One aspect of this which you came close to noting, and which was in the PR-speak gobletygook of the official Syfy.com webpage press release, is the fact that while "Sci-fi" is public domain, "Syfy" can be trademarked and marketed and cease-and-desisted if other people use it (though they've damaged their own brand well enough with the horrid "Sci-Fi Channel Original Pictures").
I think in their world they call it "solidifying the brand," such as with KFC, and Southern Comfort trademarking "SoCo" and pumping it into their ads -- and what White Castle caught on to too late when every other place started offering "sliders" (I think they did trademark the version with a "y").
So while I see the marketing logic, the choice to give the impression of dumbing it down was not wise. Hopefully the programming doesn't follow suit (tho adding rasslin' is a bad sign)
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One aspect of this which you came close to noting, and which was in the PR-speak gobletygook of the official Syfy.com webpage press release, is the fact that while "Sci-fi" is public domain, "Syfy" can be trademarked and marketed and cease-and-desisted if other people use it (though they've damaged their own brand well enough with the horrid "Sci-Fi Channel Original Pictures").
I think in their world they call it "solidifying the brand," such as with KFC, and Southern Comfort trademarking "SoCo" and pumping it into their ads -- and what White Castle caught on to too late when every other place started offering "sliders" (I think they did trademark the version with a "y").
So while I see the marketing logic, the choice to give the impression of dumbing it down was not wise. Hopefully the programming doesn't follow suit (tho adding rasslin' is a bad sign)