From the title of this post, you may well be wondering what on earth is this particular post is all about and I can’t say I would blame you, but fear not for all will be revealed.

You may find that the following article is full of modern business speak which is extremely hard to translate into English but I will attempt to translate wherever possible, in simple language Edinburgh based financial services giant Standard Life Aberdeen yesterday unveiled plans to change its name to Abrdn.

Now this is where it starts to get complicated for it says the new name will be pronounced Aberdeen and I quote, “will be part of a modern, agile, digitally enabled brand that will also be used for all the company’s client-facing businesses globally.”

The explanation of “client facing” I am unsure of as I would have thought it would be thought somewhat rude to turn one’s back on a client and not to face them.

The new name Abrdn was dreamt up by a brand consultancy called Wolff Olins but one wonders how many people they consulted, for had they asked me I could have told them there was nothing wrong with the old name.  

A spokesperson for Abrdn said, “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,” which I think means, they will be putting the new name above the shop during 2021.

Mr Stephen Bird, chief executive of Standard Life Aberdeen, 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,” and continued, “our new name reflects the clarity of focus that the leadership team are bringing to the business as we seek to deliver sustainable growth.”

Standard Life Aberdeen declared that “the new brand identity marks the next stage in the reshaping of the business and future-focused growth strategy.”

How on earth a jumble of letters can be modern, dynamic and engage clients and customer channels, (whatever a customer channel may be) whilst reshaping the business and future-focused growth strategy.

Having translated, from modern business speak I think what it basically says is; business renamed to a collection of jumbled letters, though God knows why, or to put it more succinctly, WHAT A LOAD OF BOLLOCKS!