Katherine O'Donnell

On paper, the rationale they’re communicating is that the new name will represent their values, specifically their shift to creating an entire metaverse (think 2nd Life or Roblox) where people can engage and interact in entirely immersive ways. A rebrand this big doesn’t happen overnight, so I’m inclined to believe it’s aspirational even if I also believe the efforts were accelerated give the latest publicity.

https://www.economist.com/business/facebooks-rumoured-name-change-reflects-its-ambitions-and-its-weakness-1/21805755

Whether it’s effective? As I said on the lecture, I don’t think most people think, let alone say, Alphabet when they think about technology leaders (another A! Our acronyms are doomed.)

That being said, Google’s rebrand was more about bringing their disparate parts under a common identity. Calling everything Google detracts from their non-search ventures.

That’s kind of what seems to be happening in practice here, but not how it’s being positioned by the media. Facebook will still be Facebook (or “the Facebook”, if you’re of a certain age). It’s the parent company that’s changing. Facebook now will be “Facebook, a [rebrand] company” just as Instagram is currently “Instagram. a Facebook company (though we try really hard to obscure that when we can because we secretly know Facebook is uncool and where your mom hangs out and Instagram is not that and you should totally spend all your time here you cool kids!).

As another example, who here knows what Altria does?

Phillip Morris might be a more familiar name and I can argue their rebrand to Altria effectively did reset their public image. But that is as much because so many people had already moved away from their products and/or knew them under their trade names (Marlboro, etc.).

Branding is convoluted. Yes, it needs to convey your values. It will never truly do more than represent those values. I find it extremely unlikely people will wake up later this month and suddenly be like “what is this new social network I am part of that mysteriously did not exist yesterday and now has all of my info pre-loaded?”.

Maybe if Facebook deprecates their current products and launches something new, it will take a lot of time. Just like Altria keeps looking for new ways to sell tobacco without calling them cigarettes.

I am still shocked Facebook is rebranding. They want to be known for the metaverse, being that they believe it is our future, even though it currently doesn’t exist. Big companies like Facebook and Microsoft have been investing heavily in the AR/VR world. If they can successfully shift gears more so away from social media, I think the rebrand will be worthwhile. As of right now, Facebook, the logo, the design, the platform, are known. Without context users know Facebook, especially because it has the widest range of generations on it. I just don’t think something so known will be able to change. It involves compliance from user to adapt to the rebrand. When I-HOP had their promotion of I-HOB, they wanted their consumers to start calling it that too, but that did not happen.

I am not shocked they are rebranding, but I don’t think it will make much of a difference in the long run. Facebook is trying out outrun the negative stereotypes that are associated with it, but people still continue to use the platform as well as Instagram. I think people will continue to call it Facebook, continue to use it, and they won’t care about the rest.

I dislike change!!! And hate that Facebook is changing their name -and wonder how long people will continue to call Facebook by its original name. I think this is a ploy for Mark Zuckerberg to either save his reputation and detach himself from negative press, or have more control over the platform. This reminds me of when I worked as a banker for Wachovia, which merged into Wells Fargo, and for two years customers called the bank Wachovia. It was such a hard transition.

I still can’t believe that in response to all the criticism they received, that changing their name seemed like the best course of action. After watching Zuckerberg’s video, I understand why they did it but it does seem really off and in poor timing. I don’t think the new name is going to bring the results that they are expecting as many people right now still feel very negatively about the company. I would rather of had them gone back to their foundation and made real changes that reflected their core values than this PR stunt. Hopefully with this new name they will start to become the company they claim to be.

There is a long tradition of companies renaming themselves after a scandal sometimes it works but I agree that Facebook is going to have to do a lot more than give itself a new moniker to air out its pervasive odor of evil. My question is will Zuckerberg step down as chair of the company following the last few years of problems and many calling for his resignation?

As I see a rebrand might be necessary after all the bad karma Zuckerberg has had, Facebook and Instagram still have their original names. When opening the apps at the bottom it says “From Meta.” If they were to change their name it would be a big big change especially since Facebook is already known and I think if they did change their entire name people would still refer to them as Facebook, especially the older generation who uses the app majority has b been familiarized with Facebook and don’t do well to change technologically.