C’mon Abrdn, abndn the silly name, urged this column and many others when Standard Life Aberdeen decided to shorten its name to that of the granite city, just without three-quarters of the vowels. Now – four years and one chief executive later – the nonsense has been stopped. Aberdeen it is, albeit the group still can’t manage an upper case “A”.
What an absolute joke. Thankfully, a new broom swept clean.
“One of the easiest decisions I have ever had to make,” said its new boss, Jason Windsor, undoing the handiwork of his predecessor, Stphn Brd. One doesn’t doubt it.
Quite!
Abrdn executives seem to have spent half their time explaining the pronunciation, or inviting fresh ridicule by grumbling about the wicked media’s “childish jokes”.
And still it took a new guy in the Big Seat to junk the idiocy.
Other companies take note: if you have to ask how to pronounce a new name, you’ve got the wrong one. The only exception is Relx, the brilliantly performing (and two syllable) analytics business that is now the UK’s fifth largest listed company.
Never heard of it!
I am puzzled why companies with long established names rename themselves, rename. For instance, Norwich Union for instance, were well respected, yet chose to ditch two centuries of reputation and rename themselves the meaningless Aviva. What did they hope to gain?
ReplyDeleteEven renaming if you have a bad reputation fools no-one. Hermes became Evri - was anyone fooled into thinking the company suddenly became reliable (or even will eventually become reliable)?
My view, they lose a certain amount of custom by rebranding. How do they reckon to make it up?
It seems that thought hasn't usually made it into their heads. Perhaps they are just hyponotised by cunning PR mavens?
DeleteMy mother has a (modest) sum invested with the company. When they started sending documents emblazoned with ‘abrdn’, she thought she was being scammed.
ReplyDeleteYour title makes a good point; given the potential cost of the change and then reversing it, I suppose one could argue that she was.
Indeed!
DeleteJT’s comment reminds about frequent name changes reminds me of the file in which my mother stores insurance paperwork etc; on the front, to help her keep track, she has inscribed (somewhat irreverently)…
ReplyDelete‘General Accident begat Commercial Union
And Commercial Union begat CGNU
And CGNU lived two years and begat Aviva….
And Sun Life begat AXA
And AXA also begat Aviva…
And Standard Life begat Aberdeen….’
Ah, the benefits of an old-fashioned British education!
😆🤣😂
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