Hi Jessie. I enjoyed reading your post for Task 2 “Does Language Shape the Way We Think”. The section of Dr. Boroditsky’s video presentation “How Language Shapes Thought” regarding rebranding prune juice was also interesting to me. Companies spend portions of their income on marketing and branding. The larger and more global the company, the more investment is made in marketing strategies. Company departments and outside agencies are hired specifically to work on rebranding strategies. On average, companies that spend 5% of revenue on business-to-business (B2B) marketing will spend between 10% – 20% of this budget on rebranding (Lauck, 2019).

After reading your post, I checked online for recent company rebranding which occurred based in part by cultural shifts. Examples online of companies that rebranded based on cultural shifts (Gross & Hauser, 2021):

  1. Kentucky Fried Chicken changed to KFC to eliminate people saying “fried” in order to appear to be a more health-conscious franchise
  2. Weight Watchers changed to WW to broaden its customer base from not only those who want to lose weight, but those who want to build healthier habits and lifestyle
  3. Aunt Jemima changed to Pearl Milling Company due to criticism that the name and logo was rooted in racist imagery and slavery. The name was changed after the killing of George Floyd.

References:

Boroditsky, L. (2011). How language shapes thought. Scientific American, 304(2), 62-65

Gross, J. & Hauser, C. (November 2, 2021). 8 companies that changed their names to signal a strategy shift. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/business/meta-fb.html#:~:text=According%20to%20one%20expert%2C%20rebranding,increasingly%20looked%20for%20healthier%20choices.

Lauck, T. (2019). Rebranding costs and strategy. HiveMind Studios. Retrieved from https://www.hivemindinc.com/insights/rebranding-costs/