Easy-to-process things feel truer, safer, and more appealing.
More quotesPilchard sounds like something served under grey lighting with a boiled potato. Cornish sardine wants lemon and a cold glass of white wine. The fish has not changed. Lunch has changed completely.
People dismiss this as “just semantics” when semantics has altered behaviour and they would rather not admit that words do things. A name selects the memories, comparisons and expectations invited to the table. “Used car” arrives with a suspicious former owner; “pre-owned” brings a service history and better coffee in the showroom. Sometimes that is useful framing. Sometimes it is a grubby euphemism.
The test is whether the new name reveals a neglected truth. Cornish origin and the relationship to the fashionable Mediterranean sardine were real. “Cosy” does not create sufficient room for a bed. “Artisan data solution” does not improve a spreadsheet. “Heritage toast” is still yesterday’s bread with excellent self-esteem.
Naming is cheap product design performed inside somebody else’s head. Before rebuilding the thing, inspect the shelf its label has placed it on. Perhaps the audience is refusing the value. Perhaps they simply cannot see it behind a word that tastes of ration books.
Put both names on a menu at the same price: pilchard and Cornish sardine. Which one reaches the table with lemon? The answer is doing commercial work before the kitchen has heated a pan.