Once I told a computer that I wanted a name for a new brand of coffee, specifying that it had to begin with the letter M and contain no more than seven characters. The computer spewed out hundreds of permutations, and I was back where I started. If it is important that the name appear as big as possible on a package, choose a short one like TIDE, and not a long one like SCREAMING YELLOW ZONKERS. If you want to use the same name in foreign markets, make sure that it does not have an obscene meaning in Turkish or any other language. There have been some nasty accidents. I have suggested names for dozens of new products, but have not yet had one accepted. Good luck to you. Sleeping beauties Some products which sell well without being advertised may sell better, and make more profit, with advertising. For 40 years the Lambert Pharmaceutical Company sold modest quantities of a mouthwash called Listerine, without advertising it. When young Jerry Lambert started advertising it – as a remedy for halitosis – sales went through the roof. Milton S. Hershey built the biggest confectionery business in the world without advertising. Some years after his death, his successors asked my partner Bill Weed to find out whether advertising could increase their profits, most of which went to the Hershey orphanage. Bill had commercials made for three of their products and tested them in local markets. One of the products did not respond to advertising, but sales of Hershey Bars went up, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups went up 66 per cent. By 1980, Hershey was spending $42,000,000 on advertising. The end of the block-buster brand It has become prohibitively expensive to launch brands aimed at a dominant share-of-market. Even the manufacturers with the biggest war- chests are finding it more profitable to aim their new brands at narrowly defined segments of the market. The recent launch of a new cigarette cost $100,000,000. The advent of cable television, with 50 or more channels, will make it easier to aim your advertising at special groups of consumers. There may never be another universal giant like Tide or