No laughing matter

Staines, the Surrey town, is considering changing its name, to avoid negative associations with the comic creation, Ali G. No... Really, they are. The local business forum has submitted a proposal to the local council to change the name to Staines-upon-Thames. They're concerned it has a negative impact on business, especially with the 2012 Olympics on the horizon. You can read the full story here.

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.

As seen on TV... Part 3

This is officially going to be a series. I'm committing to extracting a brand-related lesson from each episode of Mary Queen of Shops, and half-way through the six programmes I'm confident I will!

This weeks' show was all about:
The importance of a name to a brand.

Three sisters were busy running a greengrocers - that had been trading for 115 years - into the ground. As you can imagine, there were a lot of issues: a lack commitment, a lack of experience and consequently, a lack of focus. Mary went in there and, with a lot of hard work, began to put things straight. But for me, the most interesting point was when Mary was presenting the new brand and identity to the sisters. As they were walking to the meeting the sisters all agreed that the one thing that couldn't change was the name. And to be fair, I agreed. The current name, Fosters, had a lot of history, recognition and - before the sisters got their hands on it - reputation. But Mary wanted to change it. And it was a stroke of genius.

Her suggestion was to change the name to The 3 Sisters. Two of them immediately liked it, the other one (the difficult one) pretty soon came round to it. You could see in their reaction that it immediately changed their perception of the shop. It changed from being something they had taken on when they bought it, to something that they owned. Something that belonged to them. It changed their relationship with the shop. For the first time they felt they had ownership, and with that responsibility.

And the name was key to that. It was opportunity, within all of the elements of the visual identity, to give the sisters (the client) something that was personal to them, and helped them to inject personality into the brand, and into the business. (This was reinforced with a fantastic photo shoot of the sisters, and a lot of fruit and veg).

Now, you don't have to change the name of a company, to change the way people see it. Marks & Spencer is 125 years old, but they have been fairly successful at defining what that name stands for to their customers in the 21st Century. But a name can be a very powerful tool for communicating with, and engaging with, your audience.

So think about the name of your company. What does it say about you? What do you want it to stand for? And what do you need to do to change that perception?

See you next week for the next programme. In the meantime, if you'd like to have a chat about any aspect of your brand, email jonathan@alderandalder.co.uk or call 01392 248107.

Who are you?

The Co-operative Financial Services and Britannia Building Society announced earlier this week that despite their merger they'll retain separate brands. Now this is always a tricky one. What's the best answer? There's been quite a bit of it around at the moment, particularly in the financial sector for obvious reasons, so we've got some interesting examples to look at.



Santander, the Spanish banking group that owns Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance and Leicester, announced in May that all the high street branches would adopt the Santander name. The rebranding and refurbishment will be completed by the end of 2010. Research released in June seems to support this decision, showing that public perception of Abbey and Bradford & Bingley was slipping. By contrast the perception of Santander was rising. When they began their profile raising campaign with Lewis Hamilton 3 years ago their recognition was at 20%. Now it's at 82%. So this seems like a good decision.



Another example (which I've posted about previously) is Aviva / Norwich Union. They went through an extensive advertising campaign, to explain the importance of having the right name to achieve your goals. They obviously felt it was Aviva. I've read quite a bit of debate about the issue, for and against, so it's interesting to hear their side. Conveniently they have posted an interview on their website, where their Chief Marketing Officer explains their reasons. The facts for Aviva are that they have 50 million customers in 28 markets, and in 23 of those they were already Aviva. Although they are the largest general insurer in the UK, only 37% of the total value of their sales comes from the UK. As part of their rebrand they have brought together 40 different names under the Aviva banner. So to create one brand makes it much easier, and cheaper, to manage on a global scale.

Looking at these examples we can see two reasons for a change of name. One is reputation management. The other, cost saving.

Reputation Management
As the public perception of part of their business slides, Santander take the opportunity to capitalise on the brand equity they have built over three years, and absorb the failing parts of the business into the parent. (The interesting point to note here is that Santander know what people think of all of the elements of their brand because they have carried out market research and asked them. Really useful before making any big decisions.).

Cost saving
Aviva have consolidated all of the constituent businesses under one brand. So that they can use the same marketing themes and messages around the world. Why did they choose to use Hollywood stars (Bruce Willis) and musical icons (Ringo Starr) in their rebranding advert? Because those individuals are global brands themselves, recognised around the world. When you have 28 markets and 50 million customers to talk to, it makes sense to do it in the most cost-effective way possible.



What lessons can we learn?
What does the experience of Santander and Aviva tell the rest of us? Well, your name's important. Building recognition and, importantly, perceived value in your name will bring real, financial value to your business. Keeping your brand simple makes it more cost-effective to manage (but sometimes you do need more than one brand - we're working with a client to creat a second brand, so that they can reach new customers).

How long will the Co-op and Britannia remain separate brands? We'll have to wait and see which path holds the most value for them.

Hello, what's your name?

The current Aviva ad campaign is an interesting exercise in brand management. For anyone who isn't familiar with it, you can take a look below - there are a few ads, but they weave together two messages, both around the issue of a name.



The first message is that Aviva is the new name for Norwich Union - with Ringo Starr and Bruce Willis explaining how having the right name made their careers. The second is that to Aviva their customers are more than just numbers; they are individuals with names.



I read a letter to a newspaper speculating on the cost of making the adverts and whether the money couldn't have been put to better use in the current economic climate. It's a good point, because I'm sure Bruce and Ringo don't come cheap (Macaulay Culkin was probably peanuts by comparison). But for a global brand like Aviva it is usually cheaper to have one name to promote globally, rather than have different collateral (adverts, printed material, online marketing etc.) for every country you trade in. One size fits all. And it's often the same with the name - Aviva. Doesn't mean anything in any language, so it works anywhere. So a name changing process can be a cost cutting exercise - it's all relative.



When I was still working in London I developed a new identity for an international law firm - Salans - who were facing a similar challenge. When I started working with them they had 9 offices in 8 countries and were called Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn. But this varied across some of their offices where local partners had added their name, so in 2002 they went through a rebranding exercise to simplify the name to Salans. This consistency gave them much greater impact, and made it much easier to manage: one name, one layout for their stationery, one style for their signage, one set of design guidelines etc. The only challenge to this consistency was the need to manage multiple languages.



They still have the same identity, it's just working across a lot more offices: 21 according to their website. It's really satisfying to see that the design has grown with the company, allowing them to roll it out to new offices in new countries. You can see the work I did for Salans at our website: www.alderandalder.co.uk. Click on Design > Identity.