BR&Me

The latest copy of Marketing has landed on my desk. Which has reminded me of something I wanted to discuss last week, but forgot.

Brewer Riddiford have rebranded themselves. I want to preface this by saying I have nothing against Brewer Riddiford, they are obviously successful and I’m sure they are all really nice people. But...

Brewer Riddiford have been going for 15 years. They work with loads of massive brands and together with Design Bridge and JKR kind of have that “add more steam” packaging design market cornered. They are a big player.

Last week I saw this ad in Marketing.

Hmmmm. What are they called now? BR&Me. How do I say that? BR and me? BR ampersand me? Brewer Riddiford and me? Brand Me?

I thought I’d take a look at the website. I wondered what the url would be, especially as you can’t have ampersands in a url. The url is www.brandme.co.uk. Which is fine, borderline clever. (The reason I didn’t write about this last week is that the url was just a coming soon page. The website is up now but, chaps if you’re gonna take out a full page colour ad in Marketing make sure the bloody website is up...)

So is the company called Brand Me? Maybe, but would you honestly read BR&Me as Brand Me? No you wouldn’t.

BR and Me – that’s Ok but it’s a strapline
Brand Me – interesting and I do like the Brewer Riddiford and Me connection
BR&Me – but that’s your logo and that’s on the letterheads and no one is going to read that as Brand Me.

Does all this matter? Yes it does, you are a fucking branding consultancy for God’s sake. I think this is a mess, some good ideas badly executed. What was wrong with Brewer Riddiford? I don’t really like the name, but it made sense.

What do you all think?

Comments

[Blip]

I think I wouldn't hire them. Makes you wonder if the "Brand Me" thing wasn't just an accident.

[Valarie]

It looks like the name/logo of a children's product.

[Steve Booth]

As one of the creative partners at BR&Me I read your feelings about our new name and identity change with mild interest. I would suggest that some design agencies are guilty of avoiding their own branding issues. This often means they can sound (and look) like firms of accountants. Nothing wrong with that I'm sure some people would say (especially accountants!). However, we decided that it would be good to reflect what we do and that is the fairly simple idea behind our name change. If it's not completely obvious to some people the first time they see it then that's fine - some of the best communications involve a degree of intrique and discovery. And one thing it has done is get people talking about us - including you!

[Ben]

Hi Steve, thanks for dropping by and thanks even more for leaving a comment, people don't often do that.

I agree totally that it's great you are "taking some of your own medicine" as the ad says. I also agree that the Jones Smith Brown naming strategy is way, way past it's sell by date. At least you've not descended into the realms of Dave.

Can you clear up one thing for us? Verbally is the name pronounced "brand me" or "b, r and me"?

Lastly, if anyone is reading this and wants to ask Steve a question about BR&Me, leave your comments here and I'll try and get Steve to answer them (Steve, I hope that's OK).

[David Airey]

An old post sure, but one worth my two cents.

Creating intrigue is all well and good, but if your own audiences can't decide on what to call you then surely something is majorly wrong here.

The best ideas are simple and make people wonder why they didn't think of it themselves. I'm glad I wasn't the one who thought of this one.

[Tony McQueen]

Seems crazy to throw away 15 years of market recognition and reputation for a name that sounds like a new startup company!

I can remember when the Post Office changed its name - a confused disaster!

I was thinking of engaging this company, I won't now, thanks for this blog, I found it after a google search, it gives you a greater insight into these companies and how they operate than their websites!

TM

[Garodin]

well when they were called Brewer Riddiford, most of us used to call it BR anyway, and as there was a change in the line up it seems to me it was a good way of maintainng the link. Brewer retired, Riddiford still there - Booth neatly replaces B - and Wynne is just too tricky to add to the mix!!!

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