The Marketing Bureau

From The "How Not To Do It" Archives
First published on www.businessballs.com

For very many years the UK government department responsible for business was called the DTI - Department for Trade and Industry. Until someone (presumably a “new” broom” of some sort), got stuck into a “sweep clean”. And everything changed.

The DTI was formed in 1970. It was a merger of the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Technology.

The name DTI was effectively a brand. It was a government department, but in all other respects it was a massive branded organization, offering various services to businesses, and to regions and countries also.

The DTI had a logo, a website. It had staff, a massive target audience (of billions globally), customers (effectively, tens of millions), a huge marketing and advertising spend, including national TV campaigns, posters, informations brochures, and every other aspect of branding which normally operates in the corporate world.

The organization name 'the DTI', was an obvious and recognised abbreviation of 'Trade' and 'Industry', and this described very clearly what the department was responsible for.

Not surprisingly, the DTI name developed extremely strong brand recognition and reputation, accumulated over 27 years, surviving at least two short-lived attempted name changes during that period (each reverting to DTI due to user critical reaction) - until the name (brand) was finally killed off in 2007.

For more than a generation, millions and millions of people recognised the DTI name and knew it was the British government's department for business. Many people also knew the website - if not exact the exact website address, they knew it was 'www.dti....(something or other)'.

Simply, tens of millions of people in the UK, and also around the world recognised the DTI as Britain's government department for business.

For people in business, this is a very substantial advantage for any organization to have. In a corporations, this sort of brand 'equity' is added into balance sheets, and can be valued at many £millions.

Then in 2007 the government finally forced through a name change, and the DTI was replaced, with, wait for it...

The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - BERR.

Twenty-seven years of brand equity and reputation gone, just like that.

BERR became instantly the most forgettable, least logical, and most stupid departmental brand in the entire history of government department naming and branding cock-ups.

No-one knew what it stood for, no-one could remember what it was called, and no-one could understand what it was supposed to be doing even when it was explained.

Even the term 'business enterprise' was a nonsense in itself. What is business if it's not enterprise? What is enterprise if it's not business?

And what is 'regulatory reform' in the context of business and enterprise? Hardly central to international trade. It was a bit like renaming Manchester United Football Club the Trafford Borough Playing Fields, Caterers and Toilets.

Not surprisingly BERR didn't last long, and duly in 2009 the government changed the name again to BIS - (the department for) Business, Innovation and Skills. Let's see how long this name lasts. I'll give it a year or two at most.

It's only taxpayers' money, so the enormous costs and wastage caused by this recklessness and poorly executed strategy are not scrutinised like they would be in a big company.

You can perhaps begin to imagine the costs, losses and other fallout caused by changing such a well-established organizational name and presence, twice in two years.

The case-study does however provide a wonderful example of re-naming/re-branding gone wrong on a very grand scale.

NOTE:

BERR has subsequently been restructured and rebrand AGAIN. At the time of posting, it is now called BIS – Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.