Guatemaya, a new country discovered by Al Ries In his AdAge column, Click to Open Web Page marketing guru Al Ries has come up with the laughable idea that Guatemala should change its name to “Guatemaya”. He suggests that "Guatemaya pre-empts the Maya position and it serves as a memory device to link the Mayas to the county which contains the most spectacular Maya artifacts. (It also solves a third problem. “Mala” is Spanish slang for “bad woman.”) Al Ries is a past master at post-mortems, and most of his books and articles are delightfully insightful. However to re-brand a country is taking things too far. Should Guatemala, the center the Mayas, the most advanced civilization in all of North and South America before the arrival of the Spanish, go along with Mr Ries’s recommendation? Maybe. But first perhaps Mr Ries should practice what he preaches. Al Ries should change his name to “Mark” Ries or “Con” Ries or even “Mark Con”. Reason? His first name is quite similar to the “Al” in Al Qaida, and the fact that Al Ries is in the business of "mark"eting "con"sulting. Makes sense, doesn’t it? MarketingProf.com’s Dan Miller has written an article Click to Open Web Page in which he states that “the secret of Ries's power always lay in his simplistic formulations. He ( Al Ries) claims ‘universal truths' and formulates do/don't rules that overlook complexities. But our world is a complex world. And, therefore, whoever tries to implement such rules may lead his brand and business to obliteration.” Sadly, I find myself agreeing with Mr Miller.