What’s in a name?

Mark Ritson’s take on the Dixons Carphone merger was excellent. A very funny, very pointed look at every type of disappointing rebrand there’s ever been.

But what linked all the failed examples (both real and imaginary) is that they focused on names as the very centre of the brand. A name alone is not enough to give context for the consumer, staff and management. 

Carphone Warehouse sells no carphones (as the Secret Marketer also observed). But there’s enough meaning there for it to work.

A name is not a brand – Ritson knows this, of course – but the name is the least of the branding and business challenges facing Dixons Carphone in the coming months. It’s the process of working these out as a cohesive brand that everyone can get behind that will be the key to its continued success. 

Chris Lumsden, founding partner, Good Creative