No professional services firm changes its name on a whim. It can be a big deal, often with big consequences.
You have to retrain your clients and prospects to recognize you, for one thing. Then there’s the cost of producing updated stationery, collateral, and signage.
But there are good reasons that firms rename themselves—despite the drawbacks. Below I describe seven of the most common.
1. Your Name Infringes on Another Copyright
Here’s a fun one! You receive a cease and desist letter from another firm in your industry with a similar name. Your lawyer says you can fight it in court, but it will be very expensive. Oh, and there is at least a 50/50 chance you will lose. It happens to organizations small and large. Even the global titans aren’t immune. Remember Andersen Consulting? After losing in arbitration, they became Accenture.
2. Reputational Damage
This one also falls into the “fun” category. For whatever reason—a transgression real or imagined—your firm is transformed overnight from market dynamite to public kryptonite. No amount of PR or crisis management seems able to revive your reputation. But sometimes a new name can change the dynamic. After Cambridge Analytica and its parent company SCL Group were embroiled in a Facebook data harvesting scandal, they dissolved the original companies and reconstituted them under the new name Emerdata. Which brings us to…
3. Mergers and Acquisitions
When two or more firms come together, they sometimes need a new identity that is distinct from any one of the component businesses. Sometimes it is a merger of equals and no party wants to appear to have been subsumed by the others. Other times they simply want to move away from stale old names and take on a fresh moniker. In 1990, for instance, five AEC firms came together to form the new firm AECOM, an acronym that stands for the services they provide: Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Operations, and Management.
4. Too Long
Older professional services firms are notorious for growing partner names like yeards. Even after those partners are long dead, the firms live on with their complex, multisyllabic surname extravaganzas. Once, there was a Los Angeles law firm with ten partner names: Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie, Stiffelman, Cook, Johnson, Lande & Wolf. Imagine answering their phones! Today, many firms embrace simplicity. In 2023, for example, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld rebranded as Akin. That’s what I call progress!
5. Too Generic
The professional services marketplace is crowded. Many firms are eager to stand out from a sea of look-alike competitors. As a result, some firms with undistinguished names change them as part of a differentiation strategy. What types of names are ripe for a refresh? Those that simply describe the service they provide (for example, CEO Support Services LLC). Perhaps those known only by their initials. Or a firm known by a founder’s name that has no distinctive characteristics (Smith & Associates). For firms like these, a unique and memorable name can help set them apart from their less interesting competitors. In 2017, accounting firm HA&W rebranded themselves as Aprio. With 40+ offices across the nation, they are one of today’s fastest-growing accounting firms.
6. Change of Strategy
When a firm decides to move away from its core business or audience, perceptions can be difficult to change. A new name can be a fresh start and create permission in buyers’ minds to put the firm in a different category. For years, Forensic Technologies International provided computer graphics, trial animations, and technical expert witness testimony for courtroom litigation. Then they shifted strategy to offer corporate restructuring, crisis management, economic consulting, and strategic communications services. They reformulated their name to FTI Consulting.
7. Spun-Off Business Line
Occasionally a mature business realizes it has developed significant expertise in an area that no longer supports its core mission. So it decides to spin it off as a separate company. Usually, there is no reason to retain the original firm’s name. In fact, that might create confusion. In most cases, the best answer is to devise an entirely new name. Dun & Bradstreet did exactly that in the 1990s when it spun off its internal IT support unit as a stand-alone business targeting Fortune 500 companies. Its new name was Cognizant Technology Solutions (but goes by “Cognizant”).
There are, of course, a host of other reasons firms update their names—a desire to be perceived as more modern, to overcome linguistic problems with their old name and to unify fragmented brands, to name just three more examples. But a new name can bring new audiences and new opportunities.
When a firm finds itself in a period of fundamental transition—or in need of change—a fresh name can help it reset its brand and thrive in its new environment.
