Customary Life Aberdeen has introduced it would change its title to “Abrdn” as a part of a company rebrand on the £500bn fund supervisor.
The corporate, which manages pensions and investments, mentioned it aimed to create a “trendy, agile, digitally-enabled” and “extremely differentiated” model.
Its resolution to jettison vowels from its title was met with ridicule, with a number of commentators drawing comparisons with failed makes an attempt at rebranding similar to Royal Mail’s relaunch as Consignia in 2002.
Others questioned the right way to pronounce the gathering of consonants. Various Twitter customers identified that the brand new title was uncomfortably near “a burden”.
The corporate issued a press launch stating that the proper pronunciation was “Aberdeen”.
“Whereas the Abrdn model is perhaps particularly designed for the digital world, it appears to be like removed from ultimate in the true one,” mentioned Laith Khalaf, a monetary analyst at funding agency AJ Bell.
“Buyers want easy fund names which are recognisable among the many 1000’s of investments which are on the market.
“The truth that Customary Life Aberdeen has really needed to clarify the right way to pronounce the brand new title gained’t be misplaced on monetary advisers up and down the nation, whose purchasers might effectively suppose they’ve punched a typo right into a rapidly written report.”
Chief government Stephen Chook mentioned the Abrdn model would construct on the group’s heritage, which works again to 1825, and is “trendy, dynamic and, most significantly, participating for all of our consumer and buyer channels”.
He added: “It’s a extremely differentiated model that may create unity throughout the enterprise, changing 5 totally different model names which have every been working independently.
“Our new title displays the readability of focus that the management workforce are bringing to the enterprise as we search to ship sustainable development.”
The rebrand, developed by company Wolff Olins, will go forward of the approaching months “alongside implementation of a full stakeholder engagement plan to handle the transition”.
The corporate will change to a brand new inventory market ticker by August.
Customary Life Aberdeen has been searching for a brand new title since February when it offered rights to the Customary Life model to Phoenix Group.
The group was shaped by an £11bn merger between Customary Life and Aberdeen Asset Administration in 2017.
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