Single Arrow Shootoffs: What’s in a Name?

Hi Marketing … about our oral spray.

Over the years there have been some unfortunate car names. The Audi e-tron (“étron” translates to “turd” in French). The Ford Probe, which inevitably brings unpleasant medical procedures to mind. The Daihatsu Naked, which was perhaps a little too honest about what you were getting. The Renault Wind, which is not a car you’d particularly want to drive after a curry. Then there was the Chevvy Nova … where no VA is “doesn’t go” in Spanish. And, of course, the Mitsubishi Pajero, which had to be renamed in Spanish-speaking markets because the original name was, shall we say, less than ideal. (if you do look this up, be careful … its definitely NSFW!)

It seems the archery industry may have shared the same marketing department, because they’ve come up with a few crackers of their own.

Martin Vulture: Technically a bird of prey. Also a scavenger that spends its day eating things that have been dead for a while. Not the mental image you want when you’re trying to sell a bow.

Elite Basin: Not exactly the sort of word that makes you picture elite performance. You’d expect it to contain a plughole, not a limb bolt. Also a name that doesn’t travel particularly well. (Bassin is boring in French)

Kinetic Defeat: Archers can be merciless. Turning up to the shooting line carrying something called Defeat is basically doing their job for them.

Bowtech Insanity CPXL: A bold choice. Calling archers slightly obsessive is one thing. Naming the bow Insanity is another. Although, having met a lot of archers, perhaps Bowtech had a point.

And finally…

Browning Myst: Sadly, this bow doesn’t exactly fill us with confidence. And leads to the question “Where did that arrow go?” … “It’s a Myst-ery.” ……….. I’ll get my quiver.

So what can we take from this?

Marketing departments really need to get out more. Or at least test these names on a wider audience before committing them to thousands of catalogues. Because in every industry, somebody from marketing eventually misses a key meeting. In archery, they apparently missed the meeting, missed the target, and then named the bow Defeat.

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The product line originally called RetarDEX was renamed to UltraDEX due to the brand name sounding a little “controversial” in English-speaking markets.

One of the above may or may not be a practical joke. Which one is it … if any?

Thanks to Steve Ruis for the heads up on the Chevvy Nova.