WorldCom Mulls Name Change To Leave Scandal Behind

from the waste-o'-money dept

Because analysts and top executives seem to think that most people are fairly stupid, Worldcom is considering options to change its name to avoid being "tainted" by the scandal that drove the company into bankruptcy. The leading candidate is to take the MCI name from their subsidiary and rebrand the entire company with the name. There are a few issues with that. First, many people already associate MCI with Worldcom, so it might not do much good. Second, the picture people have of MCI as a cut-rate telephone company might not be the image the company wants to project either. The other option is to make up an entirely new name, like Cingular or Verizon. This will cost a ridiculous amount of money (both to branding/marketing consultants and towards a marketing campaing). In the end, most people will still know it's the same exact company, minus many millions of dollars wasted on a useless renaming excercise. Doesn't the company have more important issues to deal with right now?