What's In a Name?

What goes through your mind when you hear that a company has changed its name? If you’re like me, you think, “why?” And right after that, you think, “Did they do it for the right reasons, or the wrong reasons?”

Corporations, like people, change their names for different reasons. Corporations merge and separate, just like people marry and divorce. And the resulting name changes follow similar patterns: One name takes precedence over the other (e.g., Citibank over Travelers), or the names are combined (e.g., DaimlerChrysler). More rarely, completely new names are created. Occasionally, corporations change their name to their most dominant product brand due to momentum of that brand’s awareness (e.g., Oracle). And sometimes, just like people, companies change their name to start over and escape the past.

Fair enough. But when a company changes its name to start over, particularly when it is trying to escape misdeeds or mishaps of the past rather than merely adjusting to changing circumstances (e.g., Valujet becoming Airtrans) doesn’t it behoove the company to explain how it has changed (e.g., new management, new goals, new ethics, etc)? Otherwise, people can’t be certain whether the name change was signaling a real new beginning, or was just a cosmetic—if not deceptive—move motivated by financial gain alone.

Or are we as consumers so inattentive or shallow that it doesn’t matter?

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