New Popular Naming Strategy: Drop Part of Your Corporate Name

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The latest popular corporate naming strategy is pretty basic. Recently, Walmart Stores, Dunkin’ Donuts and Business Insider have all dropped part of the name to become Walmart, Dunkin’ and Insider, respectively.

For Walmart, the move is to position the company as an e-commerce player.

For Dunkin’s, it’s to move beyond just donuts.

And For Insider, it’s because they now cover more than just business.

That strategy may be a problem for companies with only one name. 

Of course, Fox seems like it will drop its name, if the acquisition with Disney goes through.

Usually, we recommend against changing a company’s name, especially if there’s a lot of brand equity in the current name. And we have some skepticism that a name change makes much of a difference. (A new logo, on the other hand, can make a difference.) But with Walmart, that’s what everyone calls it, anyway, so we doubt it will make much of a difference.

The same with Dunkin’s.

That may not be true of Business Insider, a good online news site. Insider sounds like a TV celebrity gossip show more than a reputable news source. But, as we mentioned in our trends, 2018 will be a tough year for online news sites. So we expect more changes. And we wish Insider the best of luck.


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