Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
REBRAND MOCKED AS ‘TRYING TOO HARD’
INVESTMENT giant Standard Life Aberdeen has been mocked after announcing plans to change its name to Abrdn.
Bosses insisted the makeover was to make it a more “modern, agile, digitally enabled brand”.
But the move was questioned by experts and derided on social media.
Stephen Cheliotis, chief executive of the Centre for Brand Analysis, said: “It comes across as try hard – desperately trying to sound modern and cool.”
Laith Khalaf, financial analyst at AJ Bell said it would leave investors “dazed and confused”.
Standard Life Aberdeen’s announcement even included how to say the new Abrdn name – “pronounced ‘Aberdeen’”.
The move follows the sale of its Standard Life brand to life insurer Phoenix earlier this year. Edinburghheadquartered
former mutual Standard Life merged with Aberdeen-based Aberdeen Asset Management in 2017 in a £3.8billion deal.
In March, the firm slashed its dividend by a third after customers carried on pulling money out of its funds.
Stephen Bird took over as chief executive from Keith Skeoch last September.
He called the new name “bold and distinctive”.
The company refused to say how much the rebranding – led by industry firm Wolff Olins – cost.
Bird said it would save money by bringing five existing brands together.
However, it went down badly with some people online yesterday, with one saying, “This can only be a joke”.
Others compared the name change to Royal Mail’s disastrous corporate rebranding as Consignia in 2011. local stores are easier to access during the working week.
Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard, said: “The positive news for bricks and mortar retail continues.”