Well December keeps on rushing along and here at The Phoenix Partners we suddenly realised that we were nearly at Christmas and still hadn’t agreed a name for our new on-line incentive and motivation product!


What’s in a name? I’m sure you’d agree a heck of a lot if you had heard some of the conversations going on here! We wanted something interesting ... but we’ve found one person’s interesting is another person’s deadly dull; one person’s eureka moment someone else’s absolute shock and disbelief.


We scribbled down what the campaign was all about – incentivising and motivating company employees to try harder, to focus their efforts on delivering more for their companies and in return being rewarded with access to exclusive gifts and prizes.


We scribbled down why it should be of interest to companies given today’s economic climate. “”Well there are very few upfront costs, low administration fees and gifts are sold at cost with just a small handling charge,” answered our Business Development Exec – Jo Fahey. “If they don’t sell or achieve their targets then no-one pays anything apart from a sliding scale administration fee depending on participant numbers. It’s the perfect way to incentivise and motivate your employees without it costing you a fortune!”


Great idea, fabulous concept, but what about the name? We tried mythological creatures that are associated with prosperity or good fortune. We tried Greek and Roman Gods (did you know that there was a Roman God of Doors? Just how disappointed would you be if you were asked to be the God of Doors? Not THE Doors, just Doors??) and finally we logged onto www.123-reg.co.uk to see what was available. Some of the best ideas were taken – no real surprise there - and we had to get over our disappointment having thought of a fabulous name which summed it all up only to find that domain squatters were holding it for ransom.


“That’s it. We can’t keep going round in circles. We need something that says what it does so that we can kick off the design process and then build it. I want to take it out to market in January. That doesn’t leave us with much time,” said our MD.


“Incentivise-me,” said someone - a lone voice in the office.


“What did you say?”


“I said, why don’t we call it ‘incentivise-me’?”


“That’s fab. Why didn’t we think of it before? It says what it’s all about. There’s a challenge there to the hardened sales force and a good opportunity for us to accept the challenge and incentivise them!”


“Is it available?”


“No.”


“You’re joking! Not again!”


“No. Not now. I’ve just bought it!”


Hurrah! Our new on-line incentive and motivation campaign has a name, a domain and in mid January will launch.


Happy Christmas!