Having been in most of the day, I had to head out briefly and returned to find a card through the door to say they had tried to deliver a parcel, but no one was in.

‘That’s a pity’ (or something similar) I muttered to myself. The courier was EVRI, one I hadn’t heard of before. I wondered what the parcel was and who had sent or ordered it. The card said delivery would be attempted up to twice more on the next weekdays and then the parcel would be returned if I didn’t allocate a safe place to leave it or a particular neighbour I knew would be in.

Having found my glasses to look at the small print for a number or website, I looked more closely at the card, which said EVRI (the new Hermes). Okay, Hermes, I know that one and they regularly deliver to us.

Sure enough, when the parcel did arrive, it was Dave, the friendly Hermes driver in a different uniform and with a new set of ‘sorry we missed you’ cards.

What was wrong with Hermes? From our point of view, absolutely nothing. So why the change? I have no idea and, in all honesty, I don’t care. It used to be Hermes, now it’s Hermes in disguise . . . next week if it’s something else entirely, as long as we get what we have ordered, we’ll be happy.

It was this reaction that surprised me.

I have always thought that familiar, household brands with long histories counted for something. They were reliable, you as a customer mattered to them, and they offered value for money.

As I have said in previous blogs, customer loyalty doesn’t seem to mean much these days https://www.mikecrutchleymedia.co.uk/are-we-rewarded-for-loyalty-anymore so why should it matter that we keep going back to the same familiar names? What’s wrong with shopping around?

I was a child of the ‘80s, when British Gas supplied gas, British Telecom provided phones and British Rail . . . you get the picture.

Privatisation and competition, among other factors, led to an increase in the number of companies in every sector, all casting their nets in the same customer pool.

So how do you decide which to choose? It is the first name found on Google or a price-comparison site? Do you go with the lowest price or a name you trust?

I am not that stuck in the past that I would only go with the names I have grown up with, but I am more cautious about lesser-known brands and try to find out more about them before committing to them or ruling them out.

Equally, there are brands I have had bad experiences with and would never use again, no matter what they are called today.

Rebranding is a major step for a company and not one to be taken lightly. If I had a business with 100 successful years behind me, the last thing I would think to do is change the name. But today I suppose it depends what you are trying to achieve and, perhaps more importantly, what you are trying to get away from.

Whatever the history of your company – let’s use the fictional family-run solicitors Kerching! – and however reputable and successful, you might want to rebrand to something more Tik Tok, Instagram or hashtag friendly.

Equally, if Kerching’s partners have been struck off for mishandling clients’ money, those left to pick up the pieces might understandably want to distance themselves from the past and come up with something like justice4U.

Ultimately, I think times have changed and because of takeovers and buyouts, most people don’t have a clue who owns what any more.

And, if it does what you need it to, does it really matter?

Facebook is still Facebook to me, even though it is now called Meta. Having achieved one of the biggest technological successes of the century, why did Mark Zuckerberg want to change its identity? He said Facebook is only part of the company which now includes Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus – but it is a very big part.

Perhaps the reason for change was also to steer the social media leviathan away from privacy breaches and other scandals of the past.

Whatever the reason, a silly name change won’t put me off.

And, after the phenomenal success of the past few years, you can’t see Amazon changing its name any time soon, even if Jeff Bezos decided to line it up with his Blue Origin space programme. 

But if he does, I’ll just click on the Blue Origin app instead of Amazon. The biggest inconvenience would be to the delivery drivers around here who, after all these years, have only just got Amazon-branded vans.

What name changes have you noticed recently and what do you think of them?

#branding #marketing