Using the Acronym as a Name Brand

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Acronyms have become annoyingly pervasive in today's world of causes, strange diseases, and interest groups. There's MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), PETA ( People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), and so on ad infinitum.

Still, the acronym is a good choice when you're dealing with something complex, technical, and difficult to name with existing words. The best acronyms actually become words in their own right - who remembers that RADAR stands for Radio Detecting and Ranging or that SCUBA means Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus?

I recently needed to name a sophisticated technical process for making replicas, at any size, of any object or land form. The process involves stereoscopic photography, telemetry, and equipment most people could never relate to. I called it SMART: Stereoscopic Mapping and Rescaling Technology. The clients now have a handy, nonthreatening name for their complex, incomprehensible-to-the-layman process.