Old Mutual to drop Skandia brand

Not a great move

Not sure rebranding a life insurer as 'mutual' when it isn't will add anything other than customer confusion myself

A sad demise of a once good, solid brand

mmmmm - not sure about this - Skandia is still, despite its size, relatively unknown with the public, but changing it to a name no ones heard of??

"Old" & "Mutual" - Not two of the most dynamic words for the future are they?

Quoting from Peter Mann's e-mail received just now: "This consolidation into a single, stronger company reflects the Group’s ‘one business, one vision’ strategy."

I'll try going into the pub tonight and asking for a pint of Diageo.

"Which one?".

The black one.

"Do you mean Guinness?".

Actually, I've changed my mind. Can I have a glass of Diageo?

"Which one?"

The fizzy one.

"Do you mean Moët?"

Why build up a brand name and brand recognition then get rid of it?

I agree with all of the above. Clients get really fed up with all the name changing. Plus rebranding usually means a lot of wasted expense. Old Mutula is hardly a name for the 21st century and I, and am sure all of my clients, would have much preferred to keep the Skandia name they are familiar with.

lunacy

Taken me years to get my clients to become familiar with a brand (Skandia) that was not really well known in this country only to have to tell them that their investments will now be Old Mutual. All the rebranding cost who will bear that?

very silly

@ Irritable Vowels

Moet is a brand of LVMH - Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Diagio merely have a distribution deal....

I'm not sure the brand name is actually bad news, in-fact, I'm not sure the brand name makes the slightest bit of difference.

In communication with clients one should have always indicated that Skandia was part of the Old Mutual Group so changing the brand to Old Mutual Wealth seems to make perfect sense.

Sad to see the end of Skandia, even if it did sound like a crispbread.

Name awareness is important to clients. I am not sure that OLD and MUTUAL are the most suitable as we embark on the transition in to 2013 and the "new world" consumer and fee charging adviser.

Skandia has had great success as a company known for innovation although clearly their supermarket offering has been overtaken by the more flexible platforms.

A wonderful respected brand seems to be disappearing to be replaced by a brand you can only associate with the past and not the future.

@ You must be joking

Pedant. :-)

However:

Diageo owns a stake in Moët Hennessy. I think it's a 34% share of the company. Receipts from their holding in year ending 30 June '12: £158M. So not too bad.

Nevertheless, as a very amateur sailor, the Skandia brand still means more than Old Mutual to me. I might inadvertently convey this to clients, too.

Deray Deary Me

Name changing is bad bad omen

I have not seen my or heard from my Skandia Rep in 4 years - now I never will.

.

No favours for NPI, Sun Life, Equity & Law, Friends Prov., Norwich Union, Clerical Medical, Abbey National, LAUTRO, IMRO, etc. All leave reasonable memories rather than the nightmares of their current forms.

I am sure there are many more.

There is a lot in a name particularly with some of the older clients. They liked the Equity & Law, Scottish Mutual etc as they had longevity behind them.

Perhaps with new younger clients the name Goldfish Wealth Management or Rat and Carrot Investment Company may be appropriate but I would not see BP or GlaxoSmithkline changing their name so easily.

Another fad, new titles for all the management, new headed paper but still the same company so really nothing changes. Now Skandia may be an integral part of the Old Mutual empire.

More coin for the outside marketing consultants.

Seriously, who run these companies? Surely there are more pressing matters, clowns!!

Hardly any new clients know the name of Transact, yet we have no problem in explaining the benefits and welcoming them as new customers. Perhaps we should only have promoted the companies they knew, like the Pru or Barclays?

@ Pete Kennedy

Actually, "Old Mutula" sounds more appropriate than Old Mutual. Has more of an African ring to it.

I wish they'd make up their flipping minds and stop changing the name. A few years ago it was Skandia MultiFunds, then Brett Williams decreed it must be Selestia, then when he jumped ship (or was he pushed?) they decided to call it Skandia Investment Solutions because that was a more established brand name, and now it's to be Old Mutual Wealth.

Old isn't a great word to have in your company name, unless venerability is perceived to be a more attractive virtue than modernity, the company isn't mutual and Wealth is a word often misused, as in Wealth Managers, over which the FSA is currently casting a critical eye. And, although now listed on the London SE, Old Mutual is a company of South African origin which may not sit entirely comfortably with many people. Apart from that, too many changes of any sort tend to unsettle investors, as we found when Skandia became Selestia and but then reverted to Skandia.

Skandia is a reputable brand name, so why ditch it?

I agree with all of the above - a stupid, badly conceived move - they will lose a lot of business.

I have no particular affection or attachment to the Skandia brand, and see no negative in changing it.

However, to 'Old Mutual'? It's a rubbish name for a Fund Manager, and an even worse name for a platform.

Why on earth do the twerps in Marketing think this is a good idea? Unlike say, a Standard Life, Old Mutual has no real brand recognition in the UK, and indicates a clumsy, old fahioned identity, so this will gain them nothing.

If you need a new name, choose one, and avoid a connection with other parts of the business. Good brands for a platform are already out there - Cofunds, Transact, Fundsnetwork, even the more esoteric like Novia, Ascentric etc avoid the potential for confusion.

This will lose them support, not gain it.

Hey! I think I've got a good name for them - how about 'Selestia', or have I heard that somewhere before?

Why can't anyone leave anything alone these days.

Dinosaur Dan - a Big and Small C conservative!

Old Mutual Wealth - hmmm OMW - I can hear the cogs whirring in the marketing department already - yes that's it 'on my way' - Quick! Run the add's - 'I'm on my way with Old Mutual Wealth - are you?' Everyone has an iphone, ipad or competitor smartphone +/or tablet these days. Increasingly people are using 'OMW' to abbreviate and communicate their tardiness/current mobility staus. Just a thought but maybe that is why they thought it might be appropriate.

I've always suspected that Royal London would do the same with Scottish Life. Royal London is not well known by IFA's never mind the public.

It seems silly to me to invest so much increating the Skandia brand, a commpany that used to rival Standard Life and then drop it in favour of a brand unknown in the UK market.

What. A. Waste. Of. Money.

I think Old Mutual have been listening to Shivaun Sharpe at Perfect Curve!

What a peculiar and poorly judged move. Who advises these people?

Did they ask the IFAs who recommend their products and services? I think not.

All Brands are new at some point. It won't be long before Old Mutual Wealth rolls of the tongue as easily as Skandia ever did. It is no different to Scot Eq being changed to Aegon or NU being changed to Aviva. As mentioned above clients should be aware of who Old Mutual are anyway if they hold Skandia investments.

I do remember when I first used Skandia some years ago and the spell check changed the name to Squander......always made me chuckle

@ IV

LMVH (louis vuitton moet hennessy) do not just own Moet, they also own Dom Perignon, Verve Cliquot, Krug, Mercier, Ruinart and Pelorus. So many bubbles, so little time.

Not to say that I don't occasionally yearn for Cloudy Bay, Chateau d'Yquem, Chateau Cheval Blanc and Newton Vinyard.

And to get that post perandial buzz, Hennessy brandy, Glenmorangie Whisky and Belvedere vodka.

Now you know why I'm called Hickky!

After that lot who cares what a company is called. It's what they produce that matters!

At least we won't get the comment 'they make lorries don't they'? any more.

I didn't know Old Mutual made lorries? ;)

Sounds like yet another very good reason for making the adviser brand the lead brand in the client relationship with the providers as temporary bit part players - or even largely invisible as with Transact.

I have fond memories of the original Skandia Life - ground breaking to the point of being anti-establishment with ex Abbey Life gang of Paul Bradshaw, Mike Sulman, Sid Paine, Boris Sackville and Alan Wilson, great plans like income bonds boosted by life assurance premium relief, the Capital & Income Bond which paid out 10% tax-free over 10 years and converted the remaining profit into a tax-free qualifying life policy and the Skandia Plan, a life policy with sums assured anywhere from 10 year term through whole of life to 10 year MIP variable throughout the term, not to mention the Multi Fund approach introduced after Bank of Scotland botched the early funds investment record. Those were the days!

@ vinylman

So wadda you think the process was at Skandia Head Office?

MD of Skandia: Thanks for coming in guys, we are here to discuss our brand awareness report failure. No one outside Scandinavia recognises our brand, mostly they think we produce dodgy furniture. We must do something about this, and let me introduce Siobhan Sharpe from Perfect Curve who, when she can get off her phone, will tell you about their research.

SS Guys we are where we are with this, and that's never a good place to be. We have come up with three new brand names for your company that are,like now!

Firstly you could be called 'Make Me Rich!' but then we thought you will be sued when it transpires you only want to make yourselves rich.

Secondly we thought 'Culpalevis' as a nice latin sounding name, however the slight downside to this one guys is it translates as 'normally neglegent'.

Lastly, we cracked it and came up with 'OM#' Its so now, so cool, so..happening!

MD What fantastic input Siohan, but lets just call it 'Old Mutual' then, after all thats the name at the top of our massive paychecks.

Marathon, Opal Fruits, Abbey National, Midland

Have people stopped buying/investing in these because of a name change?

Old Faithful, Old Father Time - does the OLD not mean reliable?

@ Hiccky

SS "so, where are guys is like, we are at the problem stage of the problem and we need to get to the solution stage of the problem"

Totally.

Sadly it's a power thing - we've taken you over so our brand name must be better. It's like Santander. I banked with Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank, now it's Santander and the website blinds you with red everywhere and the awful logo which they insist on presenting unfortunate F1 drivers with as a trophy when they win a race sposored by them. Corporate Ego!

A small businesses we can see the utter waste of money such a move is. The only ones to benefit are the 'marketing consultants' and the stationary printers.

Was it broke? (Well a few bits may have been falling off!)

Clients absolutely detest all these pointless name changes - don't the dimwits that run these organizations ever speak to real people?

If you ask me the stationary printers are just standing still really.

Why not try creating and working under your own brand and leave all the shinnagins to those uttering the lovely words " we are fully committed to the IFA market " - well sort of....

Never been keen on exposing valuable clients to the provider merry go round.

I wonder how many millions will be spent on this rebranding exercise. Money that would be better spent on upgrading the Skandia platform so that it offers access to more than just collectives.

When I told my wife she said "Why don't they go the whole hog and call themselves 'Ye Olde Mutuale'?"

I have longed for this to happen for so long. Every time I look at Old Mutual, I can't help but think "are they really Skandia, or are they M&G?"

Then I think about sparkly things. LOL.