My LinkedIn friends love a good “does this brand suck?” discussion so today we’re going to analyze the brand VRBO, as well as their decision to change their name to Vrbo. The change looks subtle when you read it but it’s a completely different pronunciation.
Does This Name Suck? Vrbo
Check out this #tellthetruths video to see whether I think this name evolution was a good idea and to get my take on whether this brand name sucks.
This video originally appeared in LinkedIn
If you enjoyed this video, check out:
Does This Name Suck? SOFT SURROUNDINGS
Does This Name Suck? ORANGE THEORY
TRANSCRIPT:
-Hi guys, it’s Rebeca with BrandTrue, and today, we’re going to talk about whether or not this name sucks. So I was originally planning to do a “does this name suck” on the brand VRBO, but then my friend Janice Cave said, “Hey, why don’t you do something about the fact that VRBO is now Vrbo?” So… this brand is Vrbo.
And so what happened is the acronym stands for Vacation Rental By Owner. They’ve been around for 20, 30 years, an established brand. And then they found out that a lot of their consumers were saying “verb-oh.” And when they did research Verbo is actually more memorable, because it’s more like a word than a list of letters. It’s easier to say, and it’s also easier to say in other languages.
And so that’s why they decided to make the change. Okay, so let’s discuss whether or not this name sucks. The first thing we always ask ourselves is T, is it Transparent? And I would say no. Less so now, with the change. Vrbo doesn’t tell you anything about how it’s the place where you’re going, the party house in New Orleans for your girlfriends’ weekend or whatever. The name doesn’t tell you that.
Secondly, is it Real? Well, same thing, without that transparency, there’s also no emotional authenticity or not much link to their brand story anymore. So they don’t really get it on that either. Unique? It’s pretty unique, so the U is a check. And finally, is it Engaging? Yes, actually, I think it’s pretty engaging, because it’s got “verb” in it. So it’s got sort of like an active sound to it, and with the -o, Vrbo, it’s got energy to it. It’s more fun to say than VRBO, so I will give them that one.
When I sum up sort of how it goes through the analysis, I think it’s kind of a mediocre name. But not only does it not suck, I would add that if I were in their position, I would’ve done the same thing. I think that they had equity that they didn’t want to squander. And so it was a change that made a lot of sense. Oh, and they paired it with a nice logo change, too, and updated all their visuals. It was good. That was good branding. That’s what I think. What do you think? Bye!
