Another High Street Rebrand

Gavin Scott · Wed 27 May, 2009 12.31

Nini wrote:
Andrew Wood wrote:Abbey, Alliance and Leicester, and Bradford and Bingley are all to be renamed Santander Link
Figured the liberal splashing of the Santander name since they brought out Abbey was an indication they'd be dumping the names for the new suave Spanish conquistador to move on in and take our women or something.

"Our women", Nini?

Nini · Wed 27 May, 2009 12.38

Yeah, our women or something... I am paraphrasing ysee.

nidave · Wed 27 May, 2009 12.42

Hymagumba wrote:GE Money, purveyor of Topman/Burtons/Debenhams and many other store cards is also now owned by them and shall become Santander Cards Ltd.

No one expects a Spanish acquisition.

Philip · Wed 27 May, 2009 12.45

HSA are running their sock-puppet "Hey Just Say" adverts at the moment, saying on-screen but not announcing that they are to be renamed "Simply Health" or as it says on screen, "simplyhealth*".

DVB Cornwall · Wed 27 May, 2009 13.52

Doesn't surprise me at all, what did however was the decision of Telefonica to retain the O2 brand (and expand it's use internationally) when they took over mmO2 several years ago.

Cache · Wed 27 May, 2009 13.54

DVB Cornwall wrote:Doesn't surprise me at all, what did however was the decision of Telefonica to retain the O2 brand (and expand it's use internationally) when they took over mmO2 several years ago.

O2 is so easily recognisable, it would have been a grave error to have pushed it all under the Telefonica umbrella.

Nini · Wed 27 May, 2009 14.29

So why is it OK for three very well known brands to be canned? I'm beginning to figure red as inherently bad for banks to use as a core colour of their brand.

Cache · Wed 27 May, 2009 14.37

Nini wrote:So why is it OK for three very well known brands to be canned? I'm beginning to figure red as inherently bad for banks to use as a core colour of their brand.

Both A+L and B+B were heavily featured in the press when parts of them collapsed. Think of it as a clean slate? Also, Santander is a global company, so people may think it's safer than smaller institutions.

Nini · Wed 27 May, 2009 14.55

I'll throw out a theoretical to you, had none of the institutions got bad press and were still standing then would it be reasonable then? One brand seems good to the consumer but it's more a "hey, look at me" towards other banks, gratuitous crotch-thrusting if you like.

Cache · Wed 27 May, 2009 15.10

No, If they all had good press, there would be no need, and It would not be a wise move. However, because they have all had bad press, a clean slate seems like the best option.

DVB Cornwall · Wed 27 May, 2009 15.19

Nini wrote:I'll throw out a theoretical to you, had none of the institutions got bad press and were still standing then would it be reasonable then? One brand seems good to the consumer but it's more a "hey, look at me" towards other banks, gratuitous crotch-thrusting if you like.

If A&L and B&B hadn't effectively imploded as a result of the Banking sector's collapse neither would be in Santander's hands now and both would be still independent. Both were effectively rescued by Santander and for convenience rolled into Abbey's UK operation. I suspect if Abbey were still the stand alone representative of Santander in the UK then Santander wouldn't have been in such a hurry to rebrand.