Definitely doesn't stand for "University of Maryland", so what does it stand for? Underground Messy Dissidents? Universal Man-eating Destroyers? Unisex Minecraft Diggers? Unholy Multiverse Degenerates?
Looking at it, I'm surprised it doesn't exactly say on the about us. Back in the day, the home site would say "Ultimate Messy Directory" underneath it. It's less of a directory now a days, and more of a domain.
It sometimes happens.....when you create a good name 20 years ago, and then later you expand the scope of your entity.....then you have a problem......you have a very well known brand name with a long history, that later does not fully recognize the scope of your brand name. By that I mean....this site was started 20 years ago as a homage to messy fans only....and then years later it expanded and welcomed WETLOOK fans. What to do... it is not easy to change a well established domain name.....it is too much of a mouthful to change this site to UWAMD (Utlimate Wet and Messy Directory). The UMD name does not reflect the WETLOOK culture.....and is not really a "Director" any more....because in recent years it changed from being a "forum" to becoming a major "hosting center" for producers. The name is kinda obsolete now....but the brand name is so well known now....what can you do.
Other well known cases of old brandnames that have become obsolete with their expanding business empire are
KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN: This was a relatively easy fix for them. Once the word "fried" became an unhealthy bad term to use....they simple rebranded their company as "KFC".
The website OVERSTOCK.COM has a major problem affecting their sales. The original intent of their company was to purchase bulk order job lots of overstock products and to sell them cheaply. Now in 2018 they are launching a major ad campaign because their sales are affected because most consumers associate the term "over stock item" as something that is old and out of date and bought from a bankruptcy sale. People don't want to buy from them because of the image that word gives their company.....and they are running ads telling people NOT to think of overstock items....because much of their inventory today is totally new products....but now they are stuck with a bad domain name that does not reflect what they currently sell.
The most amusing company name change happened last month....when IHOP (International House of Pancakes) changed their brand name to IHOB) "International House of Burgers. They did this because they analyzed their sales and found that over 60% of their sales came from customers who only visited in the mornings for breakfast and sales were lousy in the afternoons and evenings.....so they decided to change it to IHOB in order to attract more customers in the afternoons and evenings. Somewhat hilarious....considering they are doing nothing to eliminate the word "International" from their brandname, which Jay Leno made jokes about because their restaurants are not International at all.
I used to needle Rob Blaine at times for him naming his video company "Messy Fun"....and ask him why was he selling wetlook videos when he is called Messy Fun. At least I got my name right from the get go....saying that my company was for Wet AND Messy fans.
Love you, too
