Naming a company is one of the most important things any company will do. The best names look, feel and sound good. They have depth and humanity, work with your positioning to separate you from the competitive crowd, and have that special something that zaps the brain when you first encounter it. Starbucks. Google. North Face. Bam!
Oh, and they also have to be “ownable” and affordable.
So how’d I land on Limeade?
Back in 2006, improving well-being wasn’t really a thing in corporate America. And when it appeared in consumer markets, purveyors often felt fake (“lose 30 pounds in 30 days with our new herbal cure!”), overly negative, punitive or clinical (“let us fix what’s wrong with you”).
I felt that the absolute opposite of these — something real, positive and even refreshing — was needed to help people improve their well-being. Tons of market and scientific research confirmed this hunch. I wanted to build a world-renowned company and brand focused on an audacious mission: measurably improve well-being in the world through happy, healthy, high-performing workforces.
In 2006, I was pretty out there.
Being a bit of a research geek, I set out on a formal research project and used the brilliant Igor naming guide as my North Star. I consulted focus groups made up of friends, family and self-improvers and I confirmed hypotheses with massive waves of quantitative research (on a shoestring budget). But I found something without ‘health’, ‘well’, ‘doc’ or ‘MD’ in it. Something different.
Limeade.
The company filed for a trademark, bought the URL and committed to it 100 percent. Then I filed away the list of runner ups for a decade — until this post. Other contenders we unearthed were Papaya, Nectarine, Citrus and Tangelo. (Notice a theme?)
I’m not asking you to love ’Limeade’ the same way I do. But, love it or hate it, I’d love you to remember it.