Branding & Nicknames

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Corporate reputations are important to establish and maintain. And it can be a real challenge in the age of social media, when people can support or undermine your brand very easily.

Case in point: the Twitter feeds BPCares and BPGlobalPR, which have a combined 155,000 followers. Neither is connected to BP, as most of those following realize.

Usually, when a company changes its name — like AIG (now Chartis) or Philip Morris (Altria Group) — it’s to get past an embarrassing incident.

But the New York Times reported that Chevrolet is asking dealers and others who work or partner with the brand to stop calling it “Chevy.” The reason: lack of consistency hurts branding, according to Chevrolet executives.

Like that’s the real problem with the auto business.

The memo even cites Coke — um, Coca-Cola — as an example of consistency (forgetting that Coke is a nickname).

I think they’re mistaken. Check out the Times article: “Saving Chevrolet Means Sending ‘Chevy’ to Dump,” and let me know if you agree or disagree.

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