17 Comments
May 2Liked by Nancy Friedman

I hope that when people google straedgy, the first thing they find is “Possible translation: We want to make lots of money, and we don’t want to spend a dime on a naming consultant.” 🤣🤣🤣

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I fear that "straedgy" is how an increasing number of people would indeed pronounce "strategy." See also "Mah-hah-ahn" (the island on which I live).

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author

Or “buh-un” for “button,” which is how every fashion-video hostess is pronouncing it.

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May 2·edited May 2Liked by Nancy Friedman

I'm picturing myself being tasked by my boss to find a digital experience enterprise that we can use to create revenue growth (in all forms and in the broadest definition), finding Straedgy, and immediately rejecting it because I will not know how to pronounce the name and do not care to look like an idiot at the eventual presentation to the partners about it.

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😂

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May 2Liked by Nancy Friedman

I was fully expecting it to be a British company, since many of my fellow Brits pronounce "strategy" with a glottal stop in place of the t.

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May 2Liked by Nancy Friedman

Yep, that was my guess.

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author

Wrong London!

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"Straedgy" is just a typo in the middle of a misspelling. What they were shooting for was "stragedy," which is a disaster caused by bad planning.

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Shitmanteau is a word I didn't know I needed

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May 2Liked by Nancy Friedman

Big Sixt fans here, both for their service (just used them in Florence) and the non-descriptive name. Solovair and Sway are great, and I think you've said all that Straedgy deserves. It's just dreck.

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May 2Liked by Nancy Friedman

The plan for Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld's invasion of Iraq should have been called a Stragedy.

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I love Sixt, the company, name is okay. But someone needs to talk about how not everyone looks good in that orange. I once pulled up and there were two people wearing the uniform and I really only wanted to talk to one of them.

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author

Uniforms aren't about "looking good" -- how many people "look good" in khaki, the color of army uniforms around the world? The point is distinctiveness and, well, uniformity. Look at Sixt's competitors: Hertz's brand color is yellow/gold, Avis's is red, Alamo's is blue/yellow, National's is green. Budget uses orange as an accent, but its primary identity is dark blue. So Sixt's orange stands out in the car-rental sector. And that is the point of branding. (I note in passing that Substack's logo is orange, too. Orange is said to be associated with optimism and positive energy.)

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Sure, of course it's a branding decision. I just feel for the people who have to wear the uniforms they aren't (sorry, woo) energetically aligned with.

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They're probably a) happy to have the job and b) grateful to forgo the expense and effort of assembling a work wardrobe. At least that's how I'd feel.

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deletedMay 2·edited May 2
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No statute of limitations. Fixed!

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