January 30th, 2022

Designing Brand Identity: Pages 26–31, 144–147

“Effective Shortening: Many organizations look at shortening their names in order to make it easier to talk about them” (P.147)

Alina Wheeler

Do you know what David and Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web is? Well, it is otherwise known as Yahoo! This drastic name change is a direct result of how brand identity designers and marketing professionals can completely change the name of a company. Below are some other notable name alternations that you may not be aware about.

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Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation (Sony)

United Telephone Company (Spring)

Justin.tv (Twitch)

Marufuku Company (Nintendo)

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Brand name changes are interesting. When one chooses a name, they believe that those words or combinations effectively reflect the brand’s mission and purpose. However, when these change, a shift in the title is often warranted. Name changes can bring upon tremendous backlash from fans, and can often fail.

An alternative approach to renaming is what some companies, designers, and marketing professionals call effective shortening. In this case, the brand does not undergo a heavy re-brand per se. Instead, organizations dissect their current name and shorten it in order for it to be easier to say in conversation.

Companies such as the YMCA implemented effective shortening in their marketing and public conversation. When one talks about the YMCA, they simply say “the Y”. This little, but appropriate name change shortens the long, drawn-out name, without completely changing the roots and characteristics of the company altogether. Other brands such as California Institute of Technology are now referred to as Caltech.

I believe that both completely changing the name of a company and shortening a proper name can prove to be beneficial in particular circumstances. However, to avoid general confusion or public disapproval, the name changing process must be thorough and appropriate for the situation that the brand finds itself in.