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Thestar.com > News

Jul. 19, 2002. 01:00 AM

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Braxton is the one among thousands

That's the choice as Deloitte Consulting sheds auditor name

By Isabel Teotonio
Business Reporter

Ledoitte, Adroit and Can of Whup Ass Consulting.

Although catchy, the names were too kitschy for Deloitte Consulting, which rejected them, along with thousands of other suggestions, before announcing yesterday that it will be renamed Braxton.

Unlike other consulting giants adopting new names in the scramble to create an identity apart from the accounting firms they grew out of, Deloitte settled on the trademarked name of a business it acquired in 1984.

"We wanted a real name, not something invented," Brian Fugere, chief marketing officer for Deloitte Consulting, said, referring to rivals such as Accenture Ltd., Sapient Corp., Scient Inc. and Viant Corp. "The world is tired of coined, invented and whimsical corporate names."

But Naseem Javed, the head of the Brampton-based ABC Namebank, which came up with such monikers as Telus and Celestica, disagreed.

A global consulting firm with more than 15,000 employees servicing more than one-third of the Global Fortune 500 companies and about $3.5 billion (U.S.) in annual revenues should choose a name that will allow it to grow as an icon, he said.

"Braxton is just a name from their archives — they're going backwards rather than forwards," he said.

"The rules for corporate naming are: It must be unique, powerful, one of a kind and, most importantly, it must convey who you are. What does Braxton say? It's a nice name if you're a bookkeeper living in Oshawa, but to say it's a corporate name?"

"While the sky is falling on the accounting and corporate image ... this is voodoo accounting meeting voodoo branding."

Deloitte's branding advisers, Interbrand, made the recommendation after reviewing their own proposals and those of Deloitte employees. Nearly four thousand names were submitted. Contenders were divided into three categories: trademarked names Deloitte owned, real words and made-up monikers. Among the 40 short-listed names tested internationally, Braxton outranked them all.

"In the linguistic and cultural evaluations we did, Braxton conveys stature, longevity, seriousness and consummate professionalism," said David Martin, president of Interbrand in North America. "The word has that property and allows us to tell our story from the start. Most of the name changes get in the way of telling the story. People get into debates over the word that's chosen ... . With many new names, you end up stirring controversy."

The move last year by Andersen Consulting Ltd., formerly of Arthur Andersen LLP, to change its name to Accenture left many scratching their heads in response to the confusing hybrid for "accent on future." And last month's decision by PwC Consulting, an arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, to change its name to Monday raised many eyebrows. KPMG Consulting Inc., which split from KPMG LLP, is also in the works of developing a new moniker.

In February, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLP was the last of the Big Five accounting firms to announce it was shedding its consulting unit. It's scheduled to become a privately owned company once negotiations are complete by year's end.

In the wake of Enron Corp.'s collapse, accounting firms were urged by lawyers and corporate-governance experts to separate their audit and consulting operations.

But mere separation wouldn't suffice for clients who wanted a complete severance, said Fugere. Deloitte Consulting and other leading management firms joined the race to ditch their association with the accounting companies.

"In an era of corporate governance and responsibility issues, the choice of an authentic name that's real and timeless is resonant today," said Fugere. "It's right for the times."

It was purely coincidental, he said, that the name was released the day after a $6 billion class-action lawsuit was launched, alleging Nortel Networks Corp. overstated late 2000 revenues and its auditor, Deloitte & Touche, failed to stop it.

Deloitte's three-month search for a new name will be followed in a few weeks with the release of a new company logo and a $60 million brand promotion.

"In a professional services environment, your people are your brand," said Fugere. "The name is just a vessel."

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