St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. For the smart marketer who can tie their brand to the day of green, there is money to be made. It was reported that $5.9 billion was spent on St. Paddy’s Day last year. It is also rather safe to market St. Patrick. It is one holiday that has seemed to escape the revisionist shaming and political correctness that other holidays have endured (think of the shade thrown around Columbus Day, Valentine’s Day and Thanksgiving Day). St. Patrick is a rather harmless character who is credited with picking shamrocks to illustrate his sermons (he was a Christian missionary to Ireland) and rid the Emerald Isle of snakes. How much of that is legend and how much is true is inconsequential. He and his day are very marketable.

If you are going to tie your brand to St. Patrick’s Day, there are several details to which you should pay attention. This time of year, we see a lot of images and phrases we tie to St. Patrick’s Day. For those of true Irish descent (there are 34 million Irish-Americans), a little St. Paddy’s faux pas can be downright perturbing. Here are some tips to keep you from making a St. Paddy’s puddle of your marketing.

Shamrocks are not four-leafed clovers

Shamrocks are clover, but not all clovers are shamrocks. Four-leaf clovers are a mutation of the three-leafed variety and finding one is considered to be lucky. However, four-leaf clovers have nothing in common with St. Patrick’s Day. According to the article "Botany Difference Between Clover and Shamrock Plants,” the Gaelic word for shamrock means little clover and is typically associated with white clover. Shamrocks always have three leaves because St. Patrick is said to have used the tiny plants as an illustration of the holy trinity when preaching to the Druid people of Ireland.

Ireland and Scotland are two different places

We may need a geography lesson here. Scotland is the northern part of the island known as Great Britain, which also includes England and Wales. Ireland is an island to the west of Great Britain, which includes Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland. Although there are similarities, Scots and Irish have very distinct cultural icons that are often confused for each other on St. Patrick’s Day. The criss-crossed pattern of a tartan kilt on a bagpipe player is Scottish. Tartan patterns were a way to distinguish one clan from another in the highlands of Scotland. (The Irish also play the pipes, but Scotland is where the bagpipes are said to have originated.) Eating a meal of corned beef and cabbage is an Irish thing. So is the saying, "Erin go Bragh!” which is loosely interpreted as "Ireland Forever!” However, shouting "Freedom!” or any other lines from the movie, Braveheart, is Scottish.

Real leprechauns wear red

There seems to be some disparity about the origins of the legendary little old men who made shoes and hid gold in the forest. Some claim they were part of the lore of Scotland that made its way to the Emerald Isle and others claim they are purely Irish fairytales. In old literature, they were described as wearing red coats, not green. They actually have nothing to do with St. Patrick other than they have been turned into a symbol of Ireland.

St. Paddy is not St. Patty

Although the name of the man celebrated on this day is Patrick, and Pat is short for Patrick, it is also short for Patricia. To distinguish between the two genders, Irish spell the male shortened version of the name for men, Paddy, and women, Patty. Within Roman Catholicism, there is a St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, and a St. Patricia, the patron saint of Naples, Italy. The feast of St. Paddy is March 17 and the feast of St. Patty is August 25.

If you decide to use St. Patrick’s Day as a way to market your brand, make sure you are keeping your symbolism straight. It is a fun and festive holiday to feature your brand.