Standard Life Aberdeen becomes abrdn in asset manager’s ‘agile’ rebrand, prompting mockery

One of the country’s leading asset managers has changed its name to match its new “modern” and “dynamic” image by removing all of the vowels that used to make it up.

Standard Life Aberdeen announced on Sunday that it would be known as “abrdn” from here on out to allow it to be more “agile”, but failed to mention why changing its name would achieve this.

Bosses said that it would still be pronounced as “Aberdeen”, and that the letter “A” was taken from “Standard Life” rather than “Aberdeen”.

“Our new brand Abrdn builds on our heritage and is modern, dynamic and, most importantly, engaging for all of our client and customer channels,” said chief executive Stephen Bird.

It is an issue that has been at the forefront of Mr Bird’s mind since he took over the top job last year.

Shortly after taking charge he told the Mail on Sunday that “confused branding” was one of the company’s weaknesses. “We have six brand names and six websites. So we’re going to fix that,” he said at the time.

The change was met with mockery online, with one user asking “Is it April 1st again?”

Another labelled the rebrand “Irritable Vowel Syndrome”, and the question “What do you have against vowels?” was also posed.

Comparisons were made with TV quiz Only Connect’s missing vowels round, while Scottish singer Steve Byrne tweeted: “I give it six months. I’m from Arbrth after all.”

The rebranding will start to roll out over the summer and progress through 2021, the company said.

The business was formed in 2017 when Standard Life merged with Aberdeen Asset Management.

But profit has fallen and Mr Bird has said that the business has not proven to be greater than the sum of its parts.

“Standard Life Aberdeen needed to sort out its branding, but the new Abrdn name will likely leave investors feeling dazed and confused,” said AJ Bell financial analyst Laith Khalaf.

“Investors need simple fund names that are recognisable amongst the thousands of investments out there, and having a brand name you can actually say, even if it’s only in your head, is a big help.”

Who? Rebrands gone wrong

Abrdn’s rebrand brings to mind Mozilla, the firm behind Firefox, changing to “mozz://a” in 2018.

Philip Morris hoped that rebranding as Altria would distract from deaths caused by tobacco.

Meanwhile, Weight Watcher’s pivot to “WW” (“Wellness and Wellbeing”) cost it 600,000 members.

Laurie Havelock

source:inews.co.uk