I think you're looking at this from the wrong angle - i.e. how things are now vs what we're trying to build.

Ideally, the conversation will not start out with "What is Steem?". The end users shouldn't need to know about Steem just like users of Netflix don't need to know that it runs on Amazon Web Services.

Even if it does start out with the question "What is Steem?" then ultimately I think the goal is to have the conversation go something like this:

Friend: "What is Steem"?

Me: "Steem is a blockchain that powers decentralized applications which allow the users to earn rewards for activities they do online. What sort of things do you do online?"

Friend: "I'm a photographer and I post pictures on Instagram."

Me: "Awesome, why don't you give Appics a try? It's very similar to Instagram except that you can earn cryptocurrency tokens which have real monetary value based on the amount of upvotes (or likes) that you get on your photos."

Friend: "Sounds great, how do I join?"

Me: "Just go to the app store and download the Appics app, sign up with your email address, and start posting! You can also earn a bonus for referring your Instagram followers to try it too."

Friend: "What do I do with these APX tokens I'm earning?"

Me: "In the help section in the app it explains all the things you can do with them, or how to sell them for other cryptocurrencies or even dollars."

Obviously we're not there yet, but that's the goal that I am working towards.

Also, having different tokens for different apps shouldn't be confusing to people, or even much different than how things work right now. I have credit card points, airline miles, reward points for various businesses, in-game currencies, etc. The only real difference between all that and app-specific crypto tokens is that the crypto can be exchanged, bought and sold which gives the users a lot more options and control.