Total becomes TotalEnergies. Renaming with strategy.

One of the largest oil companies – namely Total – has changed its name. The generic term “oil” – which was still innovative and influential when the French company “Compagnie française des pétroles (CFP)” was founded in 1924 – is certainly no longer desired by the company and may not be appropriate in the future. Because with the new name TotalEnergies, the company wants to transform itself and communicate this to the outside world with the new name – along with the logo in rainbow colours.

The new multi-energy company

With the name change, the transformation into a multi-energy company has reached the highest brand level. The name and visual identity are intended to make the new course immediately recognisable. TotalEnergies Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné explains: “In order to contribute to the sustainable development of the planet in the face of the climate challenge, we are today moving together towards new energies. Energy is reinventing itself and this energy journey is ours. Our goal is to be a key player in the energy transition. That is why Total is transforming itself and changing its name to TotalEnergies”.

A name should be followed by action

But communication is not the end of the story. For example, the company wants to achieve an output of 100 gigawatts of renewable energies by 2030. In addition, the company is showing initiative in the field of electromobility. TotalEnergies wants to install 2,200 more charging points in Amsterdam alone.
Is this greenwashing by naming or a sustainable shift? What is clear is that oil fuels are controversial. Politicians also seem to prefer alternatives. And also the courts – which recently sentenced the oil company Shell, among others, to lower CO2 emissions – make one direction clear: away from oil, towards alternative energies. The important thing for TotalEnergies now is that the change actually takes place and is recognisable.

The name is a statement

“It is precisely the ambition that the new name makes clear,” says brand expert and managing director of the naming agency NAMBOS Markus Lindlar. “After all, the focus is on energy – which is obtained and made available from different resources – not on oil, which currently has a negative connotation. The retention of the well-known and formative component Total is the right thing to do, because Total has a high level of awareness and thus a great brand value. Through the combination with the quickly understandable addition “Energies” and the new logo, the realignment quickly becomes clear and provides a simple communication basis for the change process of the group,” says the professional name finder.

“Keeping the name Total also makes sense for reasons of trademark law and economics,” as NAMBOS trademark lawyer Peter A. Ströll knows, “because the development, testing and enforcement of a completely new name – which might have made the change process even clearer – is costly and always associated with risks. Such a complete detachment from the old name only makes sense if this name – through whatever significant (!) negative or circumstances – is sustainably “burnt” or no longer strategically viable.”

Similar companies, similar strategies

BP took a similar path in this respect a long time ago, albeit in a way that is not so readily recognisable to the outside world. BP used to stand for “British Petroleum”. Due to the merger with the American company Amoco, the adjective “British” was removed from the company name more than 20 years ago. In addition, the company wanted to open up to other energies and position itself more “cleanly”, which is why BP has since stood for “beyond petroleum”. BP also opted for a new logo that is more reminiscent of a sun or sunflower.

The Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil has completely changed its name and since 2018 no longer has “oil” in its name. The name change to Equinor is intended to support the company’s “strategy and development as a broad energy company”, as the group announced when it introduced the new group name. Replacing it with a completely new name is, of course, the most radical thing to do, but in doing so it naturally offers a completely new approach.

So the strategy of changing the name – in various guises (from the new derivation at BP, the addition of a new term at TotalEnergies and the use of a completely new name at Equinor) is not new, and TotalEnergie is sending a strong signal with the new name and logo. “Now the company must also follow this signal and act according to its communicative promise. Because that is also important: you have to keep what you promise. Otherwise you damage your brand,” says Markus Lindlar from NAMBOS.

DB Rent will become Deutsche Bahn Connect. This group division does not only takes care of “rental”, but will grow into the future of mobility. The company stands for clever and “connective” mobility and offers holistic mobility solutions. The company links its offerings, which range from intelligent fleet solutions to sharing products which can be combined with the travel services of Deutsche Bahn.

“In the future, it will be more important than ever before to combine a wide range of mobility offers in line with demand. Our promise to customers is: Cleverly networked mobility. This is the origin of our new name: Deutsche Bahn Connect,” says Sylvia Lier, the company’s CEO.

This is also emphasised by Björn Bender: “Soon there will no longer be a demand for individual mobility components, but for mobility as a whole”

Deutsche Bahn is therefore positioning itself much more broadly in this innovative area and would like to transport this wide mobility spectrum in a way that is quickly comprehensible, also in its new brand name. NAMBOS developed many different name options in the course of the naming process. The results have been discussed in intensive naming workshops. NAMBOS also carried out the brand research and language analysis so that the company could start with the necessary brand and trade name security.

Cevec Pharmaceuticals is the leading provider of high performance cell technology for the production of advanced biotherapeutics.
Cevec has now launched the ELEVECTA® platform, a unique technology for the large-scale production of AAV (adeno-associated viral) vectors.

Now Cevec is the first and only supplier on the market offering a technology for the production of AAV gene therapy vectors based on fully stable producer cell lines.
The proprietary technology has been tested in pilot projects with several partners and is now commercially available to pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

NAMBOS developed in an international naming project the new brand name.
The name was derived from the lexical terms element and vector.

We are counting the fourth – now digital – industrial revolution, which is now in full swing. What for a long time remained an abstract term has now found its way into the form of digital transformation across industries – but also in the development of names: The Industry 4.0.

This transformation from analogue to digital also affects one of Germany’s economic pillars, the engineering industry. This new world offers many advantages, for example in the form of digital twins to test innovations for their opportunities and potential risks. Production times are reduced and manufacturing is becoming more efficient and faster overall, while at the same time becoming more flexible and safer. These advantages apply to everyone, both to the industry giants such as Siemens and GE and to the numerous medium-sized companies such as Dürr, Voith, Trumpf or Phoenix Contact.

However, the path from traditional industrial enterprise to industry 4.0 is an elementary process and requires numerous upheavals – both in action and in thinking. New digital platforms offer innovative possibilities for the development of new business fields. These platforms are so important for many companies that they often receive an independent and “different” name. This is often a novelty, as in the past products often only received differentiating type designations. Now, however, these names should also reflect the digital transformation, illustrating innovative power and dynamics. This does not always fit in with the  company name.”Companies that still have the digital transformation ahead of them should therefore think carefully about existing and new brands and seek advice, because new approaches also require innovative thinking and impulses from outside,” recommends Markus Lindlar, Managing Director and linguist from NAMBOS.

Siemens, for example, has introduced the Digital Entreprise Suite. This name describes the product and is therefore immediately accessible to the user. On the other hand, however, it only works in combination with the company group name, it does not work alone. A competitor, GE, has gone a step further by calling its platform Predix. The name is somewhat more abstract, although its generic derivation from the term “predict” is still clearly visible. Moreover, it can be used rather detached from the group name and is emotionally charged.
Independent, self-confident and strong, the digital solution of the manufacturer Dürr presents itself under the abstract-looking name Loxeo. This name development by NAMBOS is artificial and forms its own independent brand, yet it can be derived from terms like “look” or “access”. The Voith company has also given its platform its own name, taking up the theme of the digital data cloud. Its platform name OnCumulus is derived on the one hand from the data cloud, and on the other hand from accumulation, the accumulation (of data).
“It is important,” says NAMBOS creation manager Markus Lindlar, “that the new name reflects the digital transformation of the company and also fits in with the company’s future strategy and orientation. This opportunity to start the disruptive processes should also be made clear in such a new product name.

The Schober Information Group has been advised by the naming agency NAMBOS for the market launch of its new software solution product.

Europe’s leading marketing service provider helps customers in the international arena to create and maintain profitable customer relationships by providing and processing data. This know-how is now bundled in various software products and offered to customers for independent market development.

In this context, the question arose as to how the naming of these products should be strategically undertaken.
Schober decided to create a new strong umbrella brand for the software offerings that were “outstanding” from Schober’s previous fields of activity. Based on this customer and product situation, NAMBOS developed the custom-fit strategy solution and, within the framework of the name development on this basis, the internationally usable brand name “capaneo”was created.

Capaneo is a rather abstract designation with high brand potential. Markus Lindlar, head of brand name development at NAMBOS, comments: “It makes perfect sense to rely on very independent names for an umbrella brand concept. Because with umbrella brands, the communication power is bundled, but an independence can also be depicted in the overall portfolio. However, the umbrella brand must not be restrictive with regard to certain topics or technologies, but must be able to combine all current and future product ideas under the respective cluster”.

The name “capaneo” refers to the high performance (capacity) and innovative character (neo) of the products. The individual product names are formed by combining the umbrella brand with a descriptive addition. A sample is available for this addition, according to which a uniform designation is made. For example, there is the “capaneo LeadDriver”, a software for lead management. With the “capaneo DataDriver” the customer has a data management platform for individualised customer approach. “This naming strategy enables the use of very descriptive names, as they can be protected in combination with the brand name ‘capaneo’ and can therefore be monopolised by the company”, says NAMBOS lawyer Peter Ströll.