What Getting a Gun Taught Me About Advertising
About two-word stories, the hero’s journey & how to name products
First, let me apologize for the dramatic title and admit I didn’t get a real, functional firearm.
It’s a replica I bought for the photo shoot (that’s me in the picture, attacking the typewriter in The Battle Against the Blank Page).
I’ve never even fired a gun…
But I know a suspicious amount about them.
While I may not be a gun owner, I “get it”.
I used to work as a translator where I coined localized names for fictitious and sometimes outrageous weapons in video games.
Over the years, I researched so many guns, grenades and death rays, that I fully expect to be on several government watchlists.
I spent a long time thinking about the perfect name for a weapon, and I’m ashamed to admit that none of my fanciful creations ever beat the real thing.
Because Colt Peacemaker is the best name for almost anything ever!
Here’s why — and what you can learn from it (even if you don’t like guns).
Background: The Best & Worst Name
When the Colt Single Action Army Revolver M1873 first launched, it was marketed as ‘the equalizer’ to women and young people because of its reduced size and recoil. Unfortunately, this made the self-conscious macho men of the Old West suspicious of a ladies’ gun, and the campaign was scrapped.
The official name didn’t help either.
As a product name, Colt Single Action Army Revolver M1873 has all the hallmarks of a company telling you what’s important to them — and only them.
A good product name is a one-, two- or three-word story for the customer to continue. Colt Single Action Army Revolver M1873 uses five words (and a number) to say very little and lead to nowhere.
‘Single action’ means you have to cock the hammer for each shot, as opposed to ‘double action’ where you can trigger and fire in one motion. As a customer at the time, it really just tells you that the product uses old tech and not the new, improved mechanics.
‘Army’ tells you it was used by the US Army. It signals authority, which isn’t too bad in a product name. If it’s good enough for professional soldiers, it’s probably good enough for you, right?
‘Revolver’ says… well, it’s a revolver, duh.
‘M1873’ concludes the very long name because it was made in 1873 and why not waste even more space on something that will soon seem outdated?
From a product manager's point of view, Colt Single Action Army Revolver M1873 is a great name because it fits neatly in boxes and spreadsheets, and you can categorize the whole product portfolio from its rigid logic.
From a copywriting point of view, it’s a brand talking about itself and wasting words.
Fortunately, Colt distributor Benjamin Kittredge had a knack for marketing and coined the nickname that eventually made the revolver a legend.
The official name was long, pointless, and hard to remember, but the nickname was short, to the point and packed with storytelling.
Peacemaker does almost everything a good product name can do.
It identifies the all-important benefit.
It stands out in the marketplace where most firearms were (and still are) named from either boring engineer logic or machismo power fantasy.
And it leaves room for the customer to imagine.
Features to benefits — The official name is heavy on features (‘single action’, who cares?) but Peacemaker finds the wholesome benefit: you go to war to make peace.
Uniqueness — Whether it’s wannabe-action movie titles like Desert Eagle or the coded gibberish of HK MP5SD6, the almost pacifist Peacemaker stands alone among gun names to this day.
The Hero’s Journey — Between the noise of war and the silence that follows, Peacemaker uses implied contrast to create a space where the user can be the hero in their own story.
1. Features to Benefits
The first thing you learn as a copywriter is to turn features into benefits. “People don’t buy a quarter-inch drill, they buy a quarter-inch hole in the wall.” The lesson is to stop thinking about the product or brand, and start thinking about the difference they make in people’s lives.
Peacemaker hits the benefit perfectly; it’s a tool for peace.
I remember as a kid (and a non-native English speaker) watching Westerns and being slightly confused. A gun is loud and designed for war but “peace” means the opposite, no? Confusing… And then I remember the aha moment, the revelation! Oh! It’s what comes after! I get it!
I can’t think of any other product name that hits its categorical benefit like Colt Peacemaker.
Copywriters love to use Apple’s 1000 Songs in Your Pocket as an example of tech marketing hitting the mark, but I think Benjamin Kittredge with his Peacemaker outdrew Steve Jobs by more than a century.
2. Uniqueness
The Equalizer sounds like a powerful name for a gun.
From what I’ve been able to gather (it’s hard to find accurate data on a 152-year-old marketing campaign), the equalizer concept was used for advertising when the revolver was first launched but never as an official name.
While the concept may have been divisive at the time, it’s solid because it differentiates the product and highlights a competitive advantage: improved handling. It offers equal firepower to anyone whose hands are too small for the competitors’ products.
Peacemaker, however, is unique because it doesn’t sound powerful.
Instead of selling a unique feature, it sells the benefit of the whole category.
Where other gun names try to outdo each other in power and conflict signaling, Peacemaker has no competition because it’s singularly focused on the opposite — peace.
If everyone is telling the same story, just tell a different one.
Most brands imitate their industry simply because they assume their competitors know something they don’t.
Take a lesson from the Old West and dare to stand out in the marketplace.
3. The Hero’s Journey
Peacemaker is full of storytelling because it’s a two-word hero’s journey.
The concept of the hero’s journey was popularized by writer Joseph Campell and describes the structural mythotype of most protagonists: the hero goes on a journey, resolves a conflict, and returns home transformed.
Peacemaker captures the essence of a hero’s journey — overcoming a challenge for change — by focusing not on the conflict but on the peace it restores.
The two-word story lets the user be the unambiguous hero. Had it been the Widowmaker, it would still imply a benefit… but in a villain’s tale.
If we take the drill/hole analogy a step further, you probably don’t buy a hole in the wall either.
More likely, you buy a way to hang a picture or a shelf.
And if you’re like me, maybe you buy yourself a story about having the homeowner skills and handiness of someone who can hang those things without breaking the f***ing wall.
Maybe your toolbox isn’t a toolbox; it’s a toybox where you get to roleplay as the man your dad wished you’d become.
Every time you buy a new toy, it adds to the story.
“Storytelling” in copywriting isn’t history-telling, and it’s not editorials about how the product was made; it’s the seed you plant in your customers’ brains that makes them tell stories to themselves.
Conclusion: A Rose By Any Other Name
Shakespeare is probably right that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But it’s unlikely it would be a bestseller on Valentine’s Day if it was called Stingy Prickflower.
A name can make or break a product. Reebok learned this the hard way in 1996 when they launched the Reebok Incubus: a women’s shoe, named after a folklore demon that violates women in their sleep. The devil is in the details… or in this case, right there in the name. It was quickly recalled and rebranded.
Finding a good product name isn’t easy. And if anyone tells you AI can do it for you, they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Don’t listen to the reductionists, do this instead:
Translate features into benefits by empathizing with your customers.
AI can’t do this yet because it doesn’t have empathy.
Stand out in the marketplace by finding a human insight that your competition isn’t occupying.
AI can’t do this yet because it imitates the categorical average; finding outlier opportunities takes original thinking.
Identify the hero’s journey by understanding narrative structure and symbolism.
AI can… maybe do this? But even then, you need a human who knows what a hero’s journey looks like in the first place.
If your product name tells a two-word story with room for your customer, maybe you’ve got something as good as the Colt Peacemaker.
If not, drop me a line and let me help.
Peace out!
