Branding Crossroads: Should a Provocative Newsletter Name Be Rebranded?

Last week I provided a recap of my progress in building a newsletter business, and I got an interesting response.

A couple of you commiserated with me about how hard it is to grow a subscriber base. Apparently, this is not an isolated challenge.

One reader really piqued my interest when he said he thought the name, Godspeed, might be a potential trigger that turns people off because of how the far-right invokes "God" for the most disturbing and divisive things.

Hmm. I selected Godspeed because it had some smack – its provocative nature would make it stand out. I also thought its definition, "an expression of good wishes to a person starting a journey," aligned with the content I'm trying to provide for the journey of social impact that we all are on.

(The runner-up when considering newsletter names was "Social Good Network," which has a lot of good things going for it as well.)

It could be that I've got a blind spot and the name is too provocative. So, I've got an important question to ask of you. Do you think Godspeed is a negative that keeps people from exploring the publication? And should I change it?

I know I've got a lot of smart readers out there, some in the branding world and others with a lot of marketing moxie regardless of profession.

Please let me know your thoughts, either by commenting on this post or by directly replying to it via email. I would really appreciate it.

Thank you in advance.

Godspeed, friends.

Russ

P.S. This newsletter writer will be taking a powder for the holidays starting next week – so we'll be back in your inbox sometime around the New Year. Happy holidays.

💬 Quote of the Week

"Be yourself so that the people looking for you can find you."  Arlan Hamilton

💥 Quick Hits

• A monarch is threatened – Awhile back we wrote about Homero Gómez González, (Would You Die for a Butterfly?), the environmental activist who was murdered for his work protecting the habitat of the El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in Mexico. This week, Federal wildlife officials in the U.S. recommended that these beautiful and beloved butterflies receive protection as a threatened species.

• Four-day work week – It's not quite the "Great British Baking Show," but it was the world's largest test of a four-day work week conducted in Britain. They just took the research out of the oven and the results are ready for your consumption.

• Fly the private skies – Maybe this will shock those of you traveling coach class with me — and maybe it won't: Private jet users are producing as much as 500 times more CO2 in a year than the average person.

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