GlaxoSmithKline PLC (LSE:GSK) has announced that its soon to be demerged consumer healthcare division will be renamed Haleon.
As rebrands go, it does not look like it will attract the sort of immediate disparagement that Aberdeen Standard Life got for its textspeak transformation into Abrdn.
There is even a vaguely plausible reason behind the choice of name that is better than, say, Royal Mail’s decision to abandon an identity that had been a household name for centuries for the meaningless Consignia. Not surprisingly, the Consignia rebrand idea was swiftly returned to sender.
So, what does Haleon mean?
First, there is the “hale” bit, as in “hale and hearty”, which means to be in good health; a good thing for a company in the healthcare line.
The second bit, “Leon”, is a bit more tenuous, as GSK claims it is associated with the word “strength”. For many of us, the more obvious association is with Trotsky, who famously got an ice-pick in his head “that made his ears burn” (according to The Stranglers).
The new brand identity was developed with input from employees, healthcare practitioners and consumers and will be deployed in more than 100 markets around the world where the business operates, so let’s hope it goes down well, unlike some of these infamous rebrands:
Weight Watchers – the name “does what it says on the tin” (even if it implies you should not open the tin and eat the contents). The rebrand to WW, which stood for Wellness and Wellbeing, was ultimately reversed.
Cardiff City Football Club – OK, this is not exactly a rebrand but when the club nickname has been the Bluebirds for decades, what was the new owner thinking when he insisted the team’s colours should be changed to red.
It was bad enough for Tottenham Hotspur fans when their sponsor, AIA, insisted its logo should remain in red (the colour of North London rivals Arsenal), thus upsetting those fans who believe red should never be seen on the shirt of Spurs players (unless it is blood), but Cardiff changing the colour of the whole kit was just ridiculous.
Football fans are a superstitious bunch and the owner’s decision to change to “lucky red” might have been acceptable except in football, traditions trump superstition.
Facebook – the jury is still out on the company’s name change to Meta. Maybe it was done to try to escape the attention of the taxman or EU regulators. Either way, Google changing its name to Alphabet does not seem to have slowed the company down much so this rebrand looks like sticking, and journalists will carry on referring to it as “Facebook owner Meta” just so readers know who is being written about.
Consignia – do we need to mention this again? Apparently, it was a play on the word “consign” with a bit of cod Latinette (a la leatherette) thrown in.
The rebranding reportedly cost the company £1.5mln and then it spent £1mln changing it back again; money that could have gone towards reducing the company’s pension deficit.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers – hardly anyone likes auditors, even ones masquerading as business consultants so maybe the decision of PriceWaterhouseCoopers to rebrand itself as Monday – the most hated day of the working week – was just an acknowledgement of the fact; however, if one is masquerading as a business consultant, it is not a good look to shoot oneself in the foot with a rebranding and the company quickly changed tack to change its name to PwC, which presumably is what everyone had been calling them (that and a few other things) for years.
Norwich Union – the rebranding to Aviva seems to have stuck. Just don’t mention it in Norfolk.