Why did we rename “Urban Optiks” to “Urban Optiques?”

Since purchasing Urban Optiks from Dr. Rob Diegel this month, we’ve had a number of clients and patients ask why we made a name change.

After all, Urban Optiks and its neon “Eye Exams” sign has been a prominent downtown-Northville fixture for years, and renaming a business can not only cost you considerable money but it can also cause confusion among existing clients.

The answer, surprisingly, is actually quite simple: We did it because of the Internet.

We actually loved the name “Urban Optiks” from the start and our initial intent was to continue operating under the “Urban Optiks” moniker.  People knew the name, they knew our product and it would have cost us a lot less as a business to keep it — no need to retool our logo, letterhead or signage.

However, because Dr. Diegel also has an optometry practice in Indianapolis that shared the same name as the Northville “Urban Optiks” location, there were certain consequences from an Internet perspective that we had to take into consideration — namely, how would we share a domain name for multiple locations that offer very different eyewear lines and potentially, different promotions?

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