Name and logo

I did the presentation to our new starters the other day, in which invariably I get myself lost in stories of the olden days rather than sticking to the corporate script, and I was reminded, as I mused, of the very first 'focus group' that we had as we got Betfair up-and-running.

'Focus group' was something of a misnomer, given the people who were involved: our group of six comprised mainly old university footie mates of mine, not known for focusing on an awful lot other than the bottom of a beer glass. But they fitted the bill (i.e. they had nothing better to do), and we sat them in a room to ask them questions about how people might react to the proposition we were about to launch. We started by presenting the six of them with a single piece of paper which we placed in the middle of the rectangular table around which they were sitting.

All it had on it was our proposed name and logo. We wanted to know what came to mind.

The first two comments that were made as the piece of paper was put down will stay in the memory forever, I think.

"Well that's pretty stupid," said one. "Betting isn't fair, is it?"

There was a pause.

"Oh - but look" piped up a second. "They recognise that. Because there's a great big arrow going in, and then just a tiny little arrow coming back out..."