a rose by another name

[luckysealy]

i have noticed a few brands are being relabeled/given another name. i have read of others being renamed in the past. i am curious if anyone knows why they do this. is it because the product is so unpopular they are hoping to fool people into trying them again. a bit like windows vista mojave project? i get cracked up every time i see those commercials. always works great showing people they will like your product if you can deceive them first. lol

[joshua]

Brand name recognition goes a long way. It's not to start selling a product that sucks, they'd be risking the quality of their name on that. Instead they're taking a product that they think is quality but isn't getting a fair shake due to it's lack of name recognition.

At least that's my drunken theory.

[Slydel]

Examples so I can comment. I guess I am not up on this topic.

[Norwester]

Phantom is Rothbrix now.

[itchystiches]

Rothbrix? What type of name is that!

I guess maybe their is some subjectivity to be applied to this discussion. I think perhaps in 'the West' (meaning the UK/US/Canada) we are pretty much suckers for branding and tend to be pretty brand loyal (I'm told I'm one of the worst for this -- I'll stick by my brands till the bitter end and have difficulty justifying my choices a lot of the time).

However, having spent quite a lot of time in mainland Europe, I've noticed they have a bit of a different approach to it... for example, in Germany... people just refused to buy food-products on brand name. For example, take Aldi... really good products, really good prices... but remain relatively unpopular in 'the West' simply because we love our Whole Foods, Waitrose and Sainsbury's....

I expect their is a similar approach to brand names in Nordic countries. Perhaps they enjoy having something 'new' or whatever and don't really recognize the value of allowing a brand to become a representation of self? I can't really say for certain but it wouldn't surprise me if their motivations were something along these lines....

Either way, although obviously this situation is changing, it is important to consider this from the point-of-view of Snus manufacturers principal market... which is of course Sweden and Norway.

My 2c.

--
IS

[mercvrivs]

"They" said that Phantom was becoming Rothbrix. However, V2's site says nothing about it, and despite predictions that it would happen in January, nothing has come of it. Furthermore, the claims on Getsnus that the name would be changing have been removed. I hope that they decided to keep the awesome name "Phantom." The name is so badass that you can't even argue against it, it's like a force of nature itself.

[Jason]

Examples so I can comment. I guess I am not up on this topic.

http://www.getsnus.com/snus/index.as...Dry_Peppermint

I still don't really understand the point of this one, but oh well.... :?

[SeneNatten]

I'd guess the Catch/General branding has to do with gender marketing. Catch is feminine; soft colors and fonts, whatnot. General is masculine; contrasty and assertive. Swedish Match probably found out that masculine packaging would do better for that product.

The most blatant example of this is Romeo y Julieta. Compare the advertising copy for their regular and mini portions.

Containing the same fine hand-selected tobacco as its male counterpart, the Romeo y Julieta female brand comes in a classic smaller tin; packaging that illustrates the fire and emotion of William Shakespeare’s lovers.

We acquire what we identify with; we avoid things that clash with our identity. Americans tend to do this with product purchases, and I'd guess that few humans are immune. I mean, how many men wear skirts?

[lxskllr]

I mean, how many men wear skirts?

I do...Well sort of :^D

http://www.utilikilts.com/

[v2]

Hi
Phantom sold i EU will keep the name Phantom. It is reg. to V2 for whole EU.
A company has registered the Phantom name for tobacco products in US, so we can not use the phantom name for products sold in US. Everything is the same, just not the name.

[cocsp2002]

And there you have it. Too bad, too. Phantom is such a cool name.

[luckysealy]

thank you v2, that makes more sense. now if i could figure out why catch peppermint is now general mini mint.