We have begun using the term “Branding Overreach” to describe a common marketing mistake that is not well tolerated by educated customers. When highly educated and highly skeptical customers (e.g. doctors and social workers) evaluate a company to decide on a level of trust, one of the warning signs that a company cannot be trusted is branding overreach. Branding overreach means the elements in logos and slogans attempt to describe a company that is not a match to the actual company.

For example, an entrepreneur decides to name his home health agency “Healthcare Enterprises Inc.” and makes his logo an outline of the United States. The problem is that this entrepreneur is a single-location, Medicare-certified home health agency in northern Michigan, with a realistic service area of 30 miles. The skeptical and educated potential customer looks at that name, sizes up the business, and sees that the entrepreneur must be very interested in starting new offices and offering new services that could not be categorized by a normal business name for a home health agency. If however, a healthcare professional starts a very similar home health agency and names it “Northern Michigan Home Health,” this more specifically named agency has a stronger trust factor instantly with local doctors because the name of the company connotes that the agency is focused on a specific service for this specific community.

Of course, not all names need to be completely specific to a location and specific service, but be sure to recognize the advantages you give up and the negatives you take on when your branding overreaches your reality.