When I got my first Lakme lipstick as a teen, I remember the giddy excitement of reading the names of the different shades and how each one produced a different emotional response and informed my buying decision. That was also the time when I believed my dream job would be being paid to name lipstick and nail polish shades. I was never a make-up person and certainly did not have a weekly manicure habit - the supposed pre-requisites to dream of such a career. That job appealed to me based on the level of impact it had on me.
I imagined every woman who was shopping for these products experienced the same things I did when I read the name of a shade. It was not enough that the shade was right for me - the name had to resonate as well, wearing that color needed to make me feel a certain way and the name had to communicate that feeling effectively. I could tell that doing such a thing at scale was not easy - each woman is different and yet the shade can be called only one name - it has to work for everyone.
Needless to say, the shades of Lakme in India back then were fairly limited and the names were completely uncontroversial. The naming conventions of Lakme today are still quite modest. Lipstick or interior wall paint, the naming of shades had held its fascination for me over the years. But the idea is extensible to other products - ice-cream flavors for instance. When there are two or more equally worthy contenders, then the winning name can make the difference.
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