If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it …

In what seems like a different age the mercurial entrepreneur Elon Musk confirmed that Twitter would henceforth be known as X.

In fact, it was as recently as July 2023, that the announcement was made.

Now, nearly a year on, and the print and broadcast media still qualify reports about X with the rider “formally known as Twitter”.

It’s safe to say that the name change hasn’t exactly stuck.

How much has it cost Musk? No one is too sure.

Fortune magazine has speculated that his rebranding may have cost the company anywhere from $4 billion to $20 billion in brand value not to mention an avalanche of less-than-welcome publicity.

Even with a suitably vague spread like that and … one which looks to have come straight from the department of guesswork it’s a serious amount of wedge.

Other rebrands have gone up in smoke too.

Most notably, Royal Mail’s Consignia which was consigned to the round filing cabinet under the desk after only 16 months not to mention the £2m it cost.

If there’s a message here, it’s that a company’s brand is priceless, and we mess with it at our peril.

Whilst we’d love to talk branding to you, we’d advise to tread with caution unless you have a very compelling reason.

Or … if it’s a brand-new project, in which case the coffee’s on and fresh biscuits will be ordered.

Have a great week.

Alec