Important news coming out of the business world this week, with the stunning announcement that the Campbell’s Soup Company is changing its name after 155 years to simply the Campbell’s Company. It’s all still subject to stakeholder approval, but you can feel the tremors on Wall Street from here.
But, let’s let the CEO of the Campbell’s (Soup) Company describe the precise reasoning behind this change:
This subtle yet important change retains the company’s iconic name recognition, reputation and equity built over 155 years while better reflecting the full breadth of the company’s portfolio.
Mark Clouse, President and CEO of the Campbell’s (Soup) Company
Couldn’t have said nothing better myself …
Still, let’s examine that statement a little bit more closely, especially the last part where the name change is “better reflecting (of) the full breadth of the company’s portfolio.” If I understand this all correctly (and bear in mind that I’m a biologist and not a businessman), you go from Campbell’s Soup Company, which directly indicates soup and therefore more generally food to simply Campbell’s Company, which directly indicates what exactly?
On a more important note, who really cares and why is this even newsworthy?
For starters, hands up anyone who knew that the company making Campbell’s soup was officially known as the Campbell’s Soup Company and not just Campbell’s. Even Wikipedia says that they do business simply as Campbell’s.
Which leads into the main point: it’s just a name. You can call your company anything you like. It doesn’t have to mean anything, especially after you have brand recognition like Campbell’s does. I mean, what the hell does Unilever or Nestlé actually mean? No idea either but over 90% of my grocery money goes to them anyway. Even Campbell’s Nasdaq stock symbol of CPB makes you think more of cannabis than it does of Campbell’s (with or without the soup). And as Coca-Cola literally found out in the mid 1980s, you don’t change a winning formula.
Granted, Campbell’s is not breaking new ground here. Even Apple changed its official name from the Apple Computer Company to just Apple Inc. in 2007 with the introduction of the iPhone to reflect their increasing foray into the wider consumer-electronics market. And I betcha very few people knew that either and still think that the company’s full name is simply Apple.
But at least Apple did it in a reasonably timely manner (six years after the debut of the iPod in 2001), whereas it took Campbell’s executives one heck of a long time to realize that they weren’t hawking just soup anymore. Campbell’s been producing baked goods under Pepperidge Farms since 1961 (something that, admittedly, also passed Andy Warhol by), salsa under Pace Foods since 1995, and those all-important, snacky foods (apparently the real driver of the name change) under Late July Snacks under Snyder’s-Lance since 2018. And, again, hands up anyone who knew this. (You can put your hand down please, Mark.)
Ultimately, however, it’s not common sense but the free market that decides in a pseudo-capitalist economy like ours. And the first reviews are not great, with CPB stock prices falling by a little over 5% in the two days since the announcement.
But, this is the stock market and maybe the weather is equally to blame here as well.
The Blog About Fog 