When Is Being Terrible a Good Thing?

If you’ve ever been to Las Vegas, there is a pretty good chance that you’ve seen casinos, gas stations and billboards touting a Terrible name.  I’ve always wondered why anyone would name their business with such a negative description.

After years of traveling back and forth, I decided to find out.

As the story goes, in Chicago in the 1930s, a gentleman by the name of Ed Herbst bought a gas station. He quickly realized that it was a very competitive business and needed to do what he could to gain market share. He is credited with establishing the first full-service gas station (not many of those around anymore), giving away flowers and sodas for every fill-up, and free pony rides and bubblegum to the kids.  He’d drastically cut the price of gas, knowing he’d make up for it when his customers would head into the store for the free giveaway, almost always making a purchase as well.

In the late 1940s, Herbst packed up his family and moved west, opening a chain of Herbst gas stations along the way, always undercutting the competition.  This angered the business community so much that when he applied for a business license in Cheyenne, Wyo., one of the city councilmembers, who also owned a gas station, was rumored to have said, “If we let that terrible Herbst in, we’ll all go under!”

And the rest is history. Herbst thought that Terrible Herbst was a fantastic name, with locals and tourists alike stopping in to see what was so terrible about it.

Over the years, Herbst was dropped from the name, making Terrible’s one of the more recognizable and successful brands in Las Vegas.

Thus, proving that even a terrible name can be good for business.

HMA has helped many entrepreneurs, business owners and organizations over the years give names to programs, services and even the organization itself.  Get in touch, we’d love to help you with your business endeavor.  Contact us!