Hearts & Minds: What’s in a name? A lot, actually…

Every so often, the board, CEO, shareholders, someone, decrees the company needs a refresh. Out must go the signage, the branding. Scrap the font, the artwork. Redesign the website, change the lot. Most important, we must have a new name. Gulp, sharp intake of breath. It will cost. Never mind, it will repay for itself in no time at all, that’s the idea – fresh identity, new customers, new investors. New, new, new. Let’s do it.

Something like that, suggests the FT’s Lex, ought to occur at London Stock Exchange or LSEG. It’s the only one of the world’s top 10 exchange groups whose shares have fallen this year. The comparison is made with Nasdaq, Intercontinental Exchange (owner of NYSE), Experian and RELX, which don’t bear a geographical location and all enjoy higher multiples. ‘There’s a lot in a name. LSEG’s doesn’t seem to be helping it much.’

They are right. There is a lot in a name, an awful lot. You play with it at your peril. For those that succeed, there are others that fail. Nike was Blue Ribbon Sports and almost Dimension Six, Google really was BackRub. Equally though, Royal Mail became Consignia and Aberdeen Asset Management, ABRDN. Those last two famously were reversed amid much derision. 

It’s an imprecise, inexact science, a specialisation nevertheless, and one that falls to the comms team to justify. Sometimes it’s relatively easy – a change of control or merger or direction has made the switch unavoidable, or times and tastes have shifted (Kentucky Fried Chicken decided to lose the fried chicken and opt for the less contentious KFC). Others less so.

Crucially, it’s not a move that can be based on a whim. After ownership, changing the name is just about the biggest decision a company can make. London might be going through a bad patch, meaning that LSEG boss David Schwimmer is devoting effort to how to re-energise the City, argues Lex. Yes, but does that justify such a huge step? It will court controversy, draw more attention to the reasons why, and this is the point, will it actually change anything? If the answer to that last is no or maybe, then perhaps reconsider.

At a stroke, out goes familiarity and that can quickly spill over to trust, qualities which stand for much and take forever to build. All that effort explaining and selling the rebrand might be better spent elsewhere. Think carefully now. Do we need to do this?

Chris Blackhurst is one of the UK’s foremost business journalists. He was previously Editor of The Independent and City Editor of the Evening Standard.