charlesriverbranch wrote: ↑Tue Jan 10, 2023 9:42 am
What's the point of paying someone an inordinate amount of money to come up with a flashy name? Why not just call it AB-1, or some such. The traveling public isn't going to care; as far as they're concerned it's Amtrak.
Marketing is a weird beast.
We have to think about the traveling public, which isn't as enthusiastic about trains as us on the forum -- after the novelty wears off, most will say "meh, it's a train, it gets me where I want to go."
Add into the mix folks who are long train riders and haven't gotten word of the changes (yes, there are some). Folks who don't like sudden changes. You got to get the word out, and it has to be memorable. You have to generate
hype.
Nobody (except us, of course) is going to want to hear that the ICT's are existing platforms and there's going to be different engines depending on where you are and yada yada yada. They want to know what's new and how it's going to affect them. It can't be the same-old-same-old. It has to be presented as new, innovative, fresh, modern, more capable... and not boring.
In other words, you want the layman to say "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam! I'd ride an Airo train everywhere I can!"