Changing Facebook’s name to meta reflects common corporate strategy

Facebook, which has already built on its original namesake product with platforms including Instagram and WhatsApp, sees the concept as a key component of its future. It plans to invest $50 million in building the virtual space in the coming years.

The tech giant has been the subject of recent scrutiny, including its stalking of younger users and how it reacts to misuse of products. The focus is on The Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files series, which is based on documents collected by former Facebook product manager Frances Hogen, who testified in Congress earlier this month.

Patty Williams, a professor in the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s Department of Marketing, said, “You see brands change their names when there’s a merger, when there’s a significant new strategic direction, or when the current name doesn’t work. Huh.” .

“Facebook has a brand name that isn’t working,” Dr. Williams said. “At the product level and at the umbrella-brand, parent-brand level, there are a lot of negative sentiments about it at the moment. And they clearly want to launch this new strategic direction, to say that they are more than just Facebook. There are more.”

A name change can be a signal to marketers, competitors, and advertisers of a broad change in a company’s focus and portfolio, even if its name product bears the same title.

In that regard, Facebook’s rebranding may be in line with Google’s move to create parent company Alphabet Inc. in 2015, said Jay Jurisich, chief executive and co-creative director of naming agency Xinzin. Google became a subsidiary of New Parents, including its “Moonshot” initiative.

“They felt that strategically, it made business sense to separate all the businesses they had acquired … from their core brand that everyone knew, which was Google,” Mr. Jurisich said. said.

Strategy is not uncommon in the business world. Dunkin’ removed Donuts from its name in 2018 to signal a greater focus on the coffee and other sectors. Apple Inc. removed Computer from its name in 2007 to reflect its move into home appliances and phones.

Phil Davis, president of naming agency Tungsten Branding, said, “This transition from an initial product or service offering to a broader identity is quite typical for large companies because they are massive and sometimes require a name change.” “They are saying: We are no longer ‘that.’ We are more ‘this.'”

But a new name alone can’t do it. Mr. Davis cited Radio Shack’s attempt to rebrand as The Shack in 2009 as the electronics retailer tried to avert a protracted decline that would eventually end in bankruptcy six years later.

“Radio Shack needs to become a different kind of business, not just change their name,” he said. “whether you are [a name change] To just change the conversation, it takes very little work. If you say we are changing direction, there must be a real change in direction.”

Philip Morris’s 2003 rebranding as Altria was panned by critics and branding consultants alike. At the time, the company said the name change would better reflect the diversity of its portfolio, beyond the company’s association with tobacco and its cigarette brand, Marlboro. To spread the word, it announced an eight-week advertising campaign that spanned the web, TV, print and even direct mail. Critics said the move was designed to reduce the company’s association with tobacco.

Other names indicating a change in strategy have also not gone smoothly.

Tribune Publishing Company reverted to its original, 150-year-old name in 2018, two years after switching to the widely disgraced Tronk. Short for Tribune Online Content, Tronk became a punchline in the media industry and beyond. Comedian John Oliver said the name sounded like “a pile of print newspapers being thrown in the dustbin.”

When Kraft Foods Inc. decided to split in two in 2012, it chose Mondelez International Inc. as the name of its global snack-food business, which includes brands such as Oreo, Cadbury’s and Wheat Thins. “Monde” comes from the Latin word for “world,” and “deliez” is a “fictional expression” of “delicious,” Kraft officials said. But many branding experts were left puzzled. Mr Zurich of Xinzin called the name “weak, memorable and indescribable” in a blog post at the time.

Still, some branding tricks can pay off. Marketing experts say that if Facebook’s new brand is able to cement the company’s position in the metaverse space, it could help its success.

“if [Facebook] Somehow synonymous with the metaverse, it’s a potentially big start,” Mr Davis said.