Are some firms’ rebranding rationales…dubious?

Thanks, TIME Magazine, for this list of 10 real head-shakers in the history of corporate re-namings.  It’s noteworthy because it makes us consider the reasoning behind each of these moves, reasoning you should bear in mind if embarked on your own re-branding or logo design initiative.

“Comcast” into “Xfinity”?  When you’ve compromised your reputation and credibility through inferior business practices, there may be a crying need to do something…but changing a name won’t improve the practices that brought you grief in the first place.  So it remains to be seen if it’ll make a whit of difference.  Because to many consumers or customers, a re-branding can smack of evasion. In cases like these, at least in the short term, a new name or logo might do your image more harm than good.

As you  look through the list, you’ll see a few instances where the main motivation for a new logo or new name was exactly that — to distance the company from its prior ill repute.  It’s a matter of circumstance, one supposes: there’s a sincere effort to start anew, and the kind of ‘nomenclature misdirection’ that your audience will, unfortunately, find transparent.

So if you’re contemplating a re-branding for the sake of distancing yourself from past problems, think hard and long about how your target market will react.  Test out your initiative with some of them beforehand, too.  It’s better to be viewed as be making a sincere attempt at rebooting or renewal than it is to be seen as simply be hanging new pictures over old holes.  Customers will always spot the difference.