• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Failed organisational name changes

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

underbank

Established Member
Joined
26 Jan 2013
Messages
1,486
Location
North West England
I don’t believe the new blue and dark grey branding with “Welcome to placename’s Co-op” is used by any of the independents. I may be wrong

The other confusion now is that since the Co-op bought the supply side of NISA, you have Co-op branded products being sold in independent NISA franchise stores

Similar happens with "One Stop" privately owned convenience stores as "One Stop" wholesalers/supply chain is owned by Tesco.
 

High Dyke

Established Member
Joined
1 Jan 2013
Messages
4,267
Location
Yellabelly Country
I don’t believe the new blue and dark grey branding with “Welcome to placename’s Co-op” is used by any of the independents. I may be wrong

The other confusion now is that since the Co-op bought the supply side of NISA, you have Co-op branded products being sold in independent NISA franchise stores
Indeed, we've got a small independent retailer just round the corner from me that advertises Co-op products.
 

lyndhurst25

Established Member
Joined
26 Nov 2010
Messages
1,406
I read somewhere that after the takeover by Co-op, the NISA store owners were not happy with the wholesale prices they had for Co-op branded goods: it was often cheaper for them to buy the items from their local Co-op supermarket than buy them directly, especially when you took the Dividend Points into account!

As for failed rebrands, what about the Rover Metro? "They've rebadged it, you fool".

 

AM9

Veteran Member
Joined
13 May 2014
Messages
14,191
Location
St Albans
In my working years, Hewlett Packard was always a leading supplier of high quality instrumentation, indeed they are famed for the car garage that they started in being landmarked as the 'birthplace of Silicon Valley'. By the '90s, they were not only the world's largest electronic instrumentation company, but they also became a leading computer business as well as specialist component manufacturer. The business was split in 1999 with the computer business taking the HP name and the instrumentation operation taking a name (presumably created at great expense by an ad agency), of Agilent Technologies. Shortly after the new name was announced, it was pointed out - by a UK customer I believe, that Agilent was an anagram for 'genital'. I remember that the UK high profile salesmen were slightly embarassed but saw the funny side of the mistake. The reaction from visiting US suits was either just to blank it or feign ignorance of the faux pas.
Agilent is still of course the leading test and measurement operation which is a testament to the company's quality of offering.
 

Ianigsy

Member
Joined
12 May 2015
Messages
1,104
I'd agree that Consignia has top prize for failure in the bag. A brand that really failed to deliver.

I'd argue that merging the various co-ops to form 'the co-operative' rather than the more familiar Co-op wasn't a success, as demonstrated by its eventual return to the Co-op name

The Co-operative brand looked slightly odd on food items- I remember picking up a box of "Co-operative Jam Tarts" and wondering what uncooperative jam tarts would look like.

From what I remember, the Consignia branding was a reaction to market liberalisation and the need to split the business into separate entities for accounting purposes while keeping the various trading names. It was around this time that the Post Office name was trademarked and the independent postal administrations in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man had to change their business names to avoid using "Post Office".
 

AM9

Veteran Member
Joined
13 May 2014
Messages
14,191
Location
St Albans
"Agilent calculators - they're the dog's b*****s"? :D
And so were their HP predecessors except that they had reverse polish notation, which wasn't the way that most users had been brought up on. All of the instrumentation was excellent manufactured quality, met its specs, was fully calibrateable and if serviced properly, was servicable for decades.
 
Last edited:

D365

Veteran Member
Joined
29 Jun 2012
Messages
11,396
Agilent is still of course the leading test and measurement operation which is a testament to the company's quality of offering.

If I understand correctly, the electronics division of Agilent has been spun off under the name "Keysight"!
 

baz962

Established Member
Joined
8 Jun 2017
Messages
3,279
I'd agree that Consignia has top prize for failure in the bag. A brand that really failed to deliver.

It's rare to find such a good example of commercial entity branding failure because few companies would go to the expense of rebranding their commercial entity - which often isn't a consumer brand in itself - without very good reason, serious research and market testing, so most either succeed (e.g. the charity now known as Scope) or go unnoticed (e.g. Yell > hibu).

I'd argue that merging the various co-ops to form 'the co-operative' rather than the more familiar Co-op wasn't a success, as demonstrated by its eventual return to the Co-op name and retro logo.

Consumer brand change flops are easier to find. Usually they are quickly corrected and forgotten, like Choco Krispies, where British consumers made it clear that they would rather have a bowl of Coco Pops, thank you very much.

Of course, there is occasionally a name that becomes completely toxic: Dasani doesn't fit the 'name change' category, but in the UK it is certainly a victim one of the most extraordinary sets of blunders ever made by any company as large as Coca Cola, and is unlikely ever to reappear here.
I still to this day , want to say marathon and not snickers.
 

route101

Established Member
Joined
16 May 2010
Messages
10,594
I don’t believe the new blue and dark grey branding with “Welcome to placename’s Co-op” is used by any of the independents. I may be wrong

The other confusion now is that since the Co-op bought the supply side of NISA, you have Co-op branded products being sold in independent NISA franchise stores

In Scotland there is regular Co op but their is Scotmid COOP as well with a different logo.
 

AM9

Veteran Member
Joined
13 May 2014
Messages
14,191
Location
St Albans
If I understand correctly, the electronics division of Agilent has been spun off under the name "Keysight"!
Thanks for that. I didn't know, - I've been away from all that for over 10 years.

looks like they were a bit more careful with the name this time. :)
 

D365

Veteran Member
Joined
29 Jun 2012
Messages
11,396
Thanks for that. I didn't know, - I've been away from all that for over 10 years.

looks like they were a bit more careful with the name this time. :)

Indeed. I started studying electronics five years ago, which is just after when the spin-off took place.
 

57Tonic

Member
Joined
20 Aug 2016
Messages
84
In the late 50s Will's tobacco launched a new cigarette called "Strand" tag line Your Never Alone With A Strand, but the smoking public thought it gave the impression of a lonely person's cigarette and it bombed, it was re branded to Embassy and became one of the best selling cigarettes on the market and sponsored many sports worldwide, that just goes to show people buy things for the name.
 

cactustwirly

Established Member
Joined
10 Apr 2013
Messages
7,447
Location
UK
Notably, the blue branding isn't used by all of the societies, some have their own (e.g. Scotmid, Allendale) and others kept the green and "the co-operative" e.g. South Midlands.

The whole of the Midcounties Co-Operative retains the old green logo and branding. They also appear to be struggling, after offloading 8 stores in Leicester last summer.
 

kevconnor

Member
Joined
22 Apr 2013
Messages
613
Location
People's Republic of Mancunia
In the late 50s Will's tobacco launched a new cigarette called "Strand" tag line Your Never Alone With A Strand, but the smoking public thought it gave the impression of a lonely person's cigarette and it bombed, it was re branded to Embassy and became one of the best selling cigarettes on the market and sponsored many sports worldwide, that just goes to show people buy things for the name.

Did it also lose the custom of grammar pedants for using your rather than you're?


In football there was also the famous rebrand of Hyde United to Hyde FC and change kit from Red to White to meet the requirements of their new team Sponsor Manchester City. Only to then be changed back a number of years later to Hyde United (with red kits once again) after Manchester City stopped sponsoring them.


Hyde FC have been given the go-ahead to change the club’s name back to Hyde United.

Hyde fans are looking to purchase the Tameside outfit this summer and as part of the process the club applied to revert to the name they originally adopted in 1919 and had for 91 years. And at an FA Council meeting held on Tuesday, the club was granted permission to go back to Hyde United.

The club originally changed to Hyde FC in 2010 during a partnership with City, which saw the Blues’ reserve, youth and some Academy teams playing at Ewen Fields.

As well as dropping United from their name, Hyde’s ground was turned from red to blue. The same change was made to the colours of the club badge.

But the badge was changed back on Tuesday, along with the club’s Twitter handle, with a new website to follow.
 

xotGD

Established Member
Joined
4 Feb 2017
Messages
6,063
World Wildlife Fund became World-Wide Fund for Nature.

Then back again.
 

Hadders

Veteran Member
Associate Staff
Senior Fares Advisor
Joined
27 Apr 2011
Messages
12,978
The whole of the Midcounties Co-Operative retains the old green logo and branding. They also appear to be struggling, after offloading 8 stores in Leicester last summer.

AFAIK Midcounties Co-operative don't operate in Leicester. Central England Co-operative trade in that area.
 

Jamesrob637

Established Member
Joined
12 Aug 2016
Messages
5,205
The Co-operative brand looked slightly odd on food items- I remember picking up a box of "Co-operative Jam Tarts" and wondering what uncooperative jam tarts would look like.

My local used to have a few of those (use your imagination :D) however this may be drifting a little OT!
 

SteveP29

Member
Joined
23 Apr 2011
Messages
1,005
Location
Chester le Street/ Edinburgh
Notably, the blue branding isn't used by all of the societies, some have their own (e.g. Scotmid, Allendale)

And Scotmid don't accept the Co-Op dividend/ loyalty card.

I still to this day , want to say marathon and not snickers.

On a similar note, they're still Opal Fruits to me and I don't like that they combined the lemon and lime flavours into err lemon and lime to introduce blackcurrant, they could have expanded to 5 flavours
 

Senex

Established Member
Joined
1 Apr 2014
Messages
2,752
Location
York
I still to this day , want to say marathon and not snickers.
I never understood the point of that change, and there's just something about the very word "snickers" that really grates on me. Like you I still want to say "marathon" even after all these years. I don't know what it is I so dislike about "snickers" — it isn't just that it's a silly name (though it is!) (For a really silly name, what about the car that calls itself a "duster"?)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top