Product name changes - why?

[Jonny69]

Inspired by this thread what's the point in companies changing the name of their products?

Some examples of well established brands that have pointlessly changed:

Immac - now Veet (as in other thread)
Marathon - now Snickers
Opal Fruits - now Starburst
Coco Pops - went to Choco Crispies - now Coco Pops again
Jif - now Cif
Oil of Ulay - now Oil of Olay

I know there are others but in the case of Coco Pops they didn't even change the advert jingle "I'd rather have a bowl of Choco Crispies..." I mean who high up in the company listens to that and thinks 'yeah that works'? It's not even like you could get a lot of this stuff abroad so it can't be to conform with an international brand. Enlighten me

 

[Jonny69]

Opal Fruits: Made To Make Your Mouth Water

Legendary advert jingle that can never be bettered with Starburst

 

[Jonny69]

Aaaagh I remember when they were called Treets

Were they the old Melts in the mouth not in the hand things?

 

[Jonny69]

The Spaniards pronouncing Jif as "yeef" being another reason for the change.

So what are we supposed to say? Sif, chif, kif, seef, cheef or keef?

I think what I'm trying to say is our products were called what they were because they had names that made sense to us and we could pronounce them

 

[Jonny69]

And damnit, our flag, the Union Jack is now called the Union Flag. I know it's only a jack when it's on a ship but damnit that's what it's been known as all my life so why does it have to change now?

 

[Jonny69]

On the subject of foreign adverts, is it really that expensive for hair product companies to make a new advert for English? Most of the time it's an American actress dubbed over with an English voice, I mean how crap does it look vs how much difference it would make if it wasn't dubbed over? The latest one is Davina McCall dubbed over BY HERSELF!!!