Tag: abrdn

Aberdeen – Basic Branding Mistakes Repeated

Highlighted in a lead article in the FT today is the failure of what used to be named Standard Life Aberdeen to get their branding right. They report that several advisors told the company not to use the proposed name of Abrdn which has been widely ridiculed. The company has now decided to use simply “Aberdeen”.

Now I have some knowledge of this subject and the latest choice is no better. Aberdeen is the name of a city and hence not easily protectable as a registered trademark. The web address http://www.aberdeen.com is also already in use by someone else.

They should have started from scratch with a new and easily protectable name. Better late than never is the motto here.

Aviva is a good example of a wise and successful name change from CGNU, Commercial Union and Norwich Union. It can be done even if it takes some time for customers to get used to a new name. But trying to use a name like Aberdeen just shows that whoever made that decision does not understand the basics of sound branding.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson  )

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Interactive Investor Acquired

Interactive Investor have announced that they are being acquired by Abrdn, reportedly for £1.5 billion. Interactive Investor have been providing a popular and low-cost share dealing platform for private investors and have been owned by JC Flowers recently. Interactive acquired The Share Centre a few months back and now have about 400,000 clients.

At least it looks like Interactive Investor clients won’t have to learn their way around a new platform as there is a commitment to keep the business as a separate operating entity with existing management and the same pricing while Abrdn have relatively few direct retail clients. Abrdn are a large fund manager though so no doubt we will see the Interactive Investor platform promoting their funds in due course. But any changes might be of concern to existing Interactive clients.

The comment published in the FT is relevant: “The most successful platforms in recent years have been those independently owned, said David McCann, analyst at Numis. He said creeping bureaucracy, lack of management focus and the worst sin of trying to cross-sell products from the parent group to platform customers amount to very real risks for the success of the tie-up”.

That pretty much sums up my view of the likely benefits or disbenefits of this merger although clearly Abrdn have larger financial resources that might help Interactive Investor in an increasingly competitive platform world. But will large company management really understand the needs of retail investors?

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson  )

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Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Proposes Name Change – Vote Against It!

The Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust (SLS) is proposing to change its name. The managers are currently Aberdeen Standard Fund Managers Limited but the name “Standard Life” has been sold to Phoenix Group so a change of name is not unreasonable.

Of course this is the kind of problem that arises when a trust is named after the fund manager. It also causes problems if the board of directors of the trust decides to change the manager which is not a rare event. Much better to choose a unique name which is not associated with the manager and which makes a good trade mark.

Investment trusts should not appear to be poodles of the fund manager which using the manager’s name gives the impression is the case.

What is the proposed new name? It’s “abrdn UK Smaller Companies Growth Trust Plc” (and no that’s not a typo – just the modern idiot fashion to decapitalise names). The word “abrdn” is the new name for the Aberdeen Group.

I recommend shareholders vote against this proposal and ask the directors to come up with a better name that they alone own, as I shall be doing. As an exercise in rebranding the proposed new name is not a good choice however one looks at it.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson  )

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