Brainstorm

Okay, now the fun begins. Let’s brainstorm! When it comes to creating your trade name, there are five key points to keep in mind. Keep it simple, ensure it is relevant, be descriptive, make sure it is understandable, and consider geographic references.

Keeping it simple allows your patients to easily remember and write your trade name. Relevant and descriptive trade names provide anyone looking at your brand to understand what it is you offer. How many times have you seen a trade name and wondered, what it is it they actually provide? Be sure this isn’t your practice. Your trade name should be understandable, but avoid generic terms that won’t help you stand out. Also, avoid phrases that limit you or are overused. Don’t use a foreign language to your community or a term with a hidden meaning.

Consider your geographic reference while you're brainstorming your trade name. Right now, you may be feeling like using your location in your trade name may be a good idea, but it’s important to think ahead. Is there potential that you could open a second location? Or even if you don’t plan on expanding, think about your ability to sell when you're ready to move on. What if the new person would like to grow the practice to another location?

And while you’re thinking ahead to the future of your practice and the potential of selling when you're ready to transition out, how will they feel about using practice that includes your surname?

Hopefully you have a list of trade names you love. You should have 3-5 that you love and would like to move forward with. Why 3-5, are you asking? Well, we suggest having a few options for two reasons.

1 – in case that name has already been taken. We’ll talk about checking for availability in the next lesson.

2 – as you continue to say and use this trade name, you may determine that you don’t actually love it! It’s better to realize this isn’t the right trade name for your practice now, rather than after you’ve created your entire plan around that trade name.

Alright, so with your list of potential trade names, let’s begin talking about your slogan. You should have developed your mission statement already, so use that as a guideline when creating your slogan. This is a short, 4–6-word, memorable phrase. One of the most important keys in developing your slogan is to keep it short! Think about large brands and their slogans. The first that always comes to mind is three simple words, just-do-it, just do it. Another is four, happiest place on earth. You don’t need an entire paragraph or even a full sentence to make an impactful statement.

Highlight a main feature or benefit of your practice in your slogan. You want potential patients to differentiate your practice from your competition. Stand out from the crowd. How are you standing out from the competition who will be offering similar services?

How committed are you? Share with your patients how committed you are to providing excellent care, advanced technology, and specialty services. Share your dedication through your slogan.

Most importantly, avoid general or vague statements. How many times have you seen world’s best coffee, local’s favorite pizza? We may not have anyone to put that theory to test, yet, but using statements like that can actually deter people from visiting your practice.

Another vague statement is how long you’ve been serving your community or when you were established in. While it’s great for those businesses that have been around for a long time, it can also be misleading because the business may have been handed down or bought out, but still using that slogan. It also isn’t very eye catching or memorable.

So, before you move into the next lesson, be sure you’ve brainstormed 3-5 trade names with at least one slogan per trade name.