Name changes are common in companies. For them, the most important thing when it comes to renaming is a compelling reason. The next step is to conduct a business study, define what you want to communicate and what values ​​you want to bring to your brand. The team managing the name change needs to know all this information, process it and extract the essence of the brand.

one in a million

The next step is to prepare a list of the names that best convey this essence. Usually, an agency specializing in brands is used for this and, if necessary, supplemented with suggestions from suppliers, customers and employees. He did Andersen Consulting when he was about to change brands. He launched an internal competition to choose the new name. In just over a month, around 10,000 suggestions were received. After two months of the process, the winner was Accenturea suggestion from a Norwegian consultant.

selection methods

The new name may or may not have meaning. When it comes to this second option, we are faced with what is known as an empty cube, which allows you to fill it with the values, content and positioning you want. The most common qualitative and quantitative studies on name choice are:

Association Tests. It consists in asking the target audience what each of the names we propose proposes them. These can be adjectives, verbs, things, animals…

learning tests. It consists of examining whether respondents find it difficult to pronounce the name or not, and to what extent.

preference tests. Respondents are presented with the list of chosen names and asked which one they like best and why.

These studies are particularly important when our company is present abroad. Its translation can even have negative connotations.

For example, the name Coca Cola was first introduced in China as Ke-kou-ke-la, meaning “to bite the wax tadpole” or “mare stuffed with wax” depending on the dialect. Coca Cola replaced it with a similar-sounding, Ko-kou-ko-le, which translates to happiness in the mouth.

Communicate the news

Once we have the new name, it’s time to say it. An internal and external communication plan is implemented for this purpose. We will use all the means at our disposal: advertising, internet, mailing, meetings…

How do you measure success?

There are two factors that determine success or failure:

The increase in sales. Your goal is to sell and your brand will be good when it sells. If not, it’s not good.

Increased awareness. A study is conducted in which the target group is asked to name brands of a product category or vice versa, they are shown a brand and they have to assign it to their product category.

company management