So I started this company called Transistor. Most people hear the name and don’t ask any questions. That’s fine, most companies have stupid names or at the least very utilitarian ones (like “Top Roofing” or whatever). Others go way out of their way to have a name that symbolizes something or another. A lot of times I’ve made fun of the companies that work really hard on their name. It’s often embarrassing. You can usually see the pain on the face of employees as they try to explain how their name is an amalgamation of pharmaceuticals and technology and creativity (Pharmatechnivity?).
What did I do? Basically, the same thing I’ve always made fun of. But wait, let me try to justify it!
Joking aside, the goal was to take something enjoyable from my personal life (in this case, music/guitar) and use that influence without it being too corny or specific. The result is Transistor. Why? Here’s the rundown…
Transistor – it’s an electrical component used to amplify signals. They’re used everywhere, but in the guitar world specifically, you find them in amps and effects.
What does this have to do with marketing? Well, marketing is the act of promoting a product, service, company, etc. You could twist that a bit and say it’s like amplifying messages of companies. There’s the corn!
Lastly, how does the transistordigital.com name fit in?
For one, transistor dot com wasn’t available. And I wanted a really short domain name. JFET is a type of transistor, pretty commonly used in guitar applications. They’re in a lot of the gnarly old fuzz pedals from the past.
IO is often used for “internet organization” which I suppose this is, but it’s also used as I/O which means input/output. That’s a way that electrical devices communicate with the outside world. Another corny analogy, but think of marketing as a way your company communicates with the outside world as well. Cheese * 10 ^ infinity.
Still, it’s clever, I think. If nothing else, orange is a cool color and lightning bolts are fun. And the bigger point? Even if my poor self-promotion skills prevent me from talking about this stuff without some chuckling at myself, there’s no shame. Think about that before you go to market with BestBabyBlanketShop.US LLC.
