Even Osama Bin Laden Thought he had a Branding Problem!

Wow! Osama contemplated changing the name of al-Qua’ida to boost its appeal to potential recruits, according to papers just released by US intelligence agencies. Since rebranding is a huge undertaking, here are a few shortcut ideas written in memory of the late leader:

1. Consider adopting a uniformed spelling – Jeez! Just when we grew accustomed to spelling it “Al Qaida”, you go ahead and add a dash and change it to Al-Qaida. Or spell it Al-Kaida, al-Quaeda Al Quaida, etc.  For SEO purposes, please retain one spelling at all times. And don’t forget to capture all of the misspellings and redirects so that they don’t get usurped by the US.

2. Change Al Quaida to the acronym AQ. – “Q” is an underutilized  letter and it will certainly boost recall. And after all, an acronym seemed to work for KFC.

3. Pour a ton of money into a new logo – Surely a bright new logo, perhaps a simple square a la Gap, will help with recruiting efforts.

Of course, if none of these work, let’s not forget that your organization’s core competency is terrorism activity so all of these suggestions might seriously backfire!

What’s the Lesson Here? Rebranding is a realistic solution when the negatives of a brand name outweigh the positives. Remember that you will always lose brand equity on the first name in order to harness the power of the new name.