Financial Times - What’s in a name (of a product)?

Brands normally don't change as fast as their consumers do. This is something marketers are getting more and more conscious of today. The new consumer in the marketplace is a consumer who is all about change. The cultural influences that shape his/her life are largely very dynamic. More dynamic than they were in the good old days of slow-paced change.

The question (above) seemingly simple as it may sound and appear, surprisingly has two different contrasting ways of looking at it. As they always say there are always two sides to the coin.

It’s all in the name

This school of thought feels that the name is fundamentally important to the brand. One could argue that it is the most important feature. It can position the brand; it can support the identity, it can instantly tell you what association the brand creates or does to you. In short the name does everything.

It’s all the same.

This school of thought emanates from the feeling that no one really cares what the brand is called. Starbuck was a character in Moby Dick. Yahoo!, Burberry, BMW & even Coca-Cola all have strong identities despite the originally meaningless nature of their names. It’s the positioning and identity that builds a brand around the name and establishes loyalty. The name eventually becomes synonymous with the brand and not the other way around.

Also, we often come across instances when companies or brands change their names. Which brings us to another interesting thought,

Should companies or brands change their names?

This again presents two radically different schools of thought. The old school of thought believes in the dictum that brands must not change. The dictum believes that propositions, names, colours, symbols, and literally everything else about the brand needs to remain the same all the time. This is the concept of consistency of the brand at play as one of its biggest strengths.

The new school or the modern school of thought believes that brands must change and morph to remain contemporary, relevant, original and innovative for the new consumer at large. A brand needs to change ... but in tune with a complete and proper understanding of the consumer and not as a knee-jerk reaction that lacks deep understanding of the consumer

Brands must change names to stay relevant. An example that can be given indicative of this trend is the fact that Reebok is not a Reebok anymore. It is a trendy and `sms' RBK!

In 1995, recognizing the importance of brands, LG unified its brand image under the label 'LG', removing 'Lucky' and 'Goldstar' from group corporate names. And Gold star became LG. Since then, LG has used myriad marketing and communication efforts to create the strongest brand in Korea. Overseas also, the previous 'Goldstar' brand was replaced by 'LG', the changeover being supported by an aggressive communications campaign.

But if you really dig deeper, Goldstar becoming LG was only a name change. The products that the Korean conglomerate manufactured in its numerous factories in Korea and around the world remained the same. Only the name on the outside of the TV or the washing machine or any of its other numerous products was now called LG.

Another close example was the famous film roll company called Sakura which later became Konica. They too used a very effective communications campaign to tell its customers that they are changing their name from Sakura to Konica. In fact, one they fondly recall is a TV commercial with a person standing on the top of a mountain gazing into the valley, suddenly cupping his hands and screaming ‘Sakura’. And lo! The echo which was played back was Konica, Konica, Konica. A very powerful and simple creative TVC to signify a brand migration.

If we probe this further, having looked at the LG & the Konica examples -- why do companies change their names?

Usually, the need to change a brand name or a company name stems from either a merger of two companies or acquisition of one relatively smaller company by a larger company.

Sometimes, however, companies need to change the names to signify progression. Successful companies have one thing in common, they see change as an ally, a force not to be feared but to be welcomed and exploited.

Brands normally don't change as fast as their consumers do.

This is something marketers are getting more and more conscious of today. The new consumer in the marketplace is a consumer who is all about change. The cultural influences that shape his/her life are largely very dynamic. More dynamic than they were in the good old days of slow-paced change.

In a scenario where the consumer is influenced by change factors in a big way, brands need to question themselves on what they are meant to do and be. Should they remain static entities with strong brand propositions that never do change, or should they keep pace with the changing consumer?

While this thought may well sound true and arguably has a strong case, what happens to the product and the brand experience that the customer enjoys?

Again let’s take a few more examples. Sanstha cement became Holcim. What was important to note, the product intrinsically remained the same. It was still the same cement which was inside the cement bag. The only difference was instead of being called Sanstha, it was now called Holcim.

Or take the case of Rinso to Rin. Here again it was a change in outer appearance only. The product inside the pack was still the same washing powder as before. Clipsal to Orange. Again old wine, new bottle, new name.

Let’s take another more recent example. Ceylon Tobacco Company’s famous Bristol cigarette is now being called Viceroy. Here too, the same cigarette, made at the same factory, with the same tobacco, now just has a different name; Viceroy. In fact, in the case of Bristol becoming Viceroy, it is even being sold at the same price as it was sold before.

This behaviour is not only exclusive to brands. Even cities and countries change their names. Ceylon became Sri Lanka, Bombay became Mumbai and Madras became Chennai. One thing remains for sure, in almost all the cases when companies/brands tend to change their names, the product quality, performance and standards remain the same. Which brings us back to the question again……. What’s in a name?