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When companies change names, do they shed the old baggage?

Shedding the baggage
[Yeah, something like that]

Wind Mobile announced this week it’d be rebranding as Freedom Mobile and launching an LTE service. For Freedom, which was bought by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, the rebrand sheds its roots as a subsidiary to European telecommunications investment company Wind.

“There was some baggage over the years associated with the Wind name,” the wireless company’s chief executive officer Alek Krstajic said at a news conference. “We now have shed a lot of that baggage. We have a new network, we have new, committed owners in the form of Shaw Communications (for) the long run and we felt there was a need to have a fresh start and build our own brand.”

The LTE service, which will be rolled out in Toronto and Vancouver by the end of November and elsewhere by next fall, boosts the price of plans from the lowest offering of $25 to $40 albeit with a stronger downloading capability than its big three competitors.

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But Aldo Cundari, founder of the Cundari agency and author of Customer-Centric Marketing: Build Relationships, Create Advocates, and Influence Your Customers, points out that the biggest pitfall in a name swap is when the product stays the same.

“They’re actually providing an inferior service in that the spectrum is better but because they’re limited to where they’re selling their product, their rate – which was an all-in rate at one time – now can vary,” he says. “In effect, will they still be considered a discount supplier at that point?”

But overall, a name change can’t compensate for a product that isn’t resonating with consumers.

Cundari points to Research in Motion’s attempt to rebrand as BlackBerry in 2013, a time when brand value was already on the decline.

“But it didn’t change its strategy… it’s product stayed behind the times and it fizzled,” he says.

In Wind’s case, Cundari suspects the brand name change has as much to do with shedding that “baggage” as it has to do with ditching a name associated with a company that has no bearing over the current entity.

“When (Shaw) bought the company, I suspect the brand didn’t come with it so that was a forced name change,” he says adding that mergers and acquisitions often result in name changes.

Of course, there are plenty of examples of companies that changed their name and have become branding juggernauts like Brad’s Drink, which became Pepsi Cola; BackRub which became Google; and Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation which became Sony.

“A lot of these came and sparked out of the brand just not resonating with an audience even though the product is the same,” he says.

Others become dated, like Radio Shack, which changed hands and rebranded as the more tech neutrally named moniker The Source.

But some brand names hold value, even years after discontinued or abandoned. Cundari points to a trend in the late-1990s where brands still crisp in the consumer mind like Singer and Electrohome were bought and licensed for use on a wide range of products.

“All you have to do is fill that vessel with the new positioning,” he says.

Unfortunately, Wind lacks that lengthy legacy in consumer awareness. In essence, it’s a discount carrier fighting the uphill struggle against Canada’s big three, trying to carve out its market share.

Through that lens, some might say that Freedom Mobile is a fitting moniker. They just need to prove they’re worthy of the name, says Cundari.

“It will always be based on the quality of the service or product that you’re providing,” he says. “If you have that going for you, the brand builds itself.”