Plot twist! Facebook changing its name to Meta was good for the brand
With all the snark we’ve seen lately about Mark Zuckerberg’s questionable attempts to rule a metaverse that doesn’t quite exist, it would be easy to conclude that Meta Platforms, the company formerly known as Facebook Inc., is a complete failure from a brand perspective.
Not so, according to the latest FutureBrand Index, which ranks the world’s top 100 companies, based on their global perception. Meta is No. 5 on the list this year, up a staggering 44 places compared to 2021, when the company ranked at No. 49 under its former name. Whatever else you can say about the rebrand—and people have said a lot—it was clearly an improvement by some measurable attributes. Meta may be the butt of jokes for its hazy product roadmaps, legless avatars, and thinly veiled attempts to turn its core social media platforms into TikTok, but from a purely brand-oriented standpoint, Meta has one big thing in its favor: It’s not called Facebook.
Perhaps the rise in ranking shouldn’t be a surprise. Facebook, a controversial company from its very inception, had been caught up in a dizzying cyclone of scandals and negative press in the years leading up to its abrupt name change. If it wasn’t sowing discord and aiding brutal military regimes around the world, it was spreading election misinformation and ruining the self-esteem of teenage girls right here at home. So damaged had the Facebook brand become by late last year that people were comparing it to Big Tobacco.
Of course, a new name can only do so much, and Meta’s rebrand will by no means insulate or absolve it from past, present, and future harms unleashed by its core services. But if FutureBrand’s ranking is any indication, the company’s move to align its corporate identity with VR instead of social media could be working. According to its analysis, Meta scored particularly well this year in part because survey participants saw it as looking toward the future, as opposed to being stuck in the past.
Interestingly, according to FutureBrand, past Big Tech rebrands did not generate the same type of positive effect. Google, for instance, dropped significantly on the index when its parent company rebranded as Alphabet.
The index, which is now in its eighth year, says it uses a broad range of indicators to determine its perception rankings, including “the views of a highly informed and highly professional group of specialists.” The 100 companies on its list are based on market cap as determined by PwC. Another interesting thing about this year’s list is that most of the top 10 are not what you would consider household brand names from a consumer-facing standpoint. They are as follows:
You can check out the full list here.
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