Well, it's a fair question. When Erin and I began to finalize plans for our business, of course we devoted ourselves to the momentous task of picking a name. Much like naming a child (something I know nothing about) or a pet (something I know all too well!), choosing a name for your business is a Very Big Deal. It sets the tone for who you are and what you do, and very often makes the difference in whether or not you can successfully market and promote your business. Too bland of a name and people are liable to forget who you are. Too avant garde, and people may not take you seriously. (Thankfully, working in advertising gives us a bit of leeway on that account. Crazy Savvy works fine for an ad agency, but maybe not so well for, say, an insurance company ... or school ... or mental health services provider ... )
Plus, there are pragmatic concerns. Can people easily spell your company name if they're looking for you in a search engine or if you tell someone your information over the phone? Are there other companies in your industry or in the local marketplace that share your name or have something so similar it will lead to confusion? Does that oh-so-witty name that you thought up have other connotations to broader audiences, connotations which may be less than savory? We've seen all too many cases where these factors aren't considered, leading to emails lost to the void, embarrassing mixups, last-minute name changes, and worse. (With a last name like Emelianova, I am empathetic to business owners with complicated-to-spell company names .... but I vowed, this time, it wouldn't be me!)
So .... the naming process. One of the first things we did was fill a gigantic whiteboard with adjectives that described who we are and the sort of agency we envisioned ourselves running. Crazy and savvy consistently rose to the top of this list. We liked crazy because it spoke to creativity, to a certain willingness to push the envelope, the desire to take risks in pursuit of creative solutions. We liked savvy because it seemed to capture the other side of what we do ... strategic, canny, intellect-driven, worldly, eyes open to our constantly shifting milieu.
We tried to come up with names that reflected this notion of duality, names that would convey the connotations behind crazy and savvy in a succinct, memorable, professional way. To put it mildly, we failed. As writers, we could come up with plenty of names .... and we did, oh believe me, we did ... but nothing quite felt right. Indeed, the process grew so protracted that we took to calling our company by shorthand, using the two adjectives we liked best — crazy and savvy, natch. Our business plan near completion, launch strategy in place, legal forms and accounting procedures double-checked ... and we still had no name, aside from the Crazy Savvy moniker we had come jokingly to use.
And then the lightbulb went on.
Why don't we just, well, call ourselves Crazy Savvy?
The rest is history. I can still recall the precise conversation in which our name was decided, and the deep sigh of relief we both breathed (at the exact same time, of course) as we realized we'd both been secretly hoping to call the agency Crazy Savvy all along. It just .... fit. It was pithy, easy to spell, rolled nicely off the tongue. It was fun to say, fun to write, and memorable. It spoke to our capabilities, our approach, and our identity, and it provided the foundation for tying together our brand and promotional materials cohesively. Most of all, it was unequivocally, organically us.
These are some of the lessons and experiences we return to now as we do naming and brand development work for clients — often, work that involves devising taglines, naming products or services, crafting a messaging platform around a brand identity. As Scrabble and crossword puzzle aficionados, it's work we enjoy greatly! And each and every time we sign our name to a proposal, contract, or letter (or, you know, sign autographs for our adoring fans ... ha), we both smile a little as we remember the adventures through which we became Crazy Savvy.
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