Coming up with an exciting and creative cosmetic product name can be one of the most challenging beauty copywriting tasks a brand or business has to deal with. Adding pressure to the situation, it’s also one of the most critical elements of a beauty product’s existence.
There’s no shortcut to finding the best name for your cosmetic product. However, there are some easy steps you can take to help make the process less daunting.
Limit the number of chefs in the kitchen
It can be beneficial to recruit a trusted team of people who can help you workshop, narrow down, and perfect your product name options. Collecting feedback from people inside and outside your business can be a great way to gather intelligence, ideas, and insights about how your product name sounds to others. This is where a third-party beauty copywriter like Hadley Co. can be effective in creating creative and strategic ideas.
During this period, it works best to keep the number of people involved in the creative process limited. Product naming is a very subjective task with a huge amount of considerations to weigh up. When too many people are offering their opinions, it may:
- Create an overwhelming amount of options,
- Bring up questions or scenarios that add confusion to the task at hand,
- Steer you in directions that aren’t true to your brand or business.
You might decide to use a large sample size later to test and analyse your shortlisted product name options. But while you’re creating and finalising names, keep your decision-making circle tight.
Don’t stop at your first good idea
When you make pancakes at home, the first batch is rarely the best. They get better once the pan is completely hot and well-oiled, the batter has had time to combine nicely, and your flipping skills improve the more you cook. Coming up with creative concepts is similar.
You might be working with a long list of word and phrase combinations, or have a sudden stroke of genius. No matter how you reach the first name option that feels good, do not stop there! Continue brainstorming, refining, and discussing your beauty product name ideas. You’ll likely feel more open-minded, flexible, and creative if you work beyond the first ‘lightbulb’ idea.
That’s not to say your first idea isn’t the best one – it might be. But it’s also worth exploring more options in case you come up with something even better.
Recognise that any decision is better than no decision
Depending on your decision-making process and who’s involved, you might reach a point where nothing feels right. Perhaps no product names stand out, you feel like there’s a better idea you haven’t thought about yet, or you’ve agonised over every option and you absolutely cannot decide.
Like writer’s block, decision-making blocks feel frustrating, stressful, and counterproductive. At this point, it might help to step back for a little bit and pick up in a few days or even weeks (if you have time). Instead of focusing on which product name to pick, think about how you can problem-solve here. Consider:
- What do you need now to help you make your decision?
- What’s stopping you from deciding and how can you overcome this?
- Will you know when you’re truly happy with the decision? Is it possible that you won’t know for sure?
The tough part about being a decision-maker is that you need to develop the skills to do it with intelligence and confidence. While choosing the product name is very important, what’s more important is making a choice you’ll feel great standing by.
Beauty copywriter recommendation
Use this opportunity to create a name that feels singular and exclusive to your brand. A truly fantastic name is one that feels like it would only ever suit your cosmetic product and brand.