Question

Topic: Branding

I Want 2 Come Up With Brand 4my Acupuncture Clinic

Posted by lisamorrisseyie on 3/31/2015 at 1:40 PM ET 250 Points
Hi guys,

I'm in the process of creating a brand. At the moment my clinic is called Lisa Morrissey Acupuncture but have been advised not having a brand name seperate to your name looks amateur. I am also planning on expanding my business in the future, possibly to opening a holistic centre offering different treatments so would like name suggestions that are not just specific to acupuncture, like an umbrella name. I could mention acupuncture in the tagline .. I also work in Network Marketing selling health and wellness supplements and recruit others too so want a name like Virgin where I can add lots of different businesses to it like Virgin Acupuncture, Virgin Supplements, Virgin Recruitment, Virgin Network Marketing etc ... the way Richard does Virgin airlines, Virgin Records etc .. I am based in Dublin, Ireland. My target market is 25-45 yr olds, male and female. I would like the name to evoke a feeling of value, safety, grounded, scientific more than fairy dust. I would like it be be positive and to have a nice sound. I don'y mind a made up word. I've been trying for a few weeks and am really struggling, I want to use the same name across all social media platforms which is makig it difficult to find. Here are a few I came up with but friends have said no :

Isha Izaru (Japanese means No need for a doctor) was thinking tongue and cheek but people advised it's too hard to remember and I agree.

Pinup (it's fun, catches peoples attention and playing with the needles/pins used) but I'm afraid it might not give the right feeling to some clients.

Bluepin - gone everyplace, popular name with technology companies it seems ...

The Yellow Empress (the yellow emperor wrote the first acupuncture book way back when ) but feel it would be too long if I had to write theyellowempressacupuncture etc ..also its specific to acupuncture.

Moxie because I do a technique called moxibustion so a play on that but I like the meaning of the word - it means vigor, courage, know-how, spirit, aggressive energy, confidence, fearlessness, fortitude, determination, gumption, nerve and just plain guts .. but thats more about me than my clients ..

Thank you so much for any help, I'm really stuck here and can't design my logo or webpage until I get over this hurdle. I need to get promoting myself and finding clients and start making money so need to do this now ... Many thanks
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 3/31/2015 at 3:06 PM Moderator
    The reason this has been so difficult is that you are addressing what YOU want to do more than on the BENEFIT your primary target audience can expect. You have a few different businesses, and trying to put them under the same umbrella further confuses the issue.

    My advice: Narrow the target audience as much as you possibly can, and determine what the ultimate benefit is for that [narrow] target audience. Then select a name that will communicate the benefit to your audience.

    When you try to encompass a wide range of folks, each with different needs and values and expectations, you become unfocused. And the only way to rescue an unfocused name is by spending a lot of money over a long period of time. If you're Richard Branson that's fine. But if not you need to focus on the core benefit for your primary target audience.

    This is a Positioning challenge as much as a naming issue.
  • Posted on 3/31/2015 at 5:58 PM Accepted
    Just to be clear, a BRAND is not the same thing as a NAME.

    Brands exist in customers'/clients' minds. A brand's image is the result of everything a person has heard or experienced regarding that brand. The name is usually a very small part of that image.

    Think of your own name in the context of your brand. When people think of you, do they think primarily about your name, or do they think about how you look, how much they like or dislike being with you, what you do for a living, what someone else said about you, or something you said or did for or to them? How important is the actual name "Lisa Morrissey" to your brand?
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 3/31/2015 at 6:41 PM Member
    Forget about Virgin.

    Forget about whatever whoever to was that told you about a name with your name in it looking amateurish (and whoever this person is, stop taking marketing advice from them immediately, because they are WOEFULLY ill-informed and dangerous).

    And forget about made up words.

    Use your last name and the words Wellness Center (or Centre, to use the English spelling). This gives you ALL the flexibility you need, it gives you ALL the scope, and all the room to expand.

    And to be CRYSTAL CLEAR: a brand is not a name. It's more to do with the way you make people feel, what those people remember, and how they carry the memory of their experience of your service with them, and to other people.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 4/1/2015 at 12:38 AM Member
    If you pick a name that's too generic, then you'll have a hard time conveying to people what you offer. Lisa Morrissey Acupuncture is fine if it's just you, or if you have name recognition in your region. If not, then a different name may be called for (but by changing the name, you lose any goodwill with your current name). A name like "Virgin" is great if you have the marketing budget to teach people what the brand represents. Otherwise, a name that conveys a benefit that your clients are looking for is likely to be more efficient for your marketing.
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