As a business owner trying to establish a successful health and wellness brand, you should be aware that one mistake, particularly one that affects your brand’s name, can undo all of your efforts.

And the main reason for it is that, to the market, your brand name represents your company's entire identity. And if you want to flourish in your industry, your key priority when naming your business should be to find a name that appropriately reflects your company's beliefs.

Fortunately, brainstorming with a team and leveraging the help of a trusted naming company can help you in crowdsourcing company names that are fully aligned with your brand’s vision and goals.

But, whether you choose to brainstorm, get help from a naming company, or come up with perfect wellness business names yourself, take the necessary steps to ensure you avoid the following common mistakes that can damage your reputation.

Choosing Unappealing Brand Names
Health is a delicate affair, and any business that must thrive should only pick names that communicate a positive, compelling, and reassuring message, like Organifi, Weight Watchers, and Fitbit. Taking this path makes it easier for you to communicate your brand’s values and engage with your target customers on a personal level. 

Today, there are countless emerging health and wellness companies that choosing a name like Stubbs Prosthetics and Orthotics is enough reason for customers to choose your competitor’s brand over yours.

Any health and wellness entrepreneur that uses a name that communicates a negative meaning risks alienating the huge chunk of their audience who’d find the name strange and unappealing.

Also, when coming up with a solid brand name, ensure that your chosen name undergoes a linguistic test so that you can ensure that the name you come up with doesn’t have a different meaning in another language. Performing a linguistic test is particularly vital if you intend to use an abstract name. 

Customers would be less attracted to your wellness brand if its name is offensive in their language. One thing you don't want is to face the same problems as Mazda's Laputa and Nokia's Lumia, which were popular in other areas of the world but were rejected by the Spanish people because their brand names in Spanish meant "prostitute." Failing to conduct proper research might lead to the failure of your health brand or products.

Using Overly Complicated Names
We urge founders to avoid picking words that would be difficult for their clients to say or write, such as SoulCycle, and Peloton, since no customer will feel the need to remember your health and wellness brand’s name, let alone recommend it to their relatives and friends if it is not concise and memorable.

And with the fact that branded materials are often forgotten by 80% of customers just after three days of engaging with them, using a complicated name will make your business even more difficult to remember. As a result, while naming, concentrate on creating names that are brief, unique, and memorable, like BioTrust, and Superfeet.

We can guarantee that a short, straightforward name will always prevail over a long, convoluted one. And yes, shorter company names also make for better quality domain names.

Name Selection Based on Personal Preference
Almost everyone will have some level of emotional attachment or preference when asked to pick the best name choice from a list of good options, and this is typically something you would encounter when naming your health brand, product, or service.

But one thing you must do throughout the naming process is to resist the want to allow your emotions to take precedence over logical judgment. Choosing a name entirely based on personal preference as opposed to a careful examination of your target market and your health company's needs will almost always result in choosing a weak name idea. Your personal opinions should only be permitted after conducting the necessary research.

Prioritize Your Clients
Never lose sight of the truth that your health and wellness business exists to satisfy its customers. Make every effort to prioritize their needs and wants because ignoring your audience will result in your company's failure.

Grant Polachek is the head of branding for Squadhelp.com, 3X Inc 5000 startup and disruptive naming agency. Squadhelp has reviewed more than 1 million names and curated a collection of the best available names on the web today. We are also the world's leading crowdsource naming platform, supporting clients from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies.

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