Summary
Elon Musk’s decision to rename Twitter ‘X’ has been met with confusion, and in some cases even anger, but where does it rank amongst the best and worst rebrands?
Evan Davis and guests discuss the complexity of changing a company or product name, logo and message, the reasons for doing it, and how to make it a success.
These overhauls can be risky, though, and failure expensive – the panel discusses one the UK’s textbook rebranding disasters.
Evan is joined by:
Lee Rolston, chief growth officer at Jones Knowles Ritchie; Caroline Wiertz, professor of marketing at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) – City, University of London; Amanda Mackenzie, former chief marketing and communications officer at Aviva; Keith Wells, founder and director of Brandwell.
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Producer: Simon Tulett Editor: China Collins Sound: Graham Puddifoot and Rod Farquhar Production co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
(Picture: The new ‘X’ logo displayed on a smartphone with the old Twitter logo in the background. Credit: Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images.)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.1 | Hello, welcome to the programme. |
| 0:06.8 | Right now, a full-scale, fascinating and perilous real-life business experiment is underway. |
| 0:12.9 | Elon Musk took charge at Twitter almost a year ago. |
| 0:16.3 | What a lot of things have changed there since. |
| 0:17.8 | But among them, and the one that has interested us at the |
| 0:21.3 | bottom line, is the rebrand. It means Twitter is now most often referred to as X, formerly known as |
| 0:28.2 | Twitter, or it is simply called Twitter and maybe occasionally X. Many think it was the |
| 0:34.9 | maddest, baddest rebrand ever, but it got us thinking about the risks and rewards of rebranding, |
| 0:41.3 | whether that is changing the entire name or merely fiddling with the look and the logo. |
| 0:47.3 | There is a current intriguing example of a redesign. |
| 0:51.3 | Nationwide Building Society has a new look. |
| 0:53.3 | Many say it is the existing look |
| 0:56.1 | of NatWest Bank. Well, we wouldn't change the name of the bottom line, but let us ask how you can |
| 1:02.1 | successfully rebrand, why you might do that, and how you can make a rebrand fail. And this week, |
| 1:08.9 | I have four guests to join us with their own tales of rebrands. |
| 1:13.5 | So let us meet them now. And first up is Amanda McKenzie, joining us on the line from Dorset, |
| 1:19.4 | former chief marketing and communications officer at insurance company Aviva. Amanda, we will hear |
| 1:25.9 | your story in more detail a little later in the programme. |
| 1:29.6 | But broadly speaking, is it considered a successful rebrand, Aviva? |
| 1:35.4 | Yes. Not wishing to sound at all boastful. But yes, I'm relieved to say, |
| 1:40.6 | and actually the numbers within a year of having done it and then particularly after |
... |
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