Scottish Investment firm trolled online after changing name

A SCOTTISH asset management firm has been trolled online after re-imagining  its name to make it “digitally enabled”

Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) has faced mockery after revealing its new name to be as abrdn.

The firm has received criticism from some Twitter users after announcing the change to the brand.

Posting to Twitter on Monday this week SLA wrote: “Today we’ve announced our change of name to Abrdn, part of a modern, digitally-enabled brand we’ll use across our businesses globally. Capital at risk.”

A video is attached to the post showing the old company name Standard Life Aberdeen morphing into their new name “abrdn” pronounced Aberdeen.

SLA has said: “The new brand identity marks the next stage in the reshaping of the business and future-focused growth strategy.

“The rebranding roll-out process for the new name and associated visual identity will begin in the summer and progress through 2021, alongside implementation of a full stakeholder engagement plan to manage the transition.”

Twitter users were left perplexed by the announcement and shared their views online, brands such as Snickers were seen to be joining in too.

@SNICKERSUK wrote: “Next time you want to remove a vowel, have a Snckrs.”

@AnnHacke added: ” For a digitally-enabled brand, bit odd to drop the “e” don’t you think? You clearly have a lot of investors’ money to waste.”

@thefsgirl said: “What do you have against vowels?”

@PriapusI1 said: “I’d love to know how much was paid on consultants for this truly awful idea”

The companies Chief Executive Stephen Bird said “Our new brand Abrdn builds on our heritage and is modern, dynamic and, most importantly, engaging for all of our client and customer channels.

“It is a highly-differentiated brand that will create unity across the business, replacing five different brand names that have each been operating independently.

“Our new name reflects the clarity of focus that the leadership team are bringing to the business as we seek to deliver sustainable growth.”