Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Laurent Muzellec
Department of Marketing, University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland
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What is in a Name Change?
the key role played by corporate names as vides an analysis of the recent wave of cor-
strategic marketing assets. Replacing an porate name changes and discusses the
established name with an entirely new academic and practical implications for
name would therefore seem to go against corporate brand naming.
elementary marketing theory and practice. The paper is divided into three sections.
Yet companies adopting new ‘branded First, the literature on brands and corporate
names’ are frequently reported in the busi- identity is reviewed to establish the predica-
ness press (McGurk, 2002; Lamont, 2003; ment of corporate brand naming. A data-
Wiggins, 2003). This phenomenon, some- base of re-named companies is then
times referred to as corporate re-branding, investigated and analysed in order to ascer-
has been quantified by Enterprise IG, tain the characteristics of a newly created
which estimates that each year between corporate (brand) name. The results are dis-
1,000 and 2,500 companies around the cussed and the comments of two brand-
world change their names.1 naming specialists taken into account for
Structural factors precipitating a name analysis purposes. The final section discusses
change such as corporate mergers and the managerial implications of the findings.
acquisitions, or major changes in geo-
graphic scope or competitive corporate LITERATURE REVIEW
strategy can partly explain the re-branding In order to understand the corporate re-
phenomenon (Muzellec et al., 2003). How- naming phenomenon in the emerging con-
ever, while these factors may tell one why text of corporate brands, the notion of cor-
re-branding occurs, they do not reveal the porate branding is first reviewed. The
extent to which corporate naming is con- differences between the corporate identity
sidered as a strategic marketing variable in and traditional brand perspectives on
its own right, or whether it is merely naming are then highlighted in order to
viewed as an administrative expediency. underline the challenges for corporate
An additional point of interest, therefore, is brand naming.
to investigate the marketing role, aim and
features of newly adopted names. Branding the Corporate Identity
Studies pertaining to this area of research There are many perspectives on corporate
have focused on the brand naming process branding in the literature (eg Schultz and
(Kohli and Labahn, 1997), on brand name de Chernatony, 2002; Balmer and Greyser,
semantics and symbolism (Collins, 1977; 2003). Corporate brands can be seen as
Robertson, 1989; Klink, 2001) and on the communications, vision, identity, culture,
types of associations evoked by new names position, promise, image, or covenant
(Kohli and Hemnes, 1995; Delattre, 2002; (Dunnion and Knox, 2004). However, two
Glynn and Abzug, 2002). These studies are broad approaches may be identified: one is
either concerned with traditional (product) centered on the organization and the pro-
brand naming strategies and their impact motion of internal values as well as culture
on customers’ imagery or corporate name and vision (Hatch and Schultz, 2003; Ind,
patterns within industries. Yet, corporate 2003; Urde, 2003); the other focuses on the
branding goes beyond traditional brand external audience and the marketing of the
theory and differs from corporate identity brand (King, 1991; Keller, 2000; Aaker,
(Balmer and Gray, 2003). In this paper, the 2004). This might be because the concept
two perspectives are brought together to of corporate brand is at the crossroads
provide a broad review of the corporate between the idea of brand and the notion
re-naming phenomenon. The paper pro- of corporate identity.
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What is in a Name Change?
quite visible element of the corporate visual are formed based on historical perfor-
identity system, it will not modify a cor- mance, organizational culture and employ-
poration’s appearance on its own (Margu- ees’ attitudes, rather than generated by a
lies, 1977; Melewar and Saunders, 2000). new name (Hatch and Schultz, 1997;
This suggests that a ‘name’ is less essential Stuart, 1999; Ind, 2003). This suggests that
to the constitution of associations in a cor- a traditional corporate name, be it the
porate identity context than in a brand name of the founder (Ford, Michelin etc)
context. A new name along with a new or the name of the place where the com-
visual identity can nevertheless help to pany was first set up (eg Evian, Raleigh),
create new associations as was done success- reflects the corporation’s history and iden-
fully, for example, with Lucent Technolo- tity better than a new name will ever be
gies, a spin-off of AT&T (Schmitt and able to do. The characteristics of both
Simonson, 1997). brand names and corporate names are sum-
Due to the importance of the behavioral marized in Table 1.
element of identity, the name is sometimes So far, corporate names have been stu-
seen as a trap that may catch the unwary died through their length, their descriptive
(Dowling, 1996; Balmer, 2001). Badly associations and their linguistic features
handled, a change of name might just (Kohli and Hemnes, 1995; Delattre, 2002).
widen the misalignment of the communi- Conclusions in both studies were identical:
cated identity with the actual one (Balmer new names were generally shorter, product
and Greyser, 2002; de Chernatony, 2002). and geographic associations were dropped,
The two schools of thought on identity are and many coined words were created.
therefore wary about the importance and Organizational behaviorists Glynn and
management of corporate names. The Abzug (2002) reviewed historical naming
visual or appearance school considers the patterns and found that corporate names
name as one single variable among many are influenced by a web of institutionalized
other elements of the corporate visual iden- practices. That is, organizations follow the
tity system (Melewar and Saunders, 2000). practices of other institutions from similar
The verbal or behavioral school of thought industries when it comes to adopting a
suggests that feelings towards a corporation new name.
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*The total number of old names is greater than the total of the re-branded companies because in
the case of a merger and when the two previous names belong to a different name category; the
names of both companies have been included.
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What is in a Name Change?
35
30
25
20 Old name
15 New name
10
5
0
As nym
e
so tive
ng
d
Ac ic
iv
se
di
at
ap
ip
ba
ro
an
ci
cr
gr
n-
so
st
es
eo
ee
D
G
r
Fr
Pe
End with the letter ‘a’ Altria, Aga, Areva, Avaya, Aviva, Capitalia, Centrica,
Consignia, Dexia, Encana, Glambia, Izodia, Kelda,
Olimpia, Permira, Ramada, Sonera, Syngenta, Zeneca,
Xansa
End with ‘i’, ‘is’ and ‘ys’ Acambis, Acordis, Altadis, Aventis, Elementis, Enodis,
Invensys, Marconi, Misys, Novartis, Vernalis, Vivendi
End with ‘us’ Chorus, Corus, Lorus, Mobius, Thus, Rubus
Other Accenture, Agilent, Agere, Diageo, Lumen, Lucent,
Thales, Visteon, Verizon
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*Websites were accessed between January 2003 and October 2003. {Although the name is clearly
derived from ‘centre’, it was classified as freestanding due to this explanation.
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What is in a Name Change?
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of values, they were placed back in a simi- of Nomen, a leading naming agency, cred-
lar framework (Figure 3). Fourteen associa- ited with the creation of famous new cor-
tive or suggestive names were excluded porate names such as Wanadoo, Vivendi
from this map because they did not suggest and Thales. The following section inte-
values or ideas but were associated with grates their reactions.
their respective industry (eg Capitalia, The literature review indicated that if
Omnicom, Sonera, Liberty Media) and/or corporate brand naming was to go beyond
their country of origin (eg Swiss, Eircom). corporate identity and traditional branding,
Essentially, corporations were moving it would need to overcome a series of
along the spectrum from highly descriptive dilemmas. The following summarizes the
names to more conceptual names. Among researcher’s analysis and indicates how cor-
those, associative names display a great porations elude the corporate naming pre-
level of similarity both in sound (use of dicament.
Latin terminology) and in symbolism (clus-
ter of five ‘common’ values). A New Corporate Name for Tomorrow’s
Corporate Brand
DISCUSSIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS: The types of corporate new names suggest
WHAT IS IN A CORPORATE BRAND that corporations are geared towards the
NAME? future, disregarding their roots by drop-
In order to confront corporate brand name ping the name of the founder of the com-
inventors with these initial findings and to pany, the place where it was first set up
generate discussion, two brand naming and the sector of industry from which it
specialists were consulted. Olivier Auroy is emerged. The evolution from industry
the European brand name specialist at association to non-figurative association
Landor Associates, an internationally reflects the ambition of companies to put
recognized branding and design consul- forward values rather than relying on his-
tancy. Marcel Botton, CEO and founder torical attributes.
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names suggesting key values are being poration (Ind, 1998; Einwiller and Will,
chosen. The semantic analysis revealed five 2002). The collection of perceptions that
summary values that occur frequently: per- defines a brand can be intrinsically influ-
formance, competence, unity, vision and enced by the semantics of the name (Klink,
liveliness. The extent to which a name 2001). Three options are available to man-
actually succeeds in inducing positive agers when it comes to choosing the name
associations is beyond the scope of the pre- of the corporate brand.
sent research. A review of articles on the The first option is to keep the current
re-naming of CGNU (Aviva), Scottish name of the corporation. Just like most
Power (Thus) and KPMG Consulting brands were product names before they
(BearingPoint), however, can certainly became brands, corporate names can be
help managers to identify the potential pit- transformed into corporate brands without
falls of tampering with established names, being modified or with little modification.
at least in terms of public relations (Brier- For instance, the name Banco Bilbao Viz-
ley, 2002; Dickson, 2002; Kellaway, 2002). caya Argentaria (BBVA) went from being
Additionally, the fact that the underly- a ‘simple instrument of recognition’ to
ing meaning of newly created corporate being assimilated to an explicit brand
names can be narrowed down to five prin- experience (Alloza et al., 2004).
ciples suggests convergence rather than dif- The second option is to use the Joyce
ferentiation. Surely, most companies want principle to define the organization. The
to perform well, to be coherent and to dis- role of influencing stakeholders’ percep-
play some level of competency in their tions could very well be assumed by
respective fields. They most likely want to descriptive and suggestive corporate brand
be seen as lively as well. Indeed, a survey names. A descriptive or suggestive name
conducted by the American Management can infer what the corporation does (indus-
Association (2002) revealed that profitabil- try-related attributes) or what it stands for
ity, innovation and ‘have fun’ were among (business values/culture attributes).
the most cited values. Aviva for example is Descriptive names displayed in the FT
associated with ‘vitality and living well’, database often described the organizations’
but can Aviva ‘own’ — to paraphrase Ries activity, for example, Ebookers, ITV Digi-
and Trout (2001) — the terms ‘vitality and tal, EasyInternetCafe and Nationwide
living well’? It is difficult to understand Accident Repair Services, but never
what constitutes the distinguishing features depicted a feature of the corporation, ie
of such companies. All those names seem there was no corporation with a name such
to be interchangeable. Could Altria be a as Greatcorp, SuperServ, or Fast&Reliable.
consulting firm company, Aviva a food Descriptive names are diminishing in
and tobacco holding and BearingPoint an popularity, essentially because they offer
insurance group — probably. the lowest level of protection in terms of
trade mark (Davies, 2002). A suggestive
MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS: name such as Capitalia (ex-Banca di
CREATING A NAME TO CAPTURE THE Roma) may also succeed in representing
CORPORATE BRAND ESSENCE the corporation’s sector of activity.
Developing a corporate brand is about Expressing what the company ‘stands
defining the organization in a way that is for’ is done through the use of associative
unique and distinctive. The goal of corpo- brand names that refer to the company’s
rate branding is indeed primarily to create way of doing business or, in other words,
a favorable image and differentiate the cor- its business culture. Corporate brands can
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What is in a Name Change?
be defined as internal meanings formed existing words that are easily remembered
within the organizational culture (Berg- but applied in a new context. For example,
strom et al., 2002; de Chernatony, 2002). a colour or a fruit like Orange is applied to
According to the ‘Joyce principle’, names the context of a telecommunications com-
can carry intrinsically positive values that pany. This strategy presents some advan-
provide the basis for a corporate communi- tages. Starting from a clean sheet might
cation programme which will reinforce give corporations the opportunity to build
initial beneficial associations. The name an ad hoc identity and create differentiation.
Altria, which suggests ‘an enterprise that If identity is an abstract concept (Czar-
aims for peak performance and constant niawska, 2000), then a name should be able
improvement’4 is typical of this category. to carry the fashionable values that domi-
When the corporate brand is supposed to nate at a certain time and place, ie a green
resonate to a wide audience, it becomes company or a fun company.
more difficult to find values that appeal to An ‘empty vessel’ name, free of intrinsic
all kinds of stakeholders. It is interesting to associations, combined with thematic cor-
note that many names suggesting perfor- porate branding campaigns allows some
mance such as Altria, Altadis or Excellon variability in the positioning of the cor-
are being promoted mainly to investors. poration. For instance, today ‘Orange, an
These corporate brands do not deal directly innovative company’; tomorrow, ‘Orange,
with consumers; they either hide behind a reliable partner’. The only thing Orange
their brand portfolio or are solely engaged might find difficult to claim is ‘Orange, a
in BtoB relationships. Corporate brands green enterprise’! Unfortunately, since
suggesting the idea of life such as Aviva, ‘empty vessel’ names are meaningless, they
O2 or Vivendi are more exposed to consu- do not necessarily provide the company
mers and are being communicated through with a credible story to tell. The conse-
mass media. For many corporate brands, quences in terms of acceptance levels can
however, it seems difficult to determine be dramatic, particularly among staff.
who is their primary audience. As seen ear- ‘Monday’, the briefly adopted name of
lier, the cornelian choice between differen- PWC Consulting, is a freestanding name.
tiation and acceptance among a variety of A public relations exercise was supposed to
stakeholders has led many corporations to explain that Monday stood for ‘fresh think-
articulate universal values in a universal ing, doughnuts and hot coffee’. Employees
manner. Applying the Joyce principle and other stakeholders, however, started to
might sometimes be too constraining associate ‘Monday’ with less favorable
because it forces corporations to induce although quite amusing images:
associations within a restrictive framework.
Initiating favorable associations, how- ‘The word on the street is that the PWC
ever, is only one of the two main goals of board called their creatives last Friday,
corporate brand naming. An equally cru- ‘‘Have you come up with a name yet?’’,
cial aspect of corporate branding is to dif- they asked, ‘‘Probably Monday’’, said
ferentiate the corporation in a crowded their contact’
marketplace. This might be better per-
formed with names based on the ‘Juliet or
principle’. This third option does not
necessarily mean employing newly created, ‘A quick straw poll in the office reveals
abstract, meaningless words such as Kelda that most peoples’ opinion is not ‘‘a fresh
or Zeneca. It may also include the use of start, a positive attitude’’, but ‘‘I hate
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Monday’’. But that fits with their opinion sistent with previous studies regarding cor-
of management consultants too’.5 porate name changes. The contribution
resides essentially in the analysis of the
The managerial implications are summar- meaning of associative names. It reveals
ized in the simplified template in Table 7. that the values promoted by new corpo-
The template provides managers with a rate brands revolve around the key notions
framework, which informs them of the of liveliness, competence, performance,
advantages and disadvantages of each unity and vision. By inducing the same
naming option. If the corporation can be types of values through the same medium
defined by something genuinely distinctive, (the use of Latin-coined names), however,
it might be worth looking for a descriptive newly created corporate brands fail to
or suggestive name that captures the create differentiation. The use of associative
uniqueness of the organization. Unfortu- names could well be too restrictive by
nately, this study reveals that newly created nature. Corporations might be better off
brand names often capture only the general choosing less sophisticated names whose
aspirations of any corporation, eg compe- associations can be shaped by a proficient
tence and performance. If managers want branding programme. A factor that should
their brand to achieve differentiation, they influence naming decisions is who is going
should avoid those five corporate brand to be the primary audience of the newly
clichés. created corporate brand. As the anecdotal
evidence suggests that either associative or
CONCLUSION freestanding names can be successful, how-
As companies are becoming increasingly ever, this paper does not conclude that
aware of the importance of corporate some name types are more suitable than
reputation, they are managing their corpo- others. Evaluating what makes a corporate
rate names more actively and treating brand name successful could offer a direc-
them as corporate brands rather than tion for further research, unless one accepts
merely as trade names. This study is con- the proposition that thriving brand names
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What is in a Name Change?
are the result of fine poetry rather than Critique of Corporate Communications, Holt,
obedient science. Rinehart and Winston Ltd, Eastbourne, UK.
Brierley, S. (2002) ‘The cult of the manager and the
rise of stupidity’, Marketing Week, 15 August, 23.
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1 Source: Enterprise IG 2002, 2003, 2004. and the product: Corporate associations and
2 This definition, which is often used, was first consumer product responses’, Journal of Marketing,
proposed in 1960 by the American Marketing 61(1), 68–84.
Association. Collins, L. (1977) ‘A name to conjure with’,
3 Originally in French, ‘compromots’, ie a compro- European Journal of Marketing, 11(5), 339–363.
mise on words. Czarniawska, B. (2000) ‘Identity lost or identity
4 Source: Altria.com. Available at: http://www. found? Celebration and lamentation over the
altria.com/about_altria/01_01_corpidenchange.asp postmodern view of identity in social science and
(accessed September 10, 2003). fiction’, in Schultz, M., Hatch, M.J. and Larsen,
5 Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/ M.H. (eds) The Expressive Organization: Linking
2035803.stm (accessible February 10, 2005). Identity, Reputation and the Corporate Brand,
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