BrandPie rebrands Ernst & Young as EY
BrandPie has rebranded financial services company Ernst and Young as EY and helped it re-position itself with the proposition ‘Building a Better Working World.’
According to BrandPie partner Kevin Keohane the consultancy was brought in to help evocate a new business strategy for EY, which is now being led by new chief executive Mark Weinburger.
Keohane says that against a backdrop of financial uncertainty EY wants to position itself as ‘more progressive, contemporary and confident people focussed copmany.’
In terms of tone of voice the ‘Building a Better Working World’ strapline is explained with secondary information such as, ‘In a better working world trust increases, so capital flows smoothly and investors make informed decisions.’
As the company was known variously as ‘Ernst and Young, Ernst, and ENY’ Keohane says a new name was chosen that could be used globally.
The new identity is expressed with the existing ‘beam identifier’ which will be used as a device as more communications are developed. A grey and yellow colour palette has been kept.
Did they not think to pop EY into Google first?
My initial response to this contraction of the globally recognized, even revered, name of Ernst & Young is how sad. I have no issue with the positioning but is it so revolutionary that it requires a change of name with the inherent risk, ridicule and disruption that comes with it? Couldn’t the story have been woven around the yellow beam and a new device created that shows how Ernst & Young has evolved? Sad…
Perhaps the 40 million spent on rebranding would have been better invested in retaining staff – for example keeping the Glasgow based IT staff instead of making them all redundant and outsourcing to yet another Eastern European company who will provide a substandard service.
“Keohane says a new name was chosen that could be used globally.”
You mean like in China, the largest country in the world, where “ee-why” sounds exactly like ?? and means “accident”?
“Keohane says a new name was chosen that could be used globally.”
You mean like in China, the largest country in the world, where “ee-why” sounds exactly like ?? and means “accident”?