Small business: What's in a name? - Touch of Spice

Jacqui Spice, founder of luxury concierge company Touch of Spice Group. Photo /Richard Robinson.

Jacqui Spice of Touch of Spice, concierge company and luxury accommodation specialist talks to Gill South about choosing her company name.

With my background in hospitality and luxury tourism and starting out more as a personal concierge company, originally the name Touch of Spice, was about me enhancing the lives of time-poor people - hence putting a touch of spice in their lives.

The inspiration for the business came from a decade working on board super yachts as a chief stewardess catering to very discerning clients from celebs to royalty and getting a very good understanding of what service meant to them. I already knew there was nothing quite like this type of service available in NZ - I just needed to figure out what it was and what needed to be offered and came up with the concierge concept.

Once they realise Spice is my surname, the penny drops. Probably in the first year I thought of renaming the company because it was growing and I didn't feel the name was right once we went from a personal concierge company to a more international accommodation one but at the end of the day we starting becoming a bigger player and more recognized and it just worked.

Expanding the brand

Being a concierge company gives us the ability to offer many products and services under our brand and continue to expand so we need to ensure that we can continue to grow without diluting and without confusing our client base.

Like most growth companies we had to determine the best way to do this going forward and decided that rather than confuse the market with new brands, every new division would be a touch of spice one & people would then know they would receive the same level across the board.

We have the Touch of Spice luxury collection which is a portfolio of super high end services and products such as exclusive golf courses, private islands, luxury yachts, and real estate. We are also growing our concierge offerings so will split out Touch of Spice concierge soon.

Top tips

To company start-ups when coming up with their company name, I would say, think bigger! Think about the longer term and what your 30 year goal for your business is and make it a name that is easily recognised for what you do.