Twitter isn’t the primary firm to vary names. How’d it work out for a few of these different companies?
You’ve certainly heard the information {that a} sure enormous, well-established Web firm is altering its identify. That’s proper, Overstock.com is formally turning into BedBathandBeyond.com!
What? You thought I used to be referring to Elon Musk altering Twitter.com to X? I suppose that’s massive information, too, however I’m extra fascinated by Overstock.com’s resolution as a result of the folks operating Overstock have a a lot better sense in regards to the potential penalties of a poorly executed identify change. In any case, when you won’t keep in mind this about Overstock, and so they most likely hope you’ve forgotten, the corporate already tried altering its identify as soon as. In actual fact, in 2011, greater than a decade earlier than Elon Musk’s present try to modify from “Twitter” to “X”, Overstock’s then-management group determined their website would henceforth be often known as O.co.
How’d Overstock’s change to a one-letter identify exercise? Not so nice…
The corporate spent tons of of tens of millions of {dollars} on the whole lot from TV commercials to renaming the Oakland Coliseum the O.co Coliseum. However your entire plan embarrassingly blew up of their faces. Shoppers didn’t perceive that “.co” was a legitimate area identify, so that they stored typing in “O.com,” and, in consequence, Overstock’s web site was shedding tens of millions of tourists.
Whoops!
Whereas the change to a single-letter naming scheme is a enjoyable coincidence between the tales of Overstock and Twitter, the extra essential similarity is the purported motive the 2 corporations modified their names.
Within the case of Overstock, firm leaders felt like an “overstock” model was inhibiting their means to increase into different industrial markets with larger revenue margins (e.g. luxurious items, high-end style, state-of-the-art electronics, etcetera). That they had hassle securing items from corporations who didn’t need their merchandise branded as “overstock,” and customers weren’t all the time fascinated by shopping for costlier items in the event that they appeared like producer surplus.