Brand vs Brand name

How much brand name  can effect the brand itself  ?

The brand becomes a brand by its product or service or by doing some unique events  and  supported programs.The company / product   in reality  becomes a  real brand  when people and customers really recognizes it.
Like Nike known for its variety of shoes ,Micromax known for its cheap price smartphones and handsets,Airtel known for its services ,Tata tea or Idea better known for its advertisements than products etc.
So its the game which takes a bit of time and uniqueness in some way plays a vital role .Advertisements in any form helps to create awareness and buzz if really different and interesting.

But did you notice one thing similar in all of the above examples .......
These different types of organisations  after putting efforts and building a   brand  in the market  have a unique "BRAND NAME"
And so  when a brand comes in the market and in the picture of consumers  ,the consumer generally recognize  or link the USP of the brand to the  brand name  like -Ask any consumer  about "Just   Do It" he/she would just say one word "NIKE" or ask  on searching online he/she would just say one word "GOOGLE"  i.e the brand name .The linking in consumers mind of such tagline or say product is linking to brands name.

Brand Name is important but what if any company for any reason changes its brand name.Then ....

Would the change in the name of brand effect consumers ?



I would take an example of India where  the best and most popular  news channel "Star News " changed its name or its brand name to "ABP News" in April 2012 .
(You can read the literature  and the reason of change in name  at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABP_News)

After the name  changed ,the company heavily advertised about it on various forms media .
But the important part is -Did it effect the consumers and even news market ?
And the answers is a big YES, People never went into details why the name was changed  but they saw that Star News is not existing now and rather unknown an name for consumers called "ABP" has taken over .

The result -2nd positioned news channel called "Zee News"   has now taken the position of Star News or ABP News" and more  importantly taken a place in consumers mind .

The no. 2 has become No. 1 (Zee News) and a simple reason is Brand Name .
The consumers didn't trust a name which was not known to them(ABP)  though the irony is that the  most of people and the real company was same(Star News) .


Therefore I believe that Changing Brand Name should be avoided and in case it is necessary to change the name ,the company should not only advertise  but also keep advertising and reminding about the changed name.A company can also advertise through promotional events at places where it feels that the customer base is big.
Also while changing the name  the brand should also  be linked with some new things in order to make the new brand name look more attractive and trustworthy.

By Ankit Sapra