Stefan Liute points to the absurd story of Singapore authorities paying Interbrand $400,000 to rebrand Marina Bay... only to decide to leave the name unchanged. The really funny part of the coverage is this:
Finding the right name for the city-state's revised downtown, which will include the much-debated resort casino, a new business district and swanky retail outlets, was a process akin to parents deciding on a name for their child, [said, I assume] National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan.Well, most couples I know don't manage to spend $400,000 trying to think of a name for their child.
Interbrand, incidentally, position themselves as the authority on valuing brands. The words "lunatic", "in charge of" and "the asylum" come to mind.
Hugh, if you're reading, surely a cartoon comes to mind...
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Comments (1)
The University of Bradford (where I am now) did something similar 2 years ago. We were undergoing a now aborted merger with Bradford College (who are literally next door to the university) and so we comissioned a company to find a new name for the combined institution, which included a survey of a sample of current students and staff.
The shortlist of names for the new institution were:
We paid £20,000 for that. Admittedly, much of it was down to the survey results and the majority of staff and students opposed the merger so it's probably only natural that those were the most common choices on the survey.
It's not quite $400,000, but still a lot of money. The merger was aborted a couple of months later anyway.
July 27, 2005 17:01 Permalink for comment