<strong>Thoughts on Corporate Naming</strong>
With daily news and outrage pouring in from all media sources, it's hard to focus on a story that doesn't involve life threatening issues or your favorite sports team. Recently however, a headline and photo captured my attention and got me thinking about how company names relate to brand names.

The horse meat scandal seems to keep growing. It started with hamburgers in Europe and just last week we learned that Ikea meatballs have been tainted. Holy VITTSJÖ, not the meatballs! Really, a horse is an animal like any other and acceptable sustenance in some countries but not many. In the US, horse meat is strictly taboo, which is why I stopped in my tracks when I saw the headline, "Food giant Nestle recalls products after horse meat discovery." It was coupled with a getty stock photo of what looks like a loving horse family cuddling on a farm. What? Wait. Honey, come quick! Kids, put down those cookies and Crunch bars! They're full of horse meat!

<a href="http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2013/02/18/qmb-horsemeat-scandal.cnn.html" target="_blank"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-6060" title="1_CNNHorse" src="http://www.cbx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/1_CNNHorse.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="530" /></a>

Nestle, makers of products ranging from DiGiorno Pizza to Dreyer's Ice Cream and the famous Nestle Toll House Cookies have recalled products with traces of horse DNA. Personally, when I think of Nestle, I think of chocolate chip cookies and confections so I was a bit confused about how horse meat found its way in. I dove in to the article and upon further reading saw that the effected products are 2 types of pasta dishes under the Buitoni brand and only in Spain and Italy.

That headline sure worried me though. I won't comment on how certain news organizations sensationalize or mislead but while the headline and image above was from CNN, the one below is from The Washington Post.

<img class="alignleft  wp-image-6061" title="2_WashPostHorse" src="http://www.cbx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2_WashPostHorse.jpg" alt="" width="627" height="536" />

It got me thinking about Corporate naming and why some companies want names that don't have a direct tie to one of their product brands. A house of brands has to roll with the punches. Good press flows both ways between product brand and corporate entity but so does bad news. It can be advantageous to have some separation but many companies also find value having their Corporate name build off of their hero product(s).

While a corporation's audience used to center around shareholders and Wall Street, consumers are increasingly aware of the companies behind the brands they use. With blogging, fast news cycles and information readily accessible via the web, everything from scandals to sustainability and philanthropic efforts are seen by all. I believe it will be increasingly common for corporations to distinguish themselves from their brands. A recent example of this shift in thinking is the Kraft Foods name change to Mondelez.

End consumers just aren't savvy enough to understand the difference when the name is the same. Is there a difference between The Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola? Pepsi and PepsiCo? Johnson's Baby and Johnson &amp; Johnson? A prime example is when the Examiner ran the Horse Meat story, they used a Nestle product brand logo that usually goes on confections instead of the Nestle corporate logo for their article. Were they trying to be misleading? Probably not. It's hard to keep track.

<img class="alignleft  wp-image-6066" title="3_ExaminerHorse" src="http://www.cbx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/3_ExaminerHorse1.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="492" />

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Here are a few examples of companies that see it both ways.

<strong>The Clorox Company</strong>
Everyone knows Clorox bleach so the company uses different logos to differentiate the two entities. I'm OK with The Clorox Company making Fresh Step but not so sure about Hidden Valley Ranch.

<strong>Miller Coors</strong>
Miller Coors just makes beer but a lot more than just Miller or Coors. About 30 more including Blue Moon and Foster's are made here.

<strong>Unilever</strong>
Unilever makes everything from food to personal care. They endorse most of them with a logo on pack but have no Unilever branded products.

<strong>ConAgra Foods</strong>
It's in the name. Food is the focus. They have a smiley face to their corporate logo and talk about “the foods you love.”

So, what should Nestle do in wake of the horse meat scandal? Should they change their name to separate themselves from their products? Would a headline that read "Foodmaker NutriCorpa finds horse DNA in their Buitoni brand pasta" have helped them a month ago?

Really Nestle should just ride it out. They should cooperate in any investigations and even conduct their own. It doesn't seem to be their fault and since it involves many companies and brands, no one is concentrating solely on them. Nestle is huge, with 29 brands having over a billion dollars in sales. They shouldn't over-react and a name change right now would not suit a company of their size. In the future, though it should definitely be a consideration.