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TRENDS
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What’s
in a Name?
By Laurie Burstein
Quilogy
formerly Solutech, changed the company
name to better distinguish itself in the marketplace.
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Randy Schilling, president and CEO of Solutech, had been thinking
for some time about changing the name of his technology company.
The 8-year-old company had achieved much success with 500 employees,
16 offices around the country, and $40 million in revenues in 2000.
The trouble was that there were other companies with the same name,
causing much confusion.
With a lot of thought and research, as well as help from his 7-year-old
son, Schilling went to work to find a new company name. He had to
come up with a name he was sure no one else had that also conveyed
the mission of the company. The goal was to develop a name that
reflected both the art and science of business.
Schilling arrived at the name one evening when he and his son, Ree
(short for Randall Lee), were sitting at the computer searching
for ideas for the new name. Being an avid Harry Potter fan, Ree
knew that the image of a quill is prominent in the popular book
series and is also a symbol for creativity. Schilling liked the
word logic because it incorporated the science aspect. They merged
the two and the name Quilogy was born.
“Quilogy reflects what we truly bring to customers: effective solutions
integrating the art and science of business,” Schilling says. “Our
new name gives us an easily identifiable and memorable web address,
www.quilogy.com—something that’s essential in today’s business environment.”
He also happily points out that Quilogy comes up as “quality” when
spell checking a document.
Company name changes aren’t always prompted by organizational changes,
but rather the old names do not reflect the new direction of a company.
And when the need for a new name crops up, the trend seems to be
to make up a word, as Schilling did with Quilogy.
Case in point—Andersen Consulting’s transformation to Accenture.
Pronounced ak-SEN-chure, the new name stands for “accent” plus “future.”
The name change took place in January 2001, when the $10 billion
firm broke away from Andersen Worldwide and Arthur Andersen. To
announce the new name, Accenture kicked-off an intense re-branding
campaign. Between January and March 2001, 6,000 TV commercials were
broadcast in eight countries, including four spots that aired during
the Super Bowl.
Accenture’s official company statement says their intention was
to change more than just their name. “We’re doing much more than
simply changing our name. We are repositioning our firm in the marketplace
to better reflect our new vision and strategy of becoming a market
maker, architect, and builder of the new economy, bringing innovations
that dramatically improve the way the world works.”
Also well-known, The Equitable Companies, was on the cutting edge
of this trend back in September 1999. The 140-year-old insurance
company became AXA Financial, Inc. to better reflect the company’s
diversified financial services franchises. A part of the change
was the formation of AXA Advisors, a network of 7,300 financial
professionals who offer financial planning services from retirement
and tax planning to investing and insurance.
Ana Sandoval, a communications specialist with the company, says
AXA doesn’t stand for anything but can be pronounced in any language,
a key factor since the company has clients around the world. The
company mounted an international marketing campaign to announce
the new name with print ads appearing in national publications such
as the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Golf Digest, Working
Woman and Forbes.
A merger precipitated the name change of Gabriel Communications,
now called NuVox Communications. When Gabriel merged with TriVergent,
the company wanted a new name that better reflected what they did.
“Vox means ‘voice’ in Latin. Nuvox captures the essence of the company
as a ‘new voice’ in the telecommunications and Internet industry,”
explains NuVox Chairman and CEO David L. Solomon. “We felt it was
important for our new company to have a distinctive new name that
reflected our advanced broadband products and services,” he adds.
Call it re-branding or re-defining, a recent flurry of changes has
left many St. Louis companies with new names. While it’s not always
easy to keep up with who’s who in the business world, it’s certain
that change, and name changes, will continue as companies re-invent
themselves
Laurie Burstein is a St. Louis-based free-lance writer
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