Now, whatever you think about this, it does raise some interesting questions. How important is a name, in business? When you think of a brand, you tend to think of the physical brand attributes first: the logo, the colour palette, imagery. But often a company name is the first element of the brand that people come into contact with. And when they do, what does it say about the business?
There are some interesting examples of name changes, and their business impact. To see the damage that can be done, you only have to look at the decision in March 2001 to rename the Post Office as Consignia. By June 2002, after stream of condemnation, it was dropped and the Post Office was back. A success story is the creation of Dave, the freeview TV channel. Previously called UKTV G2 it had been largely insignificant, but the new brand led to a dramatic increase in viewers. Last week it had 2.8 million viewers, 0.8% of the viewing public. That's well behind the terrestrial channels (BBC 1 had 29.6 million, which was 20.7%), but the Dave figures are on a par with the most popular Sky Sports channels.
So how important is a name? On the one hand, what people are buying - whether they're consumers or businesses - is the product or service behind the name. Do they care about the name, if they're getting what they want? But the other argument is that if the name isn't appealing, those potential customers will look elsewhere, for a more attractive offer.
So, with that in mind I'm really interested to know:
Has a company or product name ever influenced your decision to buy it?
What's your favourite company name? (You don't have to like what they sell - just the name).
If you'd like to read more about the role of names in branding, take a look at these previous posts.
