First published in 2014 ETIQUS Founder Gary Butler gives you his thinking behind the brand name ETIQUS.
So congratulations to Gerry Lester Watson on his victory at Augusta and on winning his second green jacket. Gerry who?
We know him better as ‘Bubba’, named by his father after a 1950’s American football star. Apparently ‘Bubba’ is a nickname sometimes given to the eldest son in certain parts of the United States. It’s a name you don’t really come across in Britain and few will know anyone called it.
When Bubba first won the Masters I have to be honest and say I was rooting for the other guy in the play off – Louis Oosthuizen – but no golf fan will forget Bubba’s sand iron shot out of the trees at the 10th to set up victory in the play off. This time around Bubba’s win defied the Masters norm of ‘the tournament doesn’t start ‘til the back nine on Sunday’ by effectively sealing a ‘comfortable’ win on the front nine instead.
There are a few things that resonate with me about Bubba Watson. Whilst his main rivals for the green jacket spent the morning of the final round practising and preparing for the afternoon competition Bubba was down at a local course shaking hands, showing support and having his picture taken with the kids in their drive, chip and putt contest. It reminded me of witnessing another US Golf ‘character’ John Daly spending a good hour after one of his rounds signing autographs for every kid who lined up to get one. Here are two examples of golfers who know that the future of the game lies in the hands of the next generation and are prepared to put time and money in to support it.
Bubba was quoted as saying ‘I play golf because I just love the game, and I want to help it grow. It has given me my values and everything I have ever owned in my life.’ He was also seen recently endorsing a branded golf glove where a charitable donation is made with every sale. I like that. It got me thinking about the opportunities for a brand called ‘Bubba’ and when I googled it, it quickly became apparent that many had already grabbed the name for their products – bubble gum, baby slings, mugs and cups, gourmet culinary products and even burgers! – there’s a whole host of ‘bubba’ goods online. So even with an unusual name like ‘Bubba’ in today’s online market it simply isn’t unique.
When I decided to make timepieces for golfers I knew that an important decision would be the brand that would appear on the face. At the start it seemed obvious that as the ‘inventor’ then it would be my name ‘Butler’ that would appear. I didn’t give it much further thought until I started the process to trademark it. A quick look through the Trademark registry and an online search showed that there were hundreds of products and services out there trading under the ‘Butler’ name. It soon became a minefield and an expensive one too. At first I was disappointed that my name couldn’t realistically go on my product unless I used my full name which I didn’t really want to do. But actually it turned out to be the biggest opportunity – to create a brand that was both unique and meaningful.
The best advice I received was to give birth to a name that didn’t exist. Famous brands like KODAK, ROLEX and GOOGLE were all derived from some appropriate words or phrase. I knew the brand had to say something personal about the wearer – the golfer - upon whose wrist the watch would reside and be admired. We know that Golf is founded on the principles of etiquette – it’s a defining characteristic of the game. I also know that the suffix ‘ous’ when added to a word means ‘full of the qualities of’ – so in theory someone who is full of the core golfing qualities would be ‘etiquette-ous’ and it was from there that I derived the new word and brand ‘ETIQUS’.
I hope you like it and it won’t take too long before it’s an everyday term in golf that feels like it's been there since before Bobby Jones marked out the Augusta course in the 1930’s. There’s even a bit of the Masters in the brand as at the Masters ‘customs of etiquette and decorum are just as important as the rules governing play’. So well done to Bubba Watson - a golfer who loves the game and cares about the future of it - I can understand that.
Gary Butler, Founder