We tend not to argue with things Shakespeare said. A rose by any other name would certainly smell the same. However, if the euphonious single syllable “rose,” had been “roach,” it wouldn’t have altered the smell, but might have altered the flower’s reputation. Even if a roach was always what we called a rose, sending someone a dozen roaches just doesn’t sound so sweet. Good brand names aren’t easy to come by and changing them – especially if they’ve been around a long time – can do more harm than good. In most cases, it’s better to avoid change. Obviously, some name changes have been for the better. Let’s have a Brad’s Drink and look at a few.
Caleb Bradham came up with this fizzy drink in his North Carolina drugstore. He used part of his surname and dubbed it, Brad’s Drink. The drink was a lot better than the name. About five years after introducing Brad’s Drink, Bradham decided that his drink helped with dyspepsia, also known as indigestion. Take part of dyspepsia, add Cola, and you’ve got Pepsi-Cola.
You’ve probably never laced up a pair of athletic shoes from Blue Ribbon Sports. In 1971 the company was on the brink of changing the name to Dimension Six. Thankfully that didn’t happen. An employee convinced Phil Knight to go with the name of the Greek goddess of victory. Nike.
It is within the realm of possibilities that someone who didn’t know the answer to a question might say, “I’ll just back rub it!” Larry Page and Sergey Brin were responsible for the name of their search engine. They would, as you probably know, change it to Google. You might not know that the name was derived from a spelling mistake. More than 100 years ago a mathematician asked his nephew to come up with a name for the number 1, followed by 100 zeros. The child came up with Googol.
If you lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1965, you might have met someone for lunch at Pete’s Super Submarines. It was renamed Subway in 1972 and franchised in 1974.
This franchise started out at the pictured storefront, in 1956, as Mike’s Subs. It was in the seafront town of Point Pleasant. In 1987, they changed the name to Jersey Mike’s.
Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC. Apple Computers dropped the word “computers.” The founder of Cadabra changed the name when a lawyer thought it was “cadaver.” You know it today as Amazon. Snickers was once called Marathon.
You shouldn’t change your brand name on a whim. Think about it. Research. And if you are ready to make a move, call us. We were once Adworks. Now we’re HyattWard Advertising.