Product Development: Naming Your Product

If you've ever developed a product of your own, you know how challenging it can be to give it a name--and, to name the components of which it is comprised.

For example, if you have an ebook and you simply call it "an ebook"--that's not very exciting. Besides, people don't want to buy books, they want solutions to problems. It is important to make your product (if it's a book or ebook) sound like it is more than just a "book".

For example, one could call it a handbook, a compendium, a manual, a treatise, module, etc.

What follows is an excerpt from one of my books where I discuss this. I did actually write a book I titled the Survival Series and it does actually sell for $1,195 a whack. This is a fictitious conversation between me and a person I call "The Cynic". I offer this for your inspection to take a somewhat humorous look at the importance of the way one describes their ebook or product.

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The Cynic: So McMillan, you wrote this Survival Series thingie?

McMillan: Yup, it took me ten months. What do you think of it?

The Cynic: It looks like a book to me.

McMillan: Really? I call it a series.

The Cynic: A series of what?

McMillan: Well, groupings of instructional materials.

The Cynic: You mean kind of like chapters in a book?

McMillan: I wouldn't call them chapters. I would call them groupings.

The Cynic: But your "groupings" are kind of like chapters, right?

McMillan: Those are your words, not mine! I call them groupings.

The Cynic: $1,195 seems like price gouging for a book to me.

McMillan: I told you, it's not a book--it's a series. And I never force anyone to buy it. I describe it and a certain number of people feel they have to have it at the price. ,I've never had anyone ask for a refund, so I feel they are happy.

The Cynic: Still, $1,195 is way too much for a book!

McMillan: Says who?

The Cynic: Says me.

McMillan: I guess you won't be buying one then.

The Cynic: Darned right I won't.

McMillan: Like I said, it's not a book it's a series.

The Cynic: That's just semantics--word games.

McMillan: I see you've got a bag of tomatoes there.

The Cynic: I just went to the market.

McMillan: You like vegetables?--like tomatoes?

The Cynic: I sure do!

McMillan: Would you be surprised if I told you tomatoes were fruits, not vegetables?

The Cynic: You're an idiot!

McMillan: If it's got seeds, if it comes from the ripened ovary of a plant--it's a fruit. Look it up. If you ate the roots, stems or leaves of a tomato plant you'd be eating vegetables.

The Cynic: Bull sh*t!

McMillan: So, you don't know the difference between a fruit and a vegetable, but you're an expert about what makes a book and what makes a series?

The Cynic: What's your point?

McMillan: The point is that people won't pay $1,195 for something they perceive as a book. But they will pay $1,195 for something they perceive as more than a book.

The Cynic: Something more than a book?

McMillan: Yeah, something like a series. Books sell for 10-20 dollars, but a series might sell for a thousand dollars.

The Cynic: You're still an idiot!

McMillan: I might be, but this idiot knows the difference between a fruit and a vegetable and you don't!