Is It A Good Idea To Rename Something "Old"?

1943: Old Acquaintance - Sherman

Clients with Skandia policies or investments will be seeing a different name on their statements and documentation. Today, it was announced that the Skandia name will be gradually phased out in favour of its owner's name Old Mutual. Whilst this will bring and end to questions like "are those the people that make trucks?" I have to admit that I don't yet appreciate the purpose of this. Certainly those at Old Mutual have already begun the marketing initiative to reassure everyone and talking of "one business, one vision" but frankly Old Mutual is a much lesser name than Skandia and it seems a little odd to be promoting anything with the term "old" in it, particularly when the industry is one that is constantly changing. After all we don't even call a State pensioner an O.A.P anymore. Not that there is anything wrong with being old.

I know that there will be a "business justification" for this, and I'm certain that someone from Skandia will attempt to persuade me that there is. However, I can't help but think that multi-national branding has more to do with egos rather than anything else. Skandia are not alone in this, financial services is riddled with name changes and this leaves people confused and a little fed up that so much money is wasted on a new paint job. Of course this is not exclusive to financial services, the football stadiums around the country are gradually being renamed by corporate sponsors, though again, to what end. Does anyone really fly with Emirates because it is mentioned as the stadium? or Etihad? I'm not convinced that this is marketing money well spent, though I'm sure a those involved in the marketing process are all rather pleased.

Anyhow, over the next 2 years, we will all be changing references to Skandia to Old Mutual Wealth - OMW. So I did a quick google on OMW acronyms. On My Way, Oh My Word, Old Man Winter, Online Model World, One Minute Wonder, Oh My Wow, Oh My Waffle, Organizational Mastery Workshop and Observation Monitoring Well.