NU name disappears today

After a £10m marketing campaign, Norwich Union, founded in 1797, becomes Aviva today.

The Independent on Saturday asked whether it would be as successful as rebranding the Midland Bank to t HSBC or as a failure like the Post Office rebranding to Consignia.

Other branding disasters mentioned included:

• Accountancy group PricewaterhouseCoopers was forced to shelve the rebranding of its consultancy arm to "Monday," which had cost about $110m (£68m) and soon collapsed
• British Airways £60m dropping the Union Jack from its tail fin was met with outrage and described as "awful" by Margaret Thatcher, reversed in 2001
• The Department of Trade and Industry was forced into a U-turn after a brief period as the Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry, has since become the department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
• Drinks giant Coca-Cola unveiled New Coke in 1985.

Successful rebrandings

• BT Cellnet changing to O2
• Chelsea Girl's relaunch as River Island in 1989
• Ratner Group changed to Signet in 1992
• Philip Morris rebranded to Altria

No need to rebrand

“Carphone Warehouse does not sell carphones and isn't done out of a warehouse, but the name has its own meaning. They don't need to. There really has to be a pressing need to rebrand,” the FT quoted one expert.

Also rebranding

Spanish bank Santander is to rename the branches of Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester.