would you start? The internet or a phone book is a good answer. Great. Now that we have that established, spell ‘aye – mo‘. Here’s a potential list:

Ayemo, Aymo, Aimo, Ayemoh, Aimoh, Imo, Imho, Imoh, Himo, Haymo, Haimo, Haymoh, Haimoh… Shall I continue?

The fact is, that while their business plan may be pretty good, and their marketing has definately been getting the word out there (at least in this area), you have no idea how to spell the company name until you see it in print. I had to look this one up, since I’ve only ever heard the advertisement on the radio. What I’m referring to is the name of the company. It’s pronounced ‘aye – mo‘. I believe that their only location is in the Framingham, MA area, but they’re spending a lot of money on radio advertising. Newsflash to the executives: Run some print ads and back off the radio spots.

For the record, the name of the company is IMO, which stands forIndependent Mobile. Still trying to figure out where the ‘o’ fits in? I was too. The company name as listed on their website is simply Independent Mobile and with the initials of IMO. I believe they’re considering the letter ‘o’ as part of the word Mobile. Why is this bad? Well, when people are spending more time trying to figure out how to spell your company name and figure out what the ‘o’ stands for than actually getting to your stores, it’s time to change the name. The cynics out there would say that if the company has enticed me into researching the companyname already, then the marketers have done their job. I would agree if I were interested in knowing the name because I wanted a new cell phone, but I don’t. The only reason I looked it up was so I could criticize them.

Here’s a suggestion. How about ‘The Cell Phone Store‘. Bloody brilliant.