Choosing a name

So why did I choose the name Kobe Beefy?

At first I thought of calling it something-or-other leatherworks but I couldn't think of a something-or-other that I really liked. My thoughts then went to incorporating my geographic location which is a marketing norm. The area I live in is called Iwaoka which means rocky hills which I thought was pretty good but still very generic and not specific at all.

I live in Kobe and naturally came around to thinking of incorporating that into my brand name. At least to begin with, most of my customers will be people from this area and so giving the goods a strong geographical anchor seemed wise.

Kobe beef is world reknowned as an excellent product. Now I don't plan to sell steaks but there is a tentative connection between leather work and the meat industry. Kobe Beef is actually a registered trademark, you can't just go ahead and advertise any Japanese beef as being Kobe Beef. Kobe Beefy it seemed was still up for grabs. I liked the 'beefy' because it has a masculine vibe to it and I envision my products to be equally robust.

There is the possiblity that the holders of the Kobe Beef trademark might not approve of my choice of brand name but I think that our respective products are sufficently different so as not to cause any confusion.There was a famous case recently when a well known cookie brand Shiroi Koibito sued another sweets maker for using the name Omoshiroi Koibito. After trading for some time with that similar name they were finally ordered to change the packaging design. I don't think Kobe Beefy will merit such attention... then again, if it did then it would all add drama to the story!