Crayola Brand Name Improves Image

Binney & Smith, makers of Crayola crayons, has decided to change its company’s name to Crayola. It had been called Binney & Smith for 104 years, but on January 1, 2007, they made the name change. This will provide increased name recognition with clients, colleagues, and customers, and its brand image will benefit. Corporations are wise to shorten their names, since the growth of text and instant messaging has caused people to shorten nearly every word they type.

Recently, many other well known brands have been shortening their names. In this age of efficiency, even extra syllables can take up too much time. Citigroup will soon go by ‘Citi.’ Federal Express had changed to the much zippier ‘FedEx,’ which perhaps denotes the speed of its service better than its previous name. This name change came about through the company’s adoption of the consumer’s nickname for them.

Like Crayola, VNU Media is going to take advantage of its well-known TV rating system by changing its name to The Neilson Group. This will make them much more recognizable. When a company’s product has a more appealing name than the company, it seems to be in the company’s best interests to use the name the public likes. However, this only works if the name is suitable for association with the other brands under the company’s umbrella.

There is an important implication for online branding due to corporate name changing. The effects will be seen through search engines because now user will be able to find companies and products under the same name. This will certainly be seen as an added benefit as it is fast and efficient something users of the Internet relish in.

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