What’s in a name?

by John Fitzsimons on 11 June 2009  |  1 comment
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As Cheltenham & Gloucester branches bite the bullet, should we mourn the passing of yet another traditional British brand?

The names that I used to see on my local high street are being absolutely decimated. It was bad enough when Woolworths went (where on earth am I supposed to buy pick 'n' mix now?), but now the banking brands that I grew up with are going as well.

In place of Bradford & Bingley, Alliance & Leicester and Abbey, we will instead have Santander.

And now Lloyds Banking Group has announced it is to close all Cheltenham & Gloucester branches, though the brand is apparently to persist in some form for both savings and mortgages.

It was of course inevitable when Lloyds and HBoS merged that some of the many brands the superbank now owned would disappear, but I would have thought brands such as Intelligent Finance and BM Solutions (who, let's be honest, the vast majority of the general public have never heard of) would be the first to go.

There is a debate as to whether any of this matters. After all, plenty of people were up in arms when Woolies went the way of the Dodo, but most of them hadn't been in a store for years - that's the whole reason they went bust!

In contrast, the strongest brands are branching out into all sorts of new areas.

Tesco may have started out as a grocer, but in my local store now I can sort out my insurance, get my photos developed, have an eye test and do my dry cleaning. And reports have suggested a move into full-scale banking is imminent.

They are far from alone - Richard Branson's Virgin brand is determined to take similar steps into banking, following successes with planes, trains, music stores and radio stations.

Is this the future? Mega-brands that cover everything from your car to your cat food? Or will we still look for an element of specialisation when we shop?

I'd love to hear your views via the comment box below.