I know bikeshedding about names is discouraged, but in the case of signatures, isn't there a desire to evoke a "trust" feeling? It's hard to tie "cheap" to "trust". Some other synonym like "eco" might project trust better.
- They're positioning themselves to always compete on price, not offerings.
- It's professionally embarrassing to use a product named "cheap" anything. I have so much trouble recommending namecheap.com to my clients because of this. They're reliable and budget friendly but the word cheap makes them worry about trusting their domain name to them.
- "Cheap" refers to price but it can also refer to quality.
- I'd be surprised if lawyers weren't their #1 market and I can't imagine they'd be comfortable sending their clients to a "cheap" product.
I'm sure they did market research to make it worth using the name. I'd love to hear their take on it.
Who knows, maybe this domain name is only for the initial marketing rollout and the actual product will use a more professional domain name.
EDIT: Another example: NameCheap. Great service. Nobody cares that it has that in the name.
SurveyMonkey is using a fun name for boring surveys.
NameCheap is positioning itself as the cheapest place to buy items that are already cheap. $5 at NameCheap vs $10 somewhere else.
If you sign a legally binding document for a property or a business deal, the last thing you want to hear is "let's do it the cheap way and save $1.75".
- Discount is only referring to price while cheap can refer to price as well as quality.
- They’re going after a different segment of the market. Business to Consumer clients are not expecting the same level of professionalism as B2B clients would.
- Maybe it’d be a concern if they only sold their own tires. You might figure lower price means lower quality products. However, they sell the same tires as everyone else. It’s easy to see that it’s just a price play, not quality.
I agree, the name seems antithetical to the concept that the brand really needs to get across, of a solid, trustworthy organisation serving as a proxy for obtaining legally valid signatures.
There’s nothing wrong with leading with the marketing message that this is a cheaper solution than the competition but the brand of the service still needs to evoke trust.
Luckily it looks like they have a bit of time prior to launch to consider whether this is something they may want to change.
Frequently statements which start like this also, unintentionally, tend to be great examples of bikeshedding themselves.
These extra comments are noise and I don't even want to write this but note that we should avoid comments that don't have a positive purpose. Hopefully this one will lead to fewer of these.
This seems to be a rather self referential point :)
If their aim is to capture potentially larger market of lower-revenue transactions, something like "StreamlinedSignatures" or "VerifiedSignatures" or as you say "EcoSignatures" would be much safer.
Also, now I have to google what's "BikeShedding" :D
> Bikeshedding, also known as Parkinson's law of triviality, describes our tendency to devote a disproportionate amount of our time to menial and trivial matters while leaving important matters unattended.
But at least do yourself a favour and find another merit to sell your product on that isn’t ”cheaper than the usual guys”
Sometimes a cheap burger or a cheap taco is the best. For signatures, I think this works. I don’t think I would skimp on important, non-commodity things.
I think it’s funny and off putting when brands try to overestimate their importance. I don’t want a “signature experience” just like I don’t want to “invest” in a $5 domain name. Just be honest instead of pretending like everything is part of my identity.
But it doesn't really work for signatures. If I'm signing things related to my mortgage, or VC financing, or an affidavit or something, it isn't equivalent to "cheap taco," but rather something like "fancy fine dining."
I'd be willing to pay a premium to ensure nothing goes wrong with the documents that will delay a closing process. And if I were a lawyer or similar professional, I think I'd also want to convey that premium image. I'm not buying a "signature experience," but I might be a buying house, where a want a "trusted transaction." Which is why I'm hiring a professional and not going DIY.
As a technologist, I would appreciate something more for less, like a record of of the signature's provenance.
I suspect the next iteration of the product/company will have a different brand name.