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NAMING 2: RENAMING YOUR BRAND
Human beings love changing things, particularly when we first encounter them. When we move into a new house we look around and say to ourselves, “We could move this. We could paint that. We could knock this wall down.” Once we’ve been in place for a while, we stop noticing things that need changing because we’ve accustomed ourselves to them. The same thing happens with brands. When we start a new project, or we’re brought in to revitalise an old one, we really want to make things better, to throw out all the old stuff and start again. The question to ask is, “Will the benefits outweigh the costs?” Those costs include losing the brand loyalty that you have built over the years.
The idea In the 1990s, the UK higher education system went through a series of change in which many higher education colleges became polytechnics, and polytechnics were upgraded to university status. Ealing College was a polytechnic for such a short space of time, the name change only merited a canvas banner hung at the front of the building before it changed again to Thames Valley University, TVU for short. Later, TVU realised that they were the only university with a London postcode that did not mention London in their name. Many students at TVU are from from overseas,so they only realised they’d
20 • 100 GREAT BRANDING IDEAS
100 Great Branding Ideas 14dec.indd 20
12/14/11 11:14 AM
