The high-profile rebranding of a historic financial institution to Abrdn was lampooned on Have I Got News for You, generated scathing reports in international newspapers and prompted widespread mirth on social media.
Three years on, what was dubbed among “the most calamitous corporate rebrands in history” continues to attract ridicule after a senior executive at the £495 billion investment group claimed it was facing “corporate bullying” by the media.
In comments that have rekindled derision, Peter Branner, the chief investment officer, said: “I understand that corporate bullying to some extent is part of the game with the press, even though it’s a little childish to keep hammering the missing vowels in our name.
“Would you do that with an individual? How would you look at a person who makes fun of your name day in, day out? It’s probably not ethical to do it. But apparently with companies it is different,” he said in an interview with Financial News.
The much-mocked overhaul of its brand in April 2021 from Standard Life Aberdeen to simply Abrdn, or more precisely abrdn, was labelled an act of “corporate insanity” by an online poll that year. It provoked gags that the company was “disemvowelled” and “phonetically challenged”.
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The change at the Edinburgh-based fund manager was defended at the time by Stephen Bird, its chief executive, who said the negative comments were “all fresh advertising” and that the change would create a “single identity”.
The company said the title, pronounced Aberdeen, was “modern, dynamic and engaging”.
However, others took a more sceptical view. It was called “ill thought-out” by Jonathan Gabay, a brand expert, who noted that it could be pronounced “a burden”.
The complaints of “corporate bullying” have now prompted predictable ripostes. The Financial Times joked that all this could have been avoided if the company had “just embraced its unofficial merged nickname and formally renamed itself Staberdeen”.
Financial News told bosses to “Gt ovr it”, quit grumbling about the press and sort out its faltering performance.
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A spokeswoman for Abrdn said on Monday: ‘‘As Peter made clear in his interview, we appreciate it is for the media to make their own assessments about the companies they wish to write about.”
The company had struggled with its brand identity since Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management merged in 2017. The name change was designed to simplify the business from five brands to one and make it easier to use in the digital world.
The consultancy Wolff Olins, which created branding for the 2012 London Olympic Games, was used for the new name and logo.
The problem with reverting to simply “Aberdeen” was that the city of the same name owned the most useful domain names, while its football club and other businesses, including undertakers, also have branding rights to the name.
The change has been compared to the short-lived rebranding of the Post Office to Consignia, PwC’s plans to call its consulting business Monday, and more recently Twitter’s conversion to X.
