Which are the name changes that did nothing to help the companies? Changing a company’s name is a serious thing, even though to regular people seems harmless, it can lead to a variety of problems. Some companies are changing their names because the name itself is inadequate or very long or hard to pronounce. In these cases, the companies inform their customers on time and change their name without any fuss. There are some cases where the big companies changed their name without any serious consequences and they have the different name than they had at the beginning of their existence. For example, Alphabet Inc started as Backrub, PepsiCo Inc started as Brad’s Drinks etc. They are today’s very successful companies that weren’t influenced by the name change.
On the other hand, the reason for changing names can be not so innocent. Some companies are changing names in order to avoid bad publicity influencing their business and profit. Bad publicity often comes from the affairs and legal suits. Imagine if there are verdicts in trials where your company has been accused of mobbing or not paying taxes or exploitation of workers. Of course, the least thing you can do is change the name and hope that the new customers won’t do the Google research to find out your previous name. But in the era of the internet, it is very hard to hide this kind of information.
There are some companies which have changed their names but it didn’t help them at all. If you are interested in this subject, we suggest that you read Insider Monkey’s article 5 Name Changes That Did Nothing To Help These Companies. At the 5th place on the list is Netflix, Inc. Their previous name was Qwikster which was associated with the large increase in prices. To find out the rest of this interesting list, just click on the link above.
