Abrdn CIO decries 'corporate bullying' as media continues to deride rebrand

In an interview with Financial News, CIO Peter Branner said the media was engaging in a “childish” game by persistently poking fun at abrdn’s decision to drop vowels from its name. The change from Standard Life Aberdeen to abrdn (along with the loss of the capital letter) was meant to reflect the firm’s new business model after it sold the Standard Life brand and business to Phoenix.

Critics have described the name change as a “disemvowelling” and “irritable vowel syndrome”.

The chair of abrdn, Sir Douglas Flint, has defended the move, stating the new brand was created internally and benchmarked against alternatives by a leading advisory agency. He also pointed to the firm’s success in winning awards for the brand and securing a significant amount of free publicity.

Likewise, chief executive Stephen Bird claimed an independent measure showed Abrdn had climbed to second place in brand strength just four months after launch, leapfrogging over rivals. He argued the new name worked well digitally and would become “synonymous with better investing”.

An abrdn spokesperson said: “As Peter made clear in his interview, we appreciate it is for the media to make their own assessments about the companies they wish to write about.”