"It was Tuesday in August when we heard the news: Following years of public acrimony and litigation, arbiter Guillermo Gamba ruled that our client, Andersen Consulting, would have to change its name by January 1, 2001. This was part of a separation from its parent company, Anderson Consulting. We had four months to come up with a new corporate identity In fact, we needed to create an entirely new brand system - identity, signage, business cards and more - which would be unveiled to a waiting world on 01/01/01."
"As Global Director of Naming and Writing at Landor Associates, Andersen Consulting's branding agency of record, I was in an emergency meeting with all the major players in leadership and branding, advertising, marketing and PR. The discussion on implications, roles, responsibilities, and timing of the rebrand was led by Andersen Consulting's Global Managing Director of Marketing & Communications, a man whose previous role as Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff at Halliburton lent the moment its particular gravitas."
"Andersen Consulting was no ordinary client, and this would be no ordinary assignment. As I look back across 36 years of my career, Accenture stands alone among a thousand naming projects utterly unlike any other. By 2000, I had four years under my belt at Landor directing naming, nomenclature, and name strategy for Andersen Consulting's market-facing services and offerings. I got the sense that Andersen Consulting's work for its clients required an extraordinary level of precision and diligence."
Guillermo Gamba ordered Andersen Consulting to change its name by January 1, 2001, as part of a separation from its parent, Anderson Consulting. The team had only four months and roughly 80 days to develop a complete global brand system including identity, signage, and materials to launch on 01/01/01. Landor Associates led naming and writing efforts in an emergency collaboration with Andersen Consulting leadership, marketing, and PR. The assignment demanded exceptional precision because the client implemented complex business and technology systems for large enterprises and countries. The rebrand faced substantial global availability and trademark hurdles across dozens of classes and many countries.
Read at Fortune
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]