Awhile back I saw a commercial during the Today show that said Brinks Security had changed their name to "Broadview Security". If you were to ask me to name companies in this industry, Brinks and ADT would be the top two that would come to mind immediately. I am always fascinated when companies that spend millions of dollars branding a name decide to do something like this.Upon further investigation, it appears that the name change was not necessarily a marketing decision as much as it was a requirement. This new company was a spin off from Brinks and part of the deal was that they change their name. Fair enough. But what about companies that do this without legally being forced to? For example, Kinkos.
When Kinko's first merged with FedEx it was an interesting move. On one hand, you thought to yourself, "okay, printing and shipping... I get it. Kind of." On the other hand, you had to wonder why a brand as strong as Kinko's would dilute their brand by going into an industry other than printing. I think I speak with millions of American's when I say that when I needed to copy something I didn't go to "a copy store"... I went to a Kinko's. Even if I ended up going to the first copy store I saw, I still referred to it as going to "Kinko's".
There are very few companies that hold this valuable space in the minds of the masses: Kleenex, Xerox, Band-Aid, Jello, to name a few. To achieve that holy grail of branding and then trash it (albeit for another impressive brand name, FedEx) just seems a little reckless, doesn't it?
Regardless, I'm sure FedEx is still doing quite well. It will be interesting to see how long the word "Kinko's" takes to fade from our vocabulary. In the meantime, I hope to see Broadview Security transition successfully into their new identity. According to this article they are throwing $120 mil at it... always a good start!
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