Will Aviva rebrand succeed like HSBC or fail like Consignia?
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.
