WHY THE NAME – TOMBSTONE BLING?

Some retailers (even some Tecstone employees) have questioned the name we’ve given this product. There has been some concern the name Tombstone Bling may be too light and doesn’t carry the “gravity” typically assigned to death care products. Actually, that may be true – but it’s also purposeful. Tecstone believes in the name so much that we’ve had it Trademarked, and here’s the strategic explanation behind us choosing it.

Strategy #1: Easy Recall – First and foremost, because this product has tremendous potential for aftermarket memorials already installed in cemeteries, it should have a name the public can EASILY remember. To attract the aftermarket customer there will need to be advertising and publicity. We are including a Press Release at the bottom of this page for you to download, edit with your information, and then send to your local newspapers, TV stations, and radio stations to educate your local market that there is a new product (your company sells) and it ties in nicely with the upcoming Memorial Day season.

Although industry professionals refer to headstones as memorials and monuments –it takes just a minute with Google’s keyword research tool to realize those names are NOT what the general public calls our products. Gravestones, headstones, and tombstones are the most popular terms used by the public when searching for a memorial. Therefore choosing one of those names is important to root the product firmly within THEIR cognition. Gravestone – immediately associates to the term “grave” which conjures more than just the stone. This term may be too fluid to be light with – so we discarded it. Headstone is easily understood as long as the context is death or cemetery related. The word by itself (or followed by “Bling”) may not create the exact context we need to carry out Strategy #2. Tombstone is already cemented in the public’s mind as pertaining to a death memorial, but also has broad acceptance as the brand name of a popular Pizza! Thus it doesn’t carry as sensitive a connotation as we might believe it does.

As described in the Press Release, BLING originally referred to the sparkle of diamonds but has come to represent, in a broader sense, decorative accessories like jewelry, watches, or general flare. It has no other cultural associations. The two terms combine to form an original and unique phrase while simultaneously delivering the appropriate concept of what we are offering. Two unique words easy to remember.

Strategy #2: Cutting Through The Noise – CBS News (2006) reported the average American is bombarded with nearly 5,000 ad messages every single day. (Note: Digital Marketing experts estimate it’s somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000.) TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, mail, email, Facebook, Google, webpages, telemarketers, wrapped vans on the road beside you, billboards, bumper stickers, even printouts on your store receipts! It’s everywhere! Surrounding us, demanding out attention!

Ten years ago (2007) was the first year online advertising spending surpassed radio advertising. Additionally, the number of online ads have dramatically increased since that 2006 CBS report, so 5,000 ads per day may be a low figure. But let’s just take a conservatively low estimate of 1,000 ads per day. For a typical person who is awake 16 hours per day, that’s 62.5 ads per hour – or just over one distraction every single minute you’re awake. If you are advertising your company, how likely is it your ad is going to get any attention, let alone traction and commitment? American consumers have become experts at tuning out all the incessant noise that keeps begging for our dollars and Likes and opt-ins. Think of how easy it is to totally delete emails without opening them!

Therefore how do we actually capture attention? How do we stand out from the other 999 ads? Well, the fact is since we are constantly processing at a subconscious level, filtering the stimuli we encounter every minute, the best way to jar the conscious mind is to present it with something it can’t easily understand and categorize. Something atypical or confusing requires the mind to take a second look –Do I understand what this is? How should I process this? Is this important? Does it threaten my interpretation of the world?

Consider these news headlines:

Drought Expected To Affect Corn Yield For Third Year In a Row
LA Lakers Rally From Behind To Win In Overtime
Clergy Petitions Gov’t To Kill All Puppies By Month’s End

Here’s the point: regardless of whether you find that third headline offensive, odds are you’ll pay more attention to it, and may even click through to find out what the heck is going on. Your mind needs to understand what that means. Clergy killing puppies? That’s so incongruent with our understanding it begs further clarification.

Tombstone Bling – what? Tombstones are sacred, bling is glitzy – how do the two connect? Is this inappropriate? What does this mean?

See what we’re going for?

Strategy #3: Diplomatic Explanation – Upon further investigation, the public will be satisfied that the term BLING is also an acronym for “Beautiful Life Insignias iN Granite” – a respectful and clever branding.

The fact remains that you may call Tombstone Bling whatever you want with your customers. It’s your business and you need to gauge the sensitivities of your families. However, if you’re actually trying to compete for attention in this world of 2-second attention spans – we highly recommend you avoid vanilla marketing. It’s a waste of time and money. Feel free to change any of the wording in the Press Release. Realize, however, that you must first capture the attention of the reporters necessary to print/air the story before you have a chance of this story going public. The more interesting you make it for the media outlet, the greater your chances of them wanting to run the story without you paying for ANY advertising!