Latest news with #Consignia
Telegraph
11-04-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
If Royal Mail stopped messing about with solar-powered postboxes, maybe it could deliver our letters on time
Back when I was a cub reporter, it was an unspoken rule that all stories about postal services must contain the phrase 'red letter day'. Or, if it was some sort of charity event, 'posties put their best feet forward and delivered a first-class service' as they tossed pancakes at a care home or gave sports day at a children's centre their 'stamp of approval'. It's hard to believe there was once a time when mention of the good old Royal Mail evoked warm fuzzies rather than Munchian howls of existential angst. These days it's a byword for sclerotic inefficiency, operating what is literally a postcode lottery as to whether householders receive no post at all or a great, big tatty bundle that has been accumulating at the depot for weeks. Missed birthday cards and mislaid hospital appointments, traffic fines that arrive too late to appeal and most recently at Woods Towers, a reconditioned mobile phone that somehow went AWOL even though it was being tracked. Royal Mail, which posted losses of £348 million last year, has repeatedly failed to meet its targets; last December the company was fined a record £10.5 million after delivering more than one in four first-class letters late. It's been a long decline from trusted institution to basket case. In 2001 it underwent a rebrand to embrace the meaningless 'Consignia', before performing a humiliating reverse ferret 16 months later. And still it haemorrhaged money. Now, just as Ofcom plans to compel Royal Mail to deliver virtually all first-class letters within three days, the postal service is bleating that would be 'too expensive'. Expensive? Try paying out £17 for 10 first-class stamps, mate. While parcels are a growth area, it has gone from delivering 20 billion letters annually two decades ago to just 6.6 billion today. And how does the Royal Mail respond to the gloom? By unveiling five novelty solar-powered post boxes, each with a built-in barcode reader and – ooh, look – a hatch to accept parcels. As diversionary tactics go, it's another toe-curling failure. I fully support solar energy – if the company had installed rooftop solar panels on its offices and depots, it would at least show a common sense willingness to slash its energy costs. But hyperventilating about five 'trial' post boxes is an insult to our intelligence and bespeaks an organisation that hasn't a clue how to rescue itself from the quagmire. The adage 'do one job and do it well' springs to mind. I have no idea what is so complicated about delivering the mail on time, but I do know that solar-operated post boxes are not going to solve the problem.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
If Royal Mail stopped messing about with solar-powered postboxes, maybe it could deliver our letters on time
Back when I was a cub reporter, it was an unspoken rule that all stories about postal services must contain the phrase 'red letter day'. Or, if it was some sort of charity event, 'posties put their best feet forward and delivered a first-class service' as they tossed pancakes at a care home or gave sports day at a children's centre their 'stamp of approval'. It's hard to believe there was once a time when mention of the good old Royal Mail evoked warm fuzzies rather than Munchian howls of existential angst. These days it's a byword for sclerotic inefficiency, operating what is literally a postcode lottery as to whether householders receive no post at all or a great, big tatty bundle that has been accumulating at the depot for weeks. Missed birthday cards and mislaid hospital appointments, traffic fines that arrive too late to appeal and most recently at Woods Towers, a reconditioned mobile phone that somehow went AWOL even though it was being tracked. Royal Mail, which posted losses of £348 million last year, has repeatedly failed to meet its targets; last December the company was fined a record £10.5 million after delivering more than one in four first-class letters late. It's been a long decline from trusted institution to basket case. In 2001 it underwent a rebrand to embrace the meaningless 'Consignia', before performing a humiliating reverse ferret 16 months later. And still it haemorrhaged money. Now, just as Ofcom plans to compel Royal Mail to deliver virtually all first-class letters within three days, the postal service is bleating that would be 'too expensive'. Expensive? Try paying out £17 for 10 first-class stamps, mate. While parcels are a growth area, it has gone from delivering 20 billion letters annually two decades ago to just 6.6 billion today. And how does the Royal Mail respond to the gloom? By unveiling five novelty solar-powered post boxes, each with a built-in barcode reader and – ooh, look – a hatch to accept parcels. As diversionary tactics go, it's another toe-curling failure. I fully support solar energy – if the company had installed rooftop solar panels on its offices and depots, it would at least show a common sense willingness to slash its energy costs. But hyperventilating about five 'trial' post boxes is an insult to our intelligence and bespeaks an organisation that hasn't a clue how to rescue itself from the quagmire. The adage 'do one job and do it well' springs to mind. I have no idea what is so complicated about delivering the mail on time, but I do know that solar-operated post boxes are not going to solve the problem. I'm so frustrated, I'm inclined to write a stiff letter of complaint – but let's face it, chances are it will get lost in the post. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
New York Times
07-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
When Corporate Rebranding Goes Wrong
Hw cn brnds sty cl? Nt by drpping vwls, one of Britain's biggest investment firms concluded this week, when it announced it was adding back the 'e's' to its name four years after dropping them. The 200-year-old company is now called aberdeen group, effectively reversing a decision to rebrand as abrdn in 2021 in a bid to pitch itself as a 'modern, agile, digitally-enabled brand.' The decision four years ago was widely ridiculed. James Windsor, who took over as chief executive last year, said on Tuesday that it was time to 'remove distractions' — less than two months after saying he had no plans to change the name. Corporate rebrands can be critical to signifying a strategy shift but they also come with risks when companies veer too far from their purpose. Aberdeen's vowel-dropping rebrand was just the latest example of a company reversing course after a new name failed to lift its performance or its reputation with customers. The Perils of Chasing Trends Removing vowels from brand names or using a name with a deliberately misspelled word was not uncommon in the 2000s, especially among trendy technology companies. Businesses including Grindr, Flickr, Tumblr and even twttr, as Twitter (now X) was initially called, embraced the aesthetic. But today, that style can look out of date and embarrassing, said Laura Bailey, a senior lecturer in linguistics at the University of Kent. Often, when companies try to appear trendy, 'by the time they get to it, it's been around for too long,' Dr. Bailey said. 'It's like your parents doing it — it doesn't seem right.' When it comes to financial companies, she added, another aspect to consider is: Do these businesses want to be cool, or should they go for a name that projects security and responsibility? A History of Rebranding Misses (and Some Hits) Over the years, there have been several failed rebranding efforts. In 2009, PepsiCo U-turned less than two months after Tropicana, its juice brand at the time, introduced new packaging that featured a glass of orange juice instead of its famous orange with a straw poking out of it. Angry customers described the new look as 'ugly' and resembling 'a generic bargain brand.' A year later, Gap took even less time to reverse course after unveiling a widely panned new logo for its stores that dropped the famous white lettering on a blue background that the brand had used for decades. The retailer took about a week to go back to its original rendering. 'OK,' the company said in a statement. 'We've heard loud and clear that you don't like the new logo.' Britain's Post Office in 2001 was widely mocked when it renamed itself Consignia. The chairman, Neville Bain, said at the time that the new name would reflect that the office delivered much more than mail. Consignia lasted for about a year before the Post Office name was restored. Some corporate rebrands have been effective. In 2012, Kraft Foods chose Mondelez International as the new name for its snacking business — which includes brands such as Oreos and Philadelphia cream cheese — from nearly 2,000 names suggested by employees. 'Mondelez' was an invented word that combined 'monde,' the French word for 'world,' and 'delez,' a made-up word intended to suggest 'delicious.' So, 'delicious world.' In 2001, Andersen Consulting became Accenture after splitting from Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm. The new name was chosen from 5,500 options, which were whittled down to 500 and then 10 before the firm eventually went with Accenture 'because it implies accent on the future,' The New York Times reported at the time. Despite some skepticism, the brand has endured and the company has grown into a consulting behemoth with a stock market capitalization of about $215 billion. Are Lowercase Letters a Good Thing? Aberdeen has not completely gone back to its original name, choosing to keep its logo all lowercase. That puts it in line with a trend of teenagers not using capital letters when texting, Dr. Bailey noted. 'It seems more friendly, or nicer,' she said, adding that companies sometimes try to change their names to be more informal to project a personal image, rather than that of a big corporation. Still, they risk setting themselves up for another scenario in which their name will look out of date in a year, she added.
