It's all in a name...

In life you stick with the name you’re given, but in business a change of name can do the power of good. Or it can be disastrous.

Seymour Pierce is one company hoping for the former. The City finance house has had a tough time of it recently. Heavily associated with dot com failures, it recorded “unacceptable losses” and, desperate for a change of fortune, has chosen to rebrand as Investment Management Holdings.

But as Sellafield (formerly known as Windscale before a massive leak of radiation in 1957) has found, disassociating yourself from the past, isn’t always that easy.

WHEN IT'S TIME TO CHANGE

You’d better have a very good reason for changing what your business is called, as it’s not as simple as adopting a name you happen to think sounds good or is ‘of the moment’. And that’s the advice of most brand consultants, who would obviously love you to spend your money with them.

“People think as branding consultants we’re pro name change. That’s not the case,” says Yannis Kavounis, associate director at Interbrand. He adds though that if the need is obvious, don’t over-analyse with focus groups and surveys, get it changed.

“Some people get so caught up in names they delay a firm’s launch or renaming and look as if they’re more interested in themselves than their customers,” adds Ben Harris of New Brand Vision.

So in that case, what instances would justify it? Seymour Pierce had already changed considerably, following a strategic review. And beyond its losses and damaged image, it had sold parts of the business, and was eager to win new clients. If your name no longer reflects the focus of the business or could be misleading to your target audience then, like Seymour Pierce, you may be wise to consider your options. After all, it’s likely to be the first thing customers and suppliers come across.

Other reasons, whether justified or not, include mergers and demergers, bad publicity or the leading figure gaining an unwanted reputation (why Ratner became Signet). Or it could be for simplicity or modernisation (BT and Abbey re-branded because that’s what their customers called them), diversification or because the product the company produces is better known than the company itself (inventor Trevor Bayliss’ clockwork radio the ‘Freeplay’ was produced by Baygen, now known as Freeplay Energy Group). Then there’s preparing for a listing (as was the case with software company Misys, which wanted to differentiate its IFA network, so ‘opened’ Sesame), targeting a new customer base, or expanding into foreign markets where the name no longer works.

WHAT IT WON'T ACHIEVE 

“The phrase ‘putting lipstick on a pig’ is commonly used to describe a hopeless attempt to win new business with mere cosmetic or superficial changes,” says Pauline Amphlett, Brand Guardians’ intellectual property consultant. Any name change, where your offering is either not good enough is already pointless.

Any belief that you can erase the past is foolhardy. Brand experts say it takes at least a decade, if not more, for an old legacy to be forgotten. If your company is perceived negatively, address it, counsels Kavounis.

He cites the example of Tylenol, a brand of headache pills in the US. The pills were associated with a number of deaths in the 1980s. Not something you’d expect to come back from. But through crisis management, Johnson & Johnson accepted its mistakes and was seemingly forgiven or forgotten as it is now one of the most successful brands in the US again.

HOW LONG IT TAKES TO STICK 

At least half of the process is about communicating the new name and its inherent values. Consignia (formerly Royal Mail) didn’t work because it wasn’t communicated, particularly internally. Staff are brand guardians, but in this case were only told after it went public.

However, that doesn’t mean you involve staff deeply in the process. “Name and identity are so subjective. Keep it to a limited team,” says Corporate Edge’s Peter Shaw.

He adds you should tell staff and customers exactly what type of organisation you want to be seen as, what you’re doing to change the existing set-up and what the tangible differences are with what you have right now.

Despite the expense of the Consignia decision, no good reason was given for the change, its role and what it stood for. Shaw says that the company tried to claim it had changed parts of the business, when in reality it hadn’t.

HOW MUCH IT COSTS

It’s not just a brand consultant that costs. You also need to consider the legal expense of checking you’re not infringing existing trademarks. And if you’re planning to register a domain name you are likely to find it unavailable, so you’ll have to be more creative – airlines Go and Buzz took Go-fly.com and Buzz-away.com.

Registering in various target countries will also add up. And further checks need to be made on the meaning of the name in other languages and how easy it is to pronounce. Think about the Vauxhall Nova, which in Spanish means ‘no go’ – not what you want when you head for countries with a high number of Spanish speakers.

Then there’s the marketing and PR you’re likely to need to make clients and the general public aware of the change. Stationery, letterheads, business cards, and uniforms and vehicle liveries will have to be modified. And if you have partners they will also have to adapt their literature. Peter Shaw says in the UK an agency can create a new name for £20,000, with legal checking of trademarks adding on another £5,000-£10,000. He believes, given a good brief, two or three name writers, using workshops, surveys and liaising with a legal team could complete that first stage in six weeks.

Amphlett puts it closer to £60,000, and with design and production you’re looking at the same again. Factor in more time and cost for an international focus, where semantics would be checked in the target countries. Ideally, you should leave three-to-six months for this, especially with domain name searches and registering across the globe. Get it right and your new name will be on everyone’s lips.