CHOCOLATE COMPANY CHANGES NAME
- Cassandra Bremer
- Oct 27, 2014
- 2 min read
As Forrest Gump’s mamma always says, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.”
Life certainly throws some unexpected chocolates… and not just at people.
When the Belgian chocolate company formerly known as Italo Suisse, changed its name last year, the chocolate maker sure didn’t expect to have to change its name again only one year later. But rebranding is an expensive and delicate execution, and sometimes the transition is not always smooth, through no fault of the brand. Italo Suisse, whose name was a nod to the countries–Italy and Switzerland–where the founder learned his trade, decided to change its name as the company itself had no real connection with either of those countries. The company decided to take on the name of one of its praline and chocolate tablet brands: ISIS.
Unfortunately for ISIS, the name change meant the brand now shared a name with a terrorist organization whose name gained global recognition this year. Although the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has also changed its name (preferring to use the Islamic State), the connection consumers made with the chocolate and the terrorists continued to deter consumers from making purchases.
The company told Rueters, “We had international customers saying that they could no longer stock our chocolate as consumers had only negative associations with the name.”
ISIS (the chocolate company), has now changed its name to Libeert–after the family who owns the company– and currently links to the Tonkeys Facebook page. Although the domain Tonkeys.com and isischocolates.be still link to the ISIS chocolate website with the ISIS branding.
While Libeert may have solved the solution to the unfortunate coincidental name, Fox News reports that at least 35 other companies (that are unrelated to the jihadist group) are still operating under the name ISIS… for now.
Cover Photo Source: Valeri Potapova
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