“Regarding our lotion, we should come up with a new name for it. Some of the Magnolian nobles know what goes into it because we’ve been calling it aloe lotion. If we change the name of our product, most people outside of the royal capital won’t know what the raw ingredients are.”
Despite the fact that we didn’t have enough raw materials, Kris was already thinking about exporting our product to other countries. I couldn’t help but be impressed by how merchants were always thinking of the next step.
Product names, huh?
Just then, a wonderful idea popped into my head. “Let’s call the lotion ‘Kristie.’”
“Huh?” She let out an uncharacteristically silly sound. “Sir Reid! Why my name, of all things?! We could simply ask Her Majesty to bestow her name on the product!”
Kris had likely never imagined that her name would be used for our products. She was bright red as she vehemently refused my idea, but I wasn’t going to back down either.
“It’s going to be a product of the Kristie Trading Company, and your beauty will be the face of our brand. Naming it after you will definitely be impactful, and it’ll help spread the name of your business!”
“But... Even so, I...”
Kris was still in disbelief that I’d proposed using her name. Though she wanted to refuse, changing the name of the product had been her idea, so she couldn’t say no that easily. She also understood that everything I said was true.
This product could be used all over the world. If it were to be named after a company, that automatically spread the name of the company in question. The Kristie Trading Company would become better known than even her family’s business. Becoming famous would lead to people wanting to do business with us in turn, and being a well-known brand would give Kris’s company an advantage. The more I thought about it, the more benefits there were to naming the lotion after her business. The only downside was that we’d be hearing her name mentioned all over the world.
Kris seemed to be struggling with what to do, so I decided to use the authority of the crown. “We couldn’t use such a revered name as Her Majesty’s. It’s decided—the lotion will be called ‘Kristie.’”
“Urgh, very well...” Kris hung her head, but I wasn’t done shocking her just yet.
“Next we have to come up with a name for the conditioner.”
“I’m sorry?”
“It’s no fun to just have our lotion get a fun name, so we should think of one for the conditioner.”
“I understand giving the lotion a new name, but couldn’t we simply call the conditioner, ‘conditioner’?”
I tilted my head, confused by Kris’s point, before I realized why she’d said that. “Oh, I see! I don’t think I explained this. A conditioner is simply a type of product. It refers to the entire group of products, so it’ll have to have its own name, like how our lotion is now called Kristie.”
“This is the first I’m hearing this. I didn’t realize that ‘conditioner’ was more than the name of the product.”
I proceeded to explain the difference between product names and product types, just like bread was a type of product that was available in a variety of styles.
I realized that she still didn’t seem convinced, so I added some additional information to my explanation. “Alsooo...” I began in a silly voice. “Conditioner can actually be made out of other oils, not just olive oil. In the future, we can do some research and make other kinds.”
“What?! Really?!”
Kris was flabbergasted by the news. The base recipe would be the same, and switching out the type of oil would simply change the aroma and effects. That was why we needed to keep ‘conditioner’ as the name of the type of product.
Since we would be able to develop new products while manufacturing our current ones, if we continued to produce high-quality conditioners, we could remain top players in this part of the market for many years to come. Kris’s business would no longer be a simple trading company but a giant manufacturer. They would no longer just be sellers but also making their own products for a completely new market. Kris seemed to be realizing all of this in complete shock as I decided to clarify one more thing.
“Lotion is also a product type and not the name of the specific product.”
“Your way of thinking truly defies convention, Sir Reid...”
“What?”
If we were to constantly be developing new products and selling both our conditioners and lotions, we could always be selling something. Our conversation today had affirmed what a force our products would be, which made her tremble.
“I understand now. We’ll have to consider developing new lotions and conditioners within the Kristie Trading Company in the future.”
“I’ll be counting on you. Also, going back to the name of the conditioner, I was thinking about adding in Emma’s name, since she helps you out so much. What if we call it ‘Kristie Emma?’ When we have a new type of conditioner, we can just swap Emma’s name with something else.”
I wore a beaming smile as I shared my idea with Kris, and she just seemed defeated at this point.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled to herself as she nodded in agreement.
With that, our new products had officially been born into this world. Over the next several years, the lotion “Kristie” and the conditioner “Kristie Emma” would go on to captivate women all over the world, but that was a story for another time.