Unless you have erased Facebook from your world you can’t help to have noticed the announcement last week about their changing the company name to Meta. We can all speculate as to the reason behind this, beyond the inevitable PR spin from Facebook, and perhaps tie it back to the bad press and coverage they have been receiving lately. But there is a lot more to the name change than only trying to put lipstick on a pig.
From a business perspective, Google did something similar a number of years ago, calling their parent company Alphabet and often the reason is to be able to accommodate new products and businesses and not have the potential revenue drain impact or be associated with the profitable divisions. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of now Meta, said that the initial investment in the AI part of Meta or the Metaverse will be $10 billion. It would appear other companies see the potential in these virtual worlds with Nike registering its virtual brand name. Interestingly Google also announced this week a new division to explore drug discovery, something else that will be a huge pull on monies.
In the celebrity brand world, a recent renaming has also occurred with Kanye West successfully registering his name now as simply Ye (pronounced yay with no surname, just simply Ye). This is also a branding move with his being acutely aware of the need to stay relevant with new audiences and also raising the awareness of his sneaker brand Yeezy.
When thinking of your name it is the most immediate and important connection to your personal brand and there are 3 things you want to consider;
- Reputation – what do people say about you (or your name) when you are not in the room? Be sure that you know and you are being perceived how you want to be.
- Recall – can people remember you. If you have a difficult name to recall make it easy for them by relating it to something more memorable or even rhyming it can help.
- Remind – be sure that you keep in touch with people and remind them who you are and what you do. Like Ye, you want to be relevant.
Also. like Nike, you want to be sure your name continues to be branded in these new worlds that are emerging.
And do not underestimate the importance this will have for your children.
If you have not done so already register your child’s name as a domain. This is how they will manage and present their personal brands. Dot.com for sure and if in Canada Dot.ca – they make a fun stocking filler for the holidays!