Considerations When Renaming Your Business

Name changes are always such a hard thing to manage. There are external considerations to weigh—customers/clients’ perceptions, the community’s perception, and what your competition is doing. And there are internal considerations to weigh—what message will the business’s name send internally, and how will it affect the staff?

Before you choose to rename a business, you must start by checking in with your motivations for why you want to rename the business.

• Was there a significant change that recently took place? Merger, Spinoff, Layoff, or Bankruptcy?
• Do you have BAD press and/or a BAD reputation?
• Is a competitor simply too close to your name?
• Do you have multiple divisions that you want to try to unify?

Be honest and check in on the WHY.

Next, consider what kind of monetary and time resources you must lend to the project in the short, mid, and long-term. Do you have sufficient time, staffing, and budget to share your new business name? Or are you limited in terms of time and money? Name changes aren’t cheap — particularly not big changes. You must commit to a marketing budget to share with your community and stakeholders and explain why you made the change. What is your new VISION, and how will your new name help you accomplish that? This is more than just changing your logo — there is a story that needs to be told, and it’s incumbent upon you to tell it thoroughly and well — which usually means television and radio campaigns, backed up with in-person appearances at all the local community and civic organizations.

Consider what the name change would mean to your internal staff. These folks are the backbone of your business, and a wrong step here can be more than troublesome; it can be devastating. In this realm, pay particular attention to a name change’s short, mid, and long-term implications. If you’re making a change, is it something that can be gotten behind, can it create more/new energy? If you’re doing a name change to deal with BAD press or reputation, will your staff help eliminate that concern in the future, or will it be a fight?

Finally, be honest about the motivation you bring to the table. If you want a name change from an egoic standpoint – trying to put your stamp on the business, and it is not SIGNIFICANTLY served by making the change, be brave enough NOT to change the name. There are times, places, and reasons it makes sense to change a business name — but it’s rare.

The bottom line is that there is no easy answer here; it is just a difficult choice. My best recommendation is to make the best decision you can to serve the short, mid, and long-term needs of the business. Don’t decide exclusively for the long-term at the brief’s or mid-term’s expense. Without them, you won’t have a business in the long term. Don’t decide solely based on the short term because you need this business to function long term. You have to make the very best decision possible for the company.

If you’re looking for support, I can help you mitigate whatever needs to be mitigated based on that decision so that your business can thrive in the short, medium, and long term