Whenever people talk about titles
and branding,
To Kill A Mockingbird
is mentioned.
Is it a good title?
A bad title?
Who cares!
It is an OLD title.
To Kill A Mockingbird
was published in 1960
for people who were likely
12 years old or older.
Was it a good title
for those readers then?
Clearly yes,
or it wouldn’t be a classic today.
But those people
are 74 years old now
and the 12 year olds today
are VERY different people.
What worked for their
great-grandparents
won’t work for them.
The book continues to sell
because it is a classic,
not because the title
works well with new readers.
This is the issue with many
classic brand names.
McDonald’s was founded in 1955, for example.
It was a good brand name THEN.
And McDonald’s is so well known now,
it works for the company today.
But it wouldn’t be a good brand name
for a new company.
(The apostrophe, alone, would cause
search engine issues.)
Brand names that worked
in the past
likely wouldn’t work today
for new entrants.
Ensure your brand name
appeals to YOUR target market.