7 renaming – and their consequences

The company Facebook is now called Meta. The reasons for the renaming are unclear: Officially, the future focus will be on the metaverse. On the other hand, the company has been slipping from one PR nightmare to the next since Cambridge Analytica, at least since the revelations of the whistleblower Frances Haugen, the company’s reputation has suffered enormous damage. Will that bring anything? Let’s look at seven name changes from the past – including the reasons for them and the bottom line.

It is a product, not a brand, but the claim “Raider is now called Twix – otherwise nothing will change!” Has become common parlance. On the one hand, when companies announce that they will change their name – but otherwise do not speak of any other strategic changes or which of products or unique selling points. This is how it was with Twix: The bar was already called that in most other countries, only in Germany it was sold as a Raider bar. In order to standardize this, only the name, only the packaging has been changed. Then nothing. If someone thinks that nothing will change at a company apart from the name, the slogan is quickly unpacked: like that Augsburger Allgemeine to the Facebook meta change or the BZ regarding google and alphabet. The claim or the short version “Raider is now called Twix” is generally used independently of rebrandings when something has not been changed at all, but has been given a new coat of paint. For example with the Renaming of the data retention.

The new product name did no harm, on the contrary. Twix is ​​still around today, and every now and then there are marketing campaigns for German nostalgics, in which Twix is ​​available again as a raider bar in Germany for a few weeks.

The reason why the parent company was renamed Alphabet is the same as with the Facebook meta change: The company should be separated from a single product. There are so many other areas in which they are active, not just the area with the search engine, and so that the individual areas can grow better and more independently and function as a brand. The name should stand for the alphabet as the basis of language, which in turn is the basis for indexing – which actually refers back to the search engine that wanted to be separated from. In addition, there is an alpha bet, i.e. an alpha bet – alpha is the return on investment that is above the benchmark.

Consumers didn’t notice that much, Raider is now called Twix and so on. Larry Page had that in the announcement In 2015 it was also written that there shouldn’t be a big brand with products for consumers – just a strategic umbrella for the existing brands. Since then, the economy has only seen a steady upward trend. Immediately after the announcement, the share rose by around six percent, according to the company Wirtschaftswoche. Overall, the name change didn’t bother us anywhere and, on the contrary, enabled more growth through more flexibility in management.

It was similar at Xing: According to the announcement in 2019, the company had been committed to the vision of “better, more humane work” for years. According to former CEO Thomas Vollmoeller, New Work is the leitmotif for everything the company does and should be visible as a link to all activities. There are also many products such as Kununu and Internations, not just Xing.

There was a fuss about the name. Heap for example, some people had their say. The main complaint was that the name of a movement that wanted to create better working conditions should be monetized. Anyone who spoke of the movement would automatically advertise the company with it. Xing had announced that New Work should become a word and figurative mark. For example, further training on New Work as a way of working would no longer be possible. The founder of the New Work movement himself was fine with that, but referred to the responsibility that Xing and its products now have to bear.

There is an important parallel at Philipp Morris: scandals right before the name change. The Philipp Morris company had two subsidiaries, also called Philipp Morris – tobacco companies, including the Marlboro cigarette brand. 1994 top managers had sworn in court that they had no evidence that nicotine was addictive. In the USA there were lawsuits against the cigarette manufacturers at this time, one of the US American Richard Boeken, who was suffering from lung cancer, lost it in 2001. The share then immediately lost five percent in value, that Handelsblatt reported. Since parent and subsidiary companies basically had the same name, the negative headlines also had an impact on the entire group and thus also on the other associated brands.

With the renaming of Philipp Morris to the Altria Group, the rest of the product range was to be separated more from the cigarette brands. Steven Parrish told the Friday New York Timesthat they knew the trials with a new name weren’t going to go away. This makes it easier to show that the company consists of more than the tobacco subsidiaries.
Even then, however, it was already criticized that it was a PR stunt to divert attention from the criticism of the company – allegations that also exist against Meta. To this day, Altria is struggling with the problems of the tobacco industry and, for example, warns in front of your own products.

Weight Watchers was confronted with the body positivity movement and young generations who criticize old role models. Therefore, there was a rebranding for WW in 2018 with the claim “Wellness that Works”. Weight Watchers wanted to move from diet to emblematic of healthy lifestyle and wellness. The app also published content that wasn’t just about losing weight. The Fitpoints were adjusted – but they also dealt with calories burned during exercise. Your own products should not contain any unhealthy ingredients such as artificial sweeteners, flavor enhancers or preservatives. The President of WW, Mindy Grossmann, said then: So far, you have committed yourself to offering the best weight management program, now you are using the expertise for a bigger task: to become the global partner for wellness.

In the same year, WW was confronted with a shit storm: Weight Watchers had announced the plan to offer a free six-week membership for teenagers aged 13 and over. Organizations in the field of eating disorders were shocked – Counting points and calories at this critical age is dangerous and promotes eating disorders. In 2018 and 2019 the company weakened – also just now because of the renaming. They had a new name, but they missed digitization. However, the corona pandemic helped WW 2020 to “comeback“.

At the time of the renaming, Karstadtquelle was already in an economic crisis. Therefore it should be restructured – and this restructuring should be made clear to the outside world with a new name. The name itself was a made-up word and should be reminiscent of arcades and gold (D’or). Instead, experts told the FAZ, he reminded of the anaconda, a snake, or of “World of Warcraft” and “Lord of the Rings”. The initial letter A also aims to move forward in the stock market index and be more visible.

The expensive new name has brought nothing. Arcandor had to file for bankruptcy in June 2009, the same month that investigations into breach of trust began against the then CEO. Individual parts of the company were sold, Quelle had to be broken up and sold to its subsidiaries.

The Oerlikon Group was renamed Unaxis in 2000. The highly diversified company wanted to emphasize the conversion to a high-tech company. That worked only moderately well, the company struggled economically – even years after the renaming. the Swiss trade newspaper wrote in 2004 that such a development should actually have consequences in management. So the new name had not brought better positioning and more success as hoped.

In September 2006, the proposal was even approved to reintegrate the original Oerlikon name into the company name. That led to a dispute with Rheinmetall, which owned a former subsidiary of Oerlikon that still had “Oerlikon” in its name. The disputes made sure that only one year later the renaming was complete – and the company had gotten back to where it started. The company is noisy Annual report “Stable”, despite a “difficult market environment”. So apart from costs, the renaming to Unaxis has brought nothing.