Over the years I have met many alumni of the Turner Empire (CNN/Turner Broadcasting/Turner Enterprises/WCW/TBS/Braves/Hawks, etc) and most of them have told me some version of the following story.
[Setup – In the early days of CNN and Turner Broadcasting Ted Turner would prowl his office building and drop in unannounced into random meetings. One day he walked into a meeting where people were planning a cross-channel week-long special on dinosaurs]
Speaker – “Okay – now all we need to do now is come up with the name.”
[Assembled marketing people] – “Prehistoric Times”, “Before the Comet”, “Things That Walked Tall”, etc, etc
Slowly Ted Turner raises his hand.
Speaker (nervously) – “Yes Mr Turner”
Ted Turner: “Why don’t you call it “Dinosaur”
Speaker (nervously) – “Well, Mr Turner, we were looking to convey a bigger brand and feel than simply calling it dinosaur. Does anyone else have any other ideas?”
[Assembled marketing people] – “A Different Kind of Tail”, “Some Were Vegetarians”, “Jurassic Park – For Real!”, etc, etc
Ted Turner: “Why don’t you call it “Dinosaurs”
Speaker (even more nervously) – “Mr Turner, that’s still not what we’re looking for.”
Ted Turner: “About twenty years ago I started a cable news network. You know what I called it? Cable News Network!”
The marketing people named their special “Dinosaurs“
In Sum: The Turner Rule: If you cannot decide quickly on a marketing matter, just be obvious.
This post originally appeared on the Stronico blog – with the absorption of Stronico into Digital Tool Factory this post has been moved to the Digital Tool Factory blog
Tags: Atlanta, Naming, Ted Turner, theory
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Written By Steve French |
nice post. thanks.