(CNN) – We have all heard of Band-Assist, Tylenol, Benadryl and Johnson’s Child Powder.
We now have by no means heard of the brand new coined phrase Kenvue.
However Kenvue would be the new company mum or dad of those well-known client well being manufacturers subsequent yr.
Johnson & Johnson, the proprietor of those labels, is within the course of division into two corporations — one targeted on medical gadgets and medicines and the opposite on client well being merchandise.
J&J stored its recognizable title for its bigger pharmaceutical enterprise unit, however wanted to create a brand new model identification for its smaller client arm.
The corporate stated Wednesday it had landed Kenvue, a mix of “Ken,” an English phrase for information primarily utilized in Scotland, and “vue,” a reference to sight. Pronounced ken-view.
“The revealing of the Kenvue model is a defining second for our stakeholders and an essential a part of the deliberate separation,” stated Thibaut Mongon, who has been named CEO of the brand new firm, which additionally contains Motrin, Listerine, Neutrogena and different manufacturers. The break up needs to be accomplished subsequent yr.
A J&J spokesman stated a small crew labored with a artistic naming company to develop and show 1000’s of names for the brand new firm. J&J needed the title to be recognizable and memorable. It additionally needed to clear logos in additional than 100 markets and “go linguistic and cultural critiques in 89 languages and dialects.”
Along with the brand new title, the corporate has a brand new brand and design. Kenvue seems in white letters on a inexperienced background, with the letter “Ok” together with a sideways coronary heart.
It is no accident that Kenvue has no that means or historical past, stated Jay Jurisich, CEO and inventive director of brand name naming company Zinzin.
Corporations usually search for names which might be utterly away from any controversy.
The Kenvue title displays J&J’s want for a brand new identification as a client firm to take its place in opposition to well-known manufacturers like Band-Assist. This can be a comparable technique to different client merchandise conglomerates equivalent to Unilever, which owns Dove and Hellmann’s, and Procter & Gamble, which owns Bounty and Charmin.
“It is actually only a holding firm behind all these different manufacturers,” Jurisich stated. “They need a reputation that may fade into the background and the manufacturers will stand out.”
Firm title modifications are a typical tactic for quite a lot of causes, equivalent to spinoffs, mergers and acquisitions, or new mum or dad corporations.
Corporations concerned within the public relations disaster additionally modified their names to take away any damaging associations with their earlier model names, equivalent to Philip Morris, which modified its title to Altria in 2001. Then there have been manufacturers that modified their names to sign a change in technique, equivalent to for instance like Dunkin’ dropping “Donuts” in 2018.
This isn’t the primary time that two phrases have been mixed within the title of a brand new firm.
Kraft Meals in 2012 break up its meals manufacturers equivalent to Oreo in Mondelez from the mixture of the phrase “monde”, derived from the Latin for “world” and “deliz”, brief for “scrumptious”.
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