How many change the name of FO in your soap ?

[Lin19687]

I remember someone saying this a while ago and the reason why.
The reason is a good one, if you name it something different, how will they be able to buy it elsewhere ??
I like this idea !! And after buying Lick me all over- which is disgusting btw- and everyone not really thrilled with the name I changed it. It still didn't sell. I have 10 of the 16 bars I made back in May !
Plus some of the names just were weird. Bite me is cute, but I think the name was a killer here.

I have started to change the names of ALL, well almost all, of my soaps.
Now I have to mark all the bottles the New names then arrange them. AND make sure to keep the original name so I know what to order

Anyone else changing their soap names away from the FO name ?

 

[user 24326]

We often use fanciful names for our batches, like "Cinnamon Goatmeal" or "Goats in the Clover", but we always use the original fragrance names in the ingredients. Just a data point.

 

[zanzalawi]

ive thought about that too
lick me all over and other trashy kind of names like frosted blue balls (you should have seen the look on my moms face when she asked what a particular soap was scented with and i told her that, oy)

do you "name" the soap @Lin19687 , or do you put on the label the main scent notes of it?

 

[jcandleattic]

I almost always change the name - main reason: most of my FO's (like 95% I'd say) are blends I've created by mixing, and if I named my soap after the FO, some of my soap names would be too long. I can have blends that just incorporate 2 scents, but I have had some that I've blended 10 or more scents together to create a new scent.
I honestly could not care less if someone can/would/does buy the same scent somewhere else (if I only use one and name it after the scent).
That has never even been on the radar for reasons for me.

lick me all over and other trashy kind of names like frosted blue balls

Depends on your target market. Sometimes those "trashy" names are what gets the item to sell. That's been my experience anyway. When I sell at the church market- nope, those wouldn't sell - when I do home parties, same actual scent however, oh man, the raunchier the name the more orders/sales I get. So, as long as you know your audience you can do very well with just a tiny name tweak.

 

[I_like_melts]

I have a product name, but list a detailed fragrance breakdown and the name on the fragrance bottle (adding "compare to" or "type") This helps me create my own items, leaves room for comparisons, and helps the customer decide if the scents will make them happy.

Ex. Product A Wax Melt "Bob"

Fragrance Breakdown: Oakmoss, oak wood, orange flower, sage, ylang-ylang ("Compare to 'Devil's Nightcap' Type")

Ex. Product B Wax Melt "Sally"

Fragrance Breakdown: Marshmallow, Chocolate, Graham Crackers, Firewood scents ("Campfire Smores Type" Scent)

If its a house blend I use bottle names if they are common, so like Campfire Smores Type, Cinnamon, Rosemary, and Espresso Type would also be acceptable.

 

[amd]

I've been working the opposite way - I used to have my own names but now I'm switching to match the FO. My Ocean soap is now called Sea Salt & Driftwood. The only one recently that I haven't called by the FO name is Butt Naked in Bed, which I call Fruity Vanilla. I tried to get my daughter to rename her Unicorn Poop soap, but she wouldn't budge, and honestly she was right. I had more people stopping to check that out, and almost everyone bought it. Kids would go get their parents to buy that soap for them. I thought it was funny because I couldn't sell Monkey Farts to save my life. So yeah... know your audience, but still be true to who you are. If you're not comfortable calling a soap Butt Naked in Bed, don't do it.

 

[I_like_melts]

I've been working the opposite way - I used to have my own names but now I'm switching to match the FO. My Ocean soap is now called Sea Salt & Driftwood. The only one recently that I haven't called by the FO name is Butt Naked in Bed, which I call Fruity Vanilla. I tried to get my daughter to rename her Unicorn Poop soap, but she wouldn't budge, and honestly she was right. I had more people stopping to check that out, and almost everyone bought it. Kids would go get their parents to buy that soap for them. I thought it was funny because I couldn't sell Monkey Farts to save my life. So yeah... know your audience, but still be true to who you are. If you're not comfortable calling a soap Butt Naked in Bed, don't do it.

I don't understand the poop and fart names. Some of what I sell falls into a "novelty" category (weed shapes for example) and I target to a younger audience (20 - 35ish) but I can't imagine putting poop in a product name.

 

[IrishLass]

I change the names to several of my FOs, especially the ones that don't smell anything like the names given to them by their vendor. Take 'Paradise', for example, from Daystar. It smells just like Sprite or 7-Up to me, complete with even the sense of bubbly carbonation, so I call it 'Sparkling Lime' instead which a whole lot more sense to my nose.

A great source of entertainment to me is seeing what creative names vendors have come up with in order to steer clear of infringing on copy write laws when naming their FO dupes of famous perfumes. My favorite is still 'Pureed Grapes' by Scent Works (for their dupe of Pure Grace). lol


IrishLass

 

[Lin19687]

On my website I do have the description of the scent. But no it is not on the label. Why waste the space.

I do have a bunch that are a mix like @jcandleattic does so they are all my names.

I mainly just want to change the FO name to something that I like.

Example, I have a Odin, Valhalla and Valkyrie soaps. Kinda a theme. Also have some Halloween names too, some will stay and some will change with the season.

It is nice to be different. I do NOT do the trashy or poop thing either, just not my thing, nor is the poop shape.

 

[jcandleattic]

I don't understand the poop and fart names. Some of what I sell falls into a "novelty" category (weed shapes for example) and I target to a younger audience (20 - 35ish) but I can't imagine putting poop in a product name.

Again, you just have to know your audience/market share, and they'll sell.

But also as amd said, if it's something you yourself are not comfortable naming them, then even in the right market, they probably wouldn't sell, because people would feel you weren't invested fully to the whole product (which absolutely goes with the name)

Take my Kilgharrah soaps just as an example of my point above.
People loved the look and the smell of the soap but would look at confusion at the name, then I would get super animated about telling them who Kilgharrah was/is, and how the name of the soap came about. Every time - every single time, I sold a bar of the Kilgharrah, until I eventually sold out. (this happened last weekend at my first event of the season)

Now, yes, that is not a "poop" or "fart" name, but the principal of getting excited about your own products is the same.

 

[zanzalawi]

Depends on your target market. Sometimes those "trashy" names are what gets the item to sell. That's been my experience anyway. When I sell at the church market- nope, those wouldn't sell - when I do home parties, same actual scent however, oh man, the raunchier the name the more orders/sales I get. So, as long as you know your audience you can do very well with just a tiny name tweak.

HAHA!! excellent point! some of my friends would eat that up for sure lol
totally off the OP topic i've been wondering about home parties and how those would work, how effective they would be for sales, how they're structured

 

[Misschief]

I have two Poop soaps. I made a batch a while back and sold it pretty quickly; I wasn't going to make any more but people started asking if I was going to make more for Christmas. One is brown and is scented with Chocolate Fudge (I call it My Poop Don't Stink); the other is Unicorn Poop and scented with Energy. The people who have asked about it want it for stocking stuffers.

To Lin's original question, sometimes I change the name, other times I don't. For example, I made a soap with 50 Shades; I just call it Shades, not because I don't want to name it after the book but because I riffed on the theme of Shades (shadows, ghosts, colours). Or my Double Chocolate soap -- it's scented with Chocolate Fudge FO and peppermint EO. Other times, though, I keep the FO name as the soap name, mostly because I have a hard time coming up with names.

 

[soapmaker]

I often rename my f.o.s I mostly have an idea in my head that I want to do for a long time and then when I order a new f.o. it will just pop that that would fit my idea. Example: I wanted to make a round soap that would remind you of the earth from space. When I ordered NDA's "Morning Dew" I knew that's the one I wanted to scent it with. I called it "The Good Earth."

 

[I_like_melts]

Again, you just have to know your audience/market share, and they'll sell.

But also as amd said, if it's something you yourself are not comfortable naming them, then even in the right market, they probably wouldn't sell, because people would feel you weren't invested fully to the whole product (which absolutely goes with the name)

Take my Kilgharrah soaps just as an example of my point above.
People loved the look and the smell of the soap but would look at confusion at the name, then I would get super animated about telling them who Kilgharrah was/is, and how the name of the soap came about. Every time - every single time, I sold a bar of the Kilgharrah, until I eventually sold out. (this happened last weekend at my first event of the season)

Now, yes, that is not a "poop" or "fart" name, but the principal of getting excited about your own products is the same.

I get more excited about the scents themselves and color patterns personally. I only make scents I like (small house so Id smell it) so Im always pretty enthused in that reguard. Some of my buyers just remember the name of the scent - they will as for my Twilight dupe, for example. Im not that good at naming things, but they have unique names none the less lol

 

[Lin19687]

@Misschief you don't even want to know how long it took me to rename some 20 soaps. The last 10 took a whole day, searching synonyms (and now I know exactly how to spell that ) smelling over and over, looking it over, saying it out loud, writing it down. But I think it is worth it.
I makes it mine... different.

When I was thinking of a name for the shipped shea I wanted to make it funny, but then remembered that no one ever gets my jokes... well my kiddo anyway.
I wanted it to be Log Cabin Moose (pun for mousse ) or Farmers Grease ( Or butter, or paste) And since my name is Rustic Life Farm thought it would work. But decided on Lodge Cream....... boring.

 

[lucycat]

I rename a lot of scents. I am not into exotic/novelty names. I mainly sell at craft fairs and my goal is for the person who would like the soap to pick up the bar. Since people have so many different likes/dislikes I try to always include "mint" in the name if it is; hippy type name for patchouli blends and obvious flower if a floral blend. I want people to praise the scent if they pick up the bar and that will more likely happen if they pick up a bar in the scent family they like. If they like, they may stay at the booth long enough to buy.

Also, when I really am stumped on a name I look at paint company color swatch names as well as day lily and rose hybrid names. They have the same problem coming up with something unique and a lot of times I can get inspiration for my soap name.

 

[Lin19687]

@lucycat At my FM, I have the shelves in an order, kind of.
Floral, Fresh clean, Holiday/Autumn and Masculine. I tell them this and they start where they like the most and then go down. Funny they usually start at the Masculine side