So be it!

Jul 22, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – As you get old, the feeling of nostalgia can grip you. You hold on the things which you remember from your childhood and you long for a return to those days.

When I was young, I used to drink Ovaltine, Milo, Complan and Horlicks. I still go looking for those brands and products because they were an important part of my upbringing.

But I also know that seasons change. Time waits for no one. It moves inexorably forward. And I know that the older folks are now only a small part of the consumer market and, like in music on the airwaves, what will dominate commerce is what the young generation wants and use.

So when I go to the supermarket and I see young housewives picking out their own brand of beverages, I do not get upset. The world has moved on and new brands have taken over.

Rebranding is now normal in business. Companies rebrand because their old brands may not appeal to new markets segments; they may be old and outdated. A new image may be needed and sometimes that means a new name and new logos and new colours and even new design for offices.

A company may have had bad experience. It may have launched a product which was disastrous or had a bad experience recently. Sometimes, the only way to retain market share and to rebuild damaged reputations is to rebrand.

A number of companies have rebranded to keep abreast with change, and to improve their business prospects. Even the parent company of FACEBOOK has been rebranded as Meta.

Quidditch, once a fictional game seen in the Harry Potter movies, has now become a sport. And those involved has seen it necessary to distance the game from the magic and dark arts of Harry Potter. The game has been rebranded as Quadball.

A company which produces a number of trailers each with their own names has rebranded for the sake of marketing. All of its trailers will now bear the logo Warbash.

Aston Martin makes luxury sports cars. It has not changed its name but has rebranded its logo, its corporate language and typeface.

For years, we all knew that the governing body of cricket in the Caribbean was the West Indies Cricket Board, once the West Indies Cricket Board of Control. A few years back, the organisation rebranded to the catchier, Cricket West Indies (CWI).

It is all about image and marketing. The Guyana cricket team in the CPL is called the Amazon Warriors. The Jamaican franchise has named its team the Tallwahs. Barbados is Barbados Pride. We now have franchise cricket so the teams had to be rebranded to reflect the fact that players will not be drawn exclusively from one country.

But it is not just businesses and sports which have rebranded. Political parties do too. After Boris Johnson, the Tories will have to rebrand if it is to have a chance at all in the next elections.

In Guyana, the PNC, smarting from its horrid and dictatorial past, rebranded itself during the time of Desmond Hoyte. It further rebranded itself as PNC Reform and, later, PNC One Guyana, and even later as PNC/R. It tried rebranding its leadership too and even changed its campaign colours to green.

Rebranding is everywhere. You can’t escape it. Even people are rebranding. I knew a guy who liked to dress very casually. For years he did not give a hang about his appearance. But in recent times, in order to climb the corporate ladder, he changed his wardrobe and began to dress very fashionably and formally. He is reinventing his image.

A recent report in the media suggested that the Guyana Police Force is linking its training to the University of Guyana and thus intends to rebrand its training, including a new logo and possibly name for its training academy.

Old people do not like change and some old folks are not pleased that the training academy’s name may be changed in line with the rebranding of the police training programme. They want the name of the academy to retain the name of the first Commissioner of Police who only served for one year because Burnham had other plans for him.

It is about time that the state sector begins to rebrand. And there is no better place to begin than in the Guyana Police Force. In fact the name of the organisation should be rebranded as the Guyana Police Service or simply Guyana Police. The word “force” ingrains a negative image of policing.

The Force’s training needs makeover. And if to do so effectively and to be able to attract new recruits, the police needs to change the name of its training school, then so be it.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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