What's In A Name Change? | Rebranding a company can take more than a lot of thought
American Superconductor in Devens is now AMSC.
The long-time Fallon Clinic in Worcester has become Reliant Medical Group.
Sunovion Pharmaceuticals was once Sepracor. Fitchburg Savings Bank became Rollstone Bank & Trust.
The list can go on and on.
What you name your company is a big part of the world of business branding, according to marketing and public relations experts.
But companies don’t just change their names for the heck of it; they must have a reason.
“Businesses usually change their name because someone has identified a problem with it,” said Andrew Davis, president of Worcester-based Davis Advertising, which helps clients with branding strategies, including name changes.
Many times it’s a confusion factor. That was the case for Reliant, which changed its name this fall.
For other businesses, Davis said the wrong name for a business can hold a company back from expanding.
Whatever the reason, there are general rules of thumb about when a name change is needed and which strategies surrounding what name would best suit a business.
What’s In A Name?
For AMSC, the company announced recently that it would change its name from American Superconductor to better reflect its international presence and its broad scope of products beyond just superconductors.
Sunovion was purchased by Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma (DSP) of Japan in 2010 and soon afterward changed its name.
Patricia Moriarty, a spokeswoman for Sunovion, said the process to change the company’s name started a long time ago. DSP knew it wanted to enter the American market with a new brand and name. So when it bought Sepracor, the process began.
“DSP’s goal was to establish a new, unique subsidiary and company brand when it launched Latuda,” a drug for patients who suffer from schizophrenia, she said. “As such, the process for exploring company brand names began several years ago, even prior to DSP’s acquisition of Sepracor.. The launch of the new brand and name was a major milestone in the integration of the cultures and helped build a shared vision for the combined company.”
In Rollstone’s case, bank President Martin Connors said it was an issue of expansion plans.
“We felt as though having Fitchburg in the name was somewhat limiting,” he said.
The bank had already expanded outside Fitchburg — to Leominster and Lunenburg — and was planning to move into Worcester when it made the switch in 2008. At the same time, the bank had an increased focus on commercial banking and wealth management, which was a factor in changing from “savings bank” to “bank and trust.”
But that doesn’t mean making the decision was easy, Connors said.
“Absolutely there was a lot of discussion about it,” he said. “We had 163 great years of brand recognition built up. But obviously, we felt going forward we would be better off.”
Davis said that’s an important consideration for any business to consider.
“It can breathe new life into a business to get a name change,” he said.
How Fallon Clinic Became Reliant
Officials at Reliant Medical Group in Worcester didn’t take its name change lightly either. In fact, Randi Nichols, executive vice president of human resources and operation support services, said it took more than two years to change the health care provider’s name.
The issue was first discussed because of confusion with Fallon Community Health Plan. At one time, the organizations were linked, but they split and are now independent. Market studies, she said, showed some people believed they had to be a member of Fallon Community Health Plan to be treated at Fallon Clinic.
“It was a conundrum,” she said.
In June, when then-Fallon Clinic joined Atrius Health, a statewide physicians group, officials knew they would have to undertake a major marketing effort to incorporate the organization into Atrius. It was a good time, Nichols said, to not only integrate with Atrius, but also change the organization’s name.
Focus groups were held with internal staff, patients and members of the community, she said, and three different themes of names were considered. Finally, the organization agreed that having a term that evokes an emotion of being able to rely on the health care organization was a good brand strategy; hence, the new name.
In the spring, the board of directors voted to change the name and in the ensuing 12 weeks, the organization transformed from Fallon Clinic.
Every single pen, pencil, laboratory coat, computer desktop background, street sign, letterhead and anything else that had the old brand on it was phased out. Those changes were coupled with a new marketing campaign to advertise the name change. For six months until the end of March 2012, Nichols said, the organization will remind customers.
Getting It Right
What can businesses do to get it right the first time so they don’t have to change their names?
John William Geranios, who founded Brandings.com, a California-based company that helps businesses with naming and branding strategies, said there are some things businesses can do on their own.
In today’s business age, the most important thing is to make sure your name has a web domain that’s available., he said
Other than that, something short, powerful and easy to spell and pronounce is best.
“Stay away from numbers, letters and geography,” Geranios said.
If you put a geographic reference in your name, a street or community name, you could be limiting yourself to that area.
“Think about down the road what goals you have for your businesses and if your name will fit with those,” he said.
Overall, Davis, with the Worcester ad agency, said his best piece of advice is: If the current name ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
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