STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Hey, this is big news about a deletion. The company best known for soup has decided to drop the word soup from its name.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Mm-mm (ph), good.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The Campbell Soup Company has been around more than 100 years. Now it's just Campbell's. In a statement last week, the company's CEO said the change reflects that Campbell's today is, quote, "so much more than soup," which is true. The company also makes nonsoup foods like Goldfish crackers, your favorite.
INSKEEP: Gold - which you can put in the soup, if you want to.
FADEL: Right.
INSKEEP: Allen Adamson is a brand consultant who leads the marketing firm Metaforce. At least, that's their brand for now. He says consumers remember shorter names better. And besides...
ALLEN ADAMSON: It frees you up from where you started. You know, Dunkin' Donuts is doing a lot more these days than selling doughnuts.
INSKEEP: Dunkin' - OK.
FADEL: Adamson has worked on a few major rebrands, like when Federal Express became FedEx. He says companies change their names for all sorts of reasons.
ADAMSON: A client would call and say that our sales are faltering. Consumer feedback and the research we're getting says we're no longer relevant, or they don't understand who we are. And we think we need maybe a brand line. We need a different name. We need a new identity.
INSKEEP: At the same time, businesses might not want to rename themselves completely because think of what you lose. Like, imagine, like, Twitter. Like, if you had a name that everyone knows, like Twitter, you will never change that name, right?
FADEL: Oh, well...
INSKEEP: Like, never - oh, wait. Never - oh, now I'm remembering. OK. Anyway, companies can lose the name recognition they've built up.
ADAMSON: If you hear the name Campbell's, the image that pops up in many people's head is a can of soup or the Warhol painting of a can of soup.
INSKEEP: Oh.
FADEL: So if Campbell's wants to expand into other products, Adamson says, that association will have to evolve.
ADAMSON: They can see if they can change you and broaden the brand over time, and you can get the people to think of it as a product you might find in another aisle other than the soup market. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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