Corporate Renaming: Rebranding or abandoning ship?

The Chicago Tribune had an interesting article today about corporate renaming as a rebranding strategy. With the global market changing rapidly every year, many companies find themselves struggling to stay relevant. Some companies figure that a name change into something that would fit more into the times – perhaps a hipper name – would help keep the company’s image fresh and intact. A company to soon hop on the renaming bandwagon is RadioShack, who wants to shorten their name to simply, The Shack.

There are many reasons behind a company’s decision in conducting a name change – much of it comes from a company’s attempt to rebrand itself in a fast-changing market in order to still make itself relevant and to have a chance to compete in the expanding market. For example, losing the “Radio” in RadioShack poses little loss for them, as purchasing radios are a thing of the past. Also, in an abbreviated driven culture like today thanks to texting and Twittering, The Shack seems to be a more appealing name and keeps things short and sweet.

Still, some argue that a name change signals a change in company motives and direction, therefore consider it almost an insult to the legacy of the company - young or old. Yet this argument is a bit weak as it would be may not be smart for a company to associate with an old name should they completely revamp the overall outlook of the company. Sometimes, it's just better to start fresh and with a clean slate. 

Other companies that also went through or are considering corporate renaming are:

• Kentucky Fried Chicken (Now KFC)
• Pizza Hut (planning to change their name to The Hut)
• Cingular (became AT&T after Cingular acquired the old AT&T wireless and decided to rebrand under AT&T)
• Datsun (acquired by Nissan in 1986 and was rebranded under it)
• BackRub (changed to Google in 1998 – today's #1 most visited site on the web)

-Sabina for AMP3 Public Relations