This video is about the need for brands to act quickly if circumstances are forcing them to change their names. Name changes shouldn’t be undertaken lightly, of course. But when BAD THINGS happen, brands are more likely to drag their feet then act quickly and that just makes a lousy situation even worse.
WHEN IT’S TIME FOR A CHANGE
Check out this #tellthetruths video for some classic examples and some more recent stories. (Yes, Rebeca does take advantage of the opportunity to take the Atlanta Braves to task YET AGAIN for not yet changing their racist team name!)
This video originally appeared in LinkedIn
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TRANSCRIPT:
– Hey guys, it’s Rebeca with BrandTrue and this is “When It’s Time To Change.” I’ve spoken a lot over time about the complexity of understanding when it’s time to change a brand name, because there’s a lot to consider.
You don’t just want to change a brand name on a whim. But what I want to talk about here is sometimes you’ve just got to face up, you’ve got to do it and you’ve got to do it fast.
There’s some really great examples of brands being in denial and dying grisly deaths as a result. There was this chocolate company named Italo Suisse, Italian and Swiss, and they changed their name in 2013 to ISIS, which is not a bad choice at that time, kind of exotic, “oh mighty Isis,” Egyptian goddess, but in 2014, of course, the Islamic State and ISIS, their nickname, emerged, and that brand had to change their name again, a year later. And I think they changed it too late and it was a real problem for them.
Another example from the late ’80s, there were these little candies, they were little chocolatey caramel things that you would unwrap and they were actually a diet aid and they were called Ayds, A-Y-D-S. And when AIDS, A-I-D-S, the immunodeficiency virus, came along, they were like, “Nah, it’s not a problem.” And they were in denial and they didn’t change their name. Eh, it killed them.
More recently, you see things like the Lance Armstrong Foundation being renamed Livestrong when his doping allegations came out. It’s just a really good idea to not wait too long to change. We saw a year ago, after the murder of George Floyd, that a lot of brands that had been ignoring their racist names, like Aunt Jemima Syrup or Uncle Tom’s Rice, Uncle Ben’s Rice, that they changed their names and it’s ridiculous that they took so long, but they acted quickly.
Other entities, like some of the sports teams, changed right away. Some of them, Atlanta Braves, are still holding out. It’s not a good look. Act quickly if circumstances force you to need to change your name. Waiting does not help you. Perception is reality. Let me know what you think. Bye!
