Naming it without a problem later

Naming is a branding exercise in most crafts. Here it is partly a regulatory one, because a name can carry a claim.

Two naming jobs

The business, which goes on every label as the name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer or distributor.

And the products, which are what customers actually remember.

The first is hard to change once it is printed and registered. The second changes more easily, and is where the risk sits.

The business name

Check it is available as a registered entity in your state, and as a domain, and across the social handles, before printing anything.

Avoid a name that describes a benefit, since it appears on every label you will ever make.

Avoid narrowing yourself: a name built entirely around bar soap is awkward the day you add a liquid soap or a shampoo bar.

And check nobody in the same category already holds it, which is a search worth doing properly rather than casually.

Product names that carry a claim

This is the one specific to this craft.

A product called Eczema Relief is offered to treat a disease, and the name alone can make it a drug, whatever the rest of the label says.

A product called Deep Moisture is a cosmetic claim and breaks the soap exemption.

FDA looks at intended use as shown by the label, the advertising and consumer expectation, so a name is evidence of intended use rather than decoration.

Scent names, place names, ingredient names and invented words are all safe. Benefit names are not.

Practical checks

Say it out loud at a market table, because you will say it several hundred times a day.

Check it does not read as a claim to someone who has not thought about any of this.

And check the whole range together, since a coherent set of names is worth more than four clever unrelated ones.

References