When a brand faces a stigma that it can’t shake off, changing its name tends to be a last resort. It is an acceptance that the negative associations attached to the name outweigh any positive equity that has been accumulated in the eyes of consumers over the years, and therefore is actually harming the brand.

If this is true, what can we read into yesterday’s announcement that councillors in Staines, the small Surrey town, have proposed to change the name to ‘Staines-on-Thames’?

The change, it would seem, is designed to distance the town from the single strongest association people have with Staines: Ali G. For those who might not know, Ali G is the hoodie-wearing, illiterate urban ‘Rude Boy’ alter ego of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Shooting to fame in the late nineties, the spoof rapper often talked of his life in Staines. A hit for Channel Four, the comedy didn’t exactly do wonders for the town: Ali G’s Staines was one of gang violence, broken English and teenage pregnancy.

Since then, the town has tried to reboot its image, most notably in January 2009 when it became officially twinned with the tropical island of Mauritius. But the stigma still lingers. Thus the more radical idea of a name change – to finally exorcise the ghost of Ali G, attract new business to the area, and thereby boost investment – appears to be logical. The image of the autumnal Thames – leafy, placid, natural – certainly seems to be the perfect antidote to Ali G’s urban wasteland.

Will the name change be a success? Will it even be approved? The level of residential opposition will ultimately determine this. Indeed some have already termed the move ”pretentious nonsense”. But even if the proposals fail, some of the positive work may already have been done. Yesterday actor Bobby Davro, born in the area, came to Staines’ defense: “its a fantastic town with a great football team, fantastic town centre and lovely pubs”.

Even if the only achievement of the name change discussion is to get these potitive sentiments into the the public domain and national press, then it won’t have been all in vain for Staines’ brand.

Having thought about brand migration yesterday in the context of Santander(http://www.thevalueengineers.com/2009/05/27/banks-and-brand-migration-alex-comments-on-santander-for-the-bbc/), I thought it might be worth setting out some of the key issues brand owners might want to consider before setting out on a similar exercise.

- Why are you doing this? Simple question to start with but a good one to check before you start the journey. Inevitably there will be benefits of synergy, costs savings in rationalisation and so on, but you also have to ask yourself what is the benefit from a branding perspective? How will the new destination brand be a bigger and better brand vision than where you are now – rather than just replacing one name with another?

- What is in it for your end consumer? Consumers can be very cynical about brand name changes and will always ask “What is in it for me?” In order to take them with you on the journey you have to offer them the benefits of coming with you – whether that is better product, better service, or better value.

- What are the risks involved? Which customers are you likely to lose along the way and do the benefits of the new brand in attracting new customers outweigh that loss? How do you mitigate against the risks through effective marketing?

- How do you tell the right story about the brand migration? You can position a brand name change in the same way you do a brand – who am I targetting? what is the benefit? why should they believe it? Once you have that you need to tell the story powerfully and convicingly.

- Do you have enough resource to really get behind it? Changing a name is not just about new livery and letterheads but also about the resource commitment for communicating the change to your customers and building a vision for the new brand in people’s minds. This does not come cheap – just imagine the cost of the recent Norwich Union to Aviva campaign.

As changes have swept the financial services sector, we’ve been closely following the implications for banking brands. We were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to share our thoughts with the wider world today via the BBC.

Alex Waters, our Director of Capabilities, has been kept busy throughout the day commenting on the news that Santander is to migrate its UK operations under the master brand name. He’s been discussing the implications of name change and the experience which can be drawn from previous rebranding exercises.

First up was contributing to an article on the BBC News Website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8070335.stm)

Followed by a trip to the Drive show studio for BBC Radio 5 Live (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00klk7d/5_live_Drive_27_05_2009/ - start at 49.55 mins into the iPlayer stream)

(Alex is the one with his back to the webcam!)

Finally he also took part in an extended panel discussion this evening on the BBC News Channel. Photos of Alex in action below!

Stay tuned for more TVE on your TV!