Consultants warned Aberdeen boss against Abrdn rebrand

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Advisers warned former Aberdeen chief executive Stephen Bird against rebranding as Abrdn and even requested that the asset manager exclude their consultancy name from marketing material.

Bird, who took on the top job at the asset manager in 2020, opted to change the Standard Life Aberdeen name to Abrdn in 2021 despite being cautioned against it by brand experts, according to three people familiar with the process.

Bird’s case for removing most of the vowels from the company name was partly owing to the internet domain name for Aberdeen already being taken, the people said. The board, led by Sir Douglas Flint as chair, also supported Bird’s decision to use the name Abrdn, two of the sources said.

The consultancy firm Wolff Olins, which was drafted in to help with the rebrand, urged the asset manager not to switch to Abrdn. It also asked the fund group to make clear in its marketing that the consultancy, which is part of the Omnicom group, was not responsible for coming up with the name, the people added.

Two of the people familiar with the process recalled that the name Abrdn did not “test” well when it was trialled with focus groups of financial consumers, but said Bird still wanted to push ahead.

The rebranding was widely ridiculed once it became public, prompting Bird’s successor Jason Windsor to switch the company’s brand to Aberdeen last week.

The group was formed from the merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen in 2017, to create one of the biggest asset managers in Europe at the time.

But Bird had to grapple with the merging of two different cultures and a difficult environment for stockpicker-run funds, as investors shifted their money into low-cost index trackers.

Bird took the knife to costs by merging and closing funds and by axing jobs, while the group has twice been ejected from the FTSE 100 over the past few years.

Windsor took on the role from Bird last May on an interim basis and was made permanent chief executive in September.

He told the Financial Times earlier this month that the new name Aberdeen “makes it so much easier for us to spell it out in full and move on”.

Windsor added that the company did not spend money on consultants to change the name back to Aberdeen, which it spells with a lower-case a. The group has never revealed how much it spent on the first Abrdn rebrand, although people familiar with the situation estimate that such contracts cost about £500,000.

The group swung back to a profit last year as customers pulled less money from its funds and as investment returns have improved.

Aberdeen said: “This is a business to be proud of, with a promising future. The change of name is a pragmatic decision, as we focus on delivering for our clients, customers, people and shareholders.”

Bird and Flint did not respond to requests to comment. Wolff Olins declined to comment.