Aberdeen's return to vowels: 'It had no choice but to change it back'

Initial rebrand an ‘expensive and confusing’ marketing mistake, advisers say

Isabel Baxter
clock • 3 min read

Following the news that Abrdn will be changing its name back to Aberdeen in a bid to “remove distractions”, industry commentators have said that “it had no choice” but to change it back.

Standard Life Aberdeen adopted the name Abrdn back in 2021, following the sale of the Standard Life brand to Phoenix Group. At the time, the asset manager said that the vowel-banishing change reflected a "modern, agile, digitally enabled brand".  As part of its full year results released today (4 March), the asset manager said the name change is a "pragmatic decision marking a new phase for the organisation and removing distractions, this is a name change not a re-brand, so there is no change to visual identity".  "It was clearly not working," The Yardstick Agency founder and di...

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