Business history contains a veritable trash heap of corporate names cast aside in favour of newer, shinier, and sometimes safer monikers. But after the PR gloss wears off, we question whether the ends justify the means – confused customers, baffled employees and the immense cost.
Google’s creation of Alphabet as its new corporate brand warrants a look back at some similar rebrandings to read the tea leaves on Alphabet’s future as a name. We can start, of course, with pondering whether Google would have been so successful with its original name BackRub or if Yahoo could have endured for more than two decades as Jerry’s guide to the world wide web.
Andersen Consulting becomes Accenture
Back in early 2001, resolution of a legal battle meant Andersen Consulting needed a new name, and it chose Accenture: “Putting an accent or emphasis on the future, just as the firm focuses on helping its clients create their future.” It was a coined word that fitted stylistically with the startup era. People panicked, but Accenture was also embracing its own future and, albeit forcefully, leaving its audit and accounting heritage behind. Accenture poured money into the rebrand and has been a model of high-investment consistency ever since, reinforcing awareness as it evolved.
The learning for Alphabet? Be brave and commit; everyone won’t be happy, but if you want a big name, you need to invest in building a big name.
Philip Morris becomes Altria
Philip Morris wasn’t under legal pressure to change its name in the early 00s, but it had pressures galore through one of its major businesses, tobacco. Altria came from the Latin word altus (high) and, for the company, implying peak performance.
Intimations linking the name to altruism were roundly denied. Did they have to change the name? Probably yes, to get full credit from financial markets for being more than a cigarette company. Did anyone stop associating Altria with tobacco after the change? Probably not.
The learning for Alphabet? Do what you need to do to set your businesses free and unlock your corporate strategy, but don’t be upset if people still talk about you and Google as one and the same.
PPR becomes Kering
When French luxury and sport conglomerate PPR changed its name to Kering in 2013, the fashion world scratched its collective head. PPR had been around since the 1960s in slightly different guises, but Kering was a departure in an industry where heritage means so much. With a nice play on caring (the company was becoming significantly more involved with its brands, like Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney) and a nod to its roots in Brittany (Ker is home in the local language), Kering put appreciable effort into crafting and telling its new brand story. Those that knew about PPR – mostly non-consumers – got used to saying Kering eventually, and making the name a milestone for a change in strategy seems to have been sound, as Kering is getting the credit for playing a different role with its brands today.
The learning for Alphabet? A name change can be a meaningful milestone for bigger things. But if you also want your new brand to be meaningful, it needs to have meaning.
UKTV G2 becomes Dave
In 2007, UKTV reskinned UKTV G2 as Dave, supposedly because “everyone knows a bloke called Dave”. This seemed to be about using a new name to give a channel some much-needed personality and relevance as a home for a distinctive flavour of programming.
The learning for Alphabet? Going from no personality to personality is not a tough sell, but going the other way seems more fraught. Alphabet seems consciously associations-less, but maintaining that long-term is dubious.
Orange and T-Mobile becomes EE
Finally, name-changing happens at a dizzying pace in the global telecoms industry, and the 2010 UK merger of Orange and T-Mobile lead first to the new name Everything Everywhere – unexpected non-traditional, and expressive, but also very long and “silly”, according to the subsequent CEO – and then in 2012 to EE (brief, memorable, fits on a smartphone).
The learning for Alphabet? It’s cumbersome and annoying to keep changing your name. If you think you’re just going to end up wanting to be called ABC, just get it over with now and save yourselves the trouble.
Felicia Rosenzweig is a partner at Prophet
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