Today is Amazon Prime Day! Or rather, it isn't.
To use the correct name, today is actually Prime Big Deal Days. Which is an awful name. And a horrible phrase to use in a headline (I should know, I've written the headlines).
Now Amazon is very keen that we all use the correct name. So much so that when I wrote a news story about it recently, one of Amazon's PR people asked me to change the headline to call it Prime Big Deal Days instead of Prime Day. I politely declined.
Because to everyone who doesn't work at Amazon, it's Prime Day. Maybe Autumn Prime Day, or October Prime Day. But Prime Day nonetheless. Not Prime Big Deal Days.
But not only is Prime Big Deal Days a terrible name, it's confusing too. Amazon has four big sales throughout the year: two for Prime members only, and two for everyone.
There's Amazon Spring Deal Days in the spring, Prime Day in the summer, Prime Big Deal Days in the autumn and then Black Friday at the end of November (which of course is a much bigger affair than just Amazon).
To make things even more confusing, the name of one of its sales has changed over time.
Prime Big Deal Days was originally called the Prime Early Access Sale. And to add to the e-commerce-based imbroglio, Amazon even uses different names for the spring sale in the UK and US. Stateside, the Amazon Spring Deal Days sale is officially named Amazon Big Spring Sale. It's enough to drive you to Currys. Or Best Buy, if you're in the US.
Incidentally, I don't know why Amazon is so coy about using its own name in its Prime products and events. Prime Video is a, well, prime example. For a time, Amazon's press releases concerning Prime Video included a note to editors imploring us to exclude the word 'Amazon' when referring to the streaming service. Though it seems to have given up on that now.
Amazon, I'll make it simple for you. Call today's sale Autumn Prime Day, the spring sale Spring Prime Day, and the summer one Summer Prime Day. And level the playing field – don't have some sales for Prime members only, and some for everyone. Pick a side, and stick to it.
But mostly, sort out the name. Because if you have to ask people to use the correct name, maybe it's not them, but the name itself that's the problem.
Jeff, my invoice is in the post.
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