Standard Life Aberdeen announced name change to modernize brand identity

Standard Life Aberdeen, is a UK-based global life assurance company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, is changing its name to Abrdn PLC. This news about the asset manager’s label was revealed on Monday, April 26.

The new brand and how to pronounce “Abrdn”

As per Reuters, Standard Life Aberdeen explained that its move to revise its name is part of the company’s plan to boost and update the firm’s brand. Now, while the new name lacks vowel letters, the company said that “Abrdn” will still be pronounced as “Aberdeen.”

"Our new brand Abrdn builds on our heritage and is modern, dynamic and, most importantly, engaging for all of our client and customer channels," Stephen Bird, Abrdn’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “Our new name reflects the clarity of focus that the leadership team is bringing to the business as we seek to deliver sustainable growth.”

SLA stated that the rollout process for the new label and rebranding would start in the summer and continue throughout 2021. During this time, the public can expect to see all the signage, logo, and everything else to bear the new name and layout. Moreover, the company will implement the full shareholder engagement scheme to govern the transformation.

Rebranding criticized by experts

The firms’ spokesperson said that changing the name from SLA to Abrdn will allow the company to own digital assets, including websites, without issues as people will not confuse it with the city of Aberdeen anymore. However, The Guardian reported that many experts on branding criticized the name change move.

“This is ill-thought-out, it could be pronounced ‘a burden’,” brand expert, Jonathan Gabay, said. “They are a financial company and what they do for customers is look at details, getting rid of vowels and letters makes it look like they’ve skipped over the most basic details in their name.”

The news outlet further mentioned that the new name was developed by Wolff Olins, a branding agency, but critics are saying that removing the vowels in “Aberdeen” can result in spelling and pronunciation problems.

“Investors need simple fund names that are recognizable among the thousands of investments that are out there,” Laith Khalaf, a financial analyst at AJ Bell investment company, explained why Abrdn could cause an issue. “The fact that Standard Life Aberdeen has actually had to explain how to pronounce the new name won’t be lost on financial advisers up and down the country, whose clients may well think they’ve punched a typo into a hastily written report.”