Campaigning - a passion for effectiveness

Campaigning - a passion for effectiveness

Posts 1-10 of 14
  • Peter Metzinger
    Peter Metzinger    Premium Member   Group moderator
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    OpenBC becomes Xing
    Being this group's the facilitator I have been asked to inform you about the fact that the openBC is going to be called Xing by the end of this year. According to openBC the new name is necessary due to changes in the membership structure. It is supposed to represent this new structure by standing for a cosmopolitan, innovative and unique network. It is also said to be understandable in most of the languages used in the network.

    Being a German speaker I have to say that German obviously does not belong to the mostly used languages. In German Xing stand for "Can you say that again, please, I did not understand you?" - when you hear it. When you read the name Xing it stands for "How do I pronounce that?".

    I am sorry, dear owners of openBC, but as a campaigner with a little branding and corporate identity know how I am convinced that you are on the best path to ruin your well established path. I have talked to nobody who liked the new name. Nobody knew how to pronounce it or what it stands for. It is well established knowledge that "thou' shall not replace a well established brand name by an unknown one without very good reasons". I can't see a very good reason, I even don't see any reason. Unless there was a consulting or corporate identity agency involved which got a lot of money for developing the new brand. Then it makes sense: somebody got work and turnover. But what is the use for the rest of us? Up until now we could mention openBC in almost every meeting and people knew what we were talking about. In the future we'll have to explain. Not only what we mean but also how to pronounce it. (Which we still don't know...) As everybody knows, it takes two years and a lot of effort to rebrand a well established brand. So we will have to do that extra promotion work for two years.

    I am heavily disappointed that the community has not been involved in this. Who made openBC successful? The management certainly had its share in this. But in the end it was us who made it successful. It was us who invited new members, persuaded them, started discussions, organized meetings etc. Shouldn't the community have been involved? (I am sorry if I missed something during the time when I was away when my wife was sick, but I checked all messages right now. It seems that the only time we got involved was when a blogger revealed the secret new name 5 days ahead of schedule. Doesn't that say averything anyway?)

    I am very interested in what our campaigning forum members think about the new name and brand and how it was created.

    All the best
    ptr metzinger
    • 12 Oct 2006, 1:09 pm
  • Dr. Christian Rohrer
    Dr. Christian Rohrer    Premium Member
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    Re: OpenBC becomes Xing
    openBC heisst bald Xing. Haha. Im Ernst: Das ist ein Witz, oder? Aus der Begründung: "Daher haben wir nach einem Markennamen gesucht, der weltweit, in verschiedenen Kulturen verstanden wird – und haben ihn mit XING gefunden! So steht „XING“ etwa im Chinesischen für die optimistische „Can-do“-Einstellung und „Begegnungen“. Dies sind treffende Assoziationen. Der Name „XING“ ist für mich außerdem kosmopolitisch, innovativ und einzigartig – genau wie unsere Community!"

    Ich hätte da noch einige offene Fragen, die niemand besser als die openBC-Community klären kann. Lasst uns doch zusammen einen Fragebogen entwickeln. Hier für den Anfang mal drei Fragen mit meinen ganz persönlichen Antworten darunter:

    1. Findet Ihr den Namen "XING" auch kosmopolitisch, innovativ und einzigartig?
    Nicht ganz. Ich finde den Namen blöd, langweilig und von ungefähr tausend anderen Akteuren geklaut. Siehe google.

    2. Kommt Ihnen bei der Umbenennung von "openBC" zu "XING" eine treffende Analogie ein?
    Klar, "Nutella" heisst in Zukunft "Plök". Und Ferrari "RAZZ", das klingt so global und jeder von Grönland bis Madras kann das aussprechen.

    3. Wenn Ihr den Namen "XING" auf eine Skala von 0 bis 10 bewerten müsst, wie fällt Euer Votum aus?
    Die Skala wird nach unten erweitert: -3 = unterirdisch.

    Viele Grüße,
    Christian
    • 12 Oct 2006, 1:28 pm
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  • Peter Metzinger
    Peter Metzinger    Premium Member   Group moderator
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    Re^3: OpenBC becomes Xing
    That fits to the fact that Chinese is the only language in which the meaning of the name was explained. Does it mean the owners of openBC are targetting the Chinese market on the cost of all the others?
    • 12 Oct 2006, 1:39 pm
  • Dr. Christian Rohrer
    Dr. Christian Rohrer    Premium Member
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    Re^4: OpenBC becomes Xing
    Ok, so every one of us has to find a good transcription of his name, just in order to succeed in working the chinese market.
    I`d start with:

    Xian Lohel
    • 12 Oct 2006, 1:47 pm
  • Mauro Buratti
    Mauro Buratti    Premium Member   Group moderator
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    Re^5: OpenBC becomes Xing
    A winning machine should never be changed/retuned ... maybe, behind the curtains, openBC is not as successfull as we perceive ?

    Cheers
    mauro
    • 12 Oct 2006, 1:57 pm
  • Peter Metzinger
    Peter Metzinger    Premium Member   Group moderator
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    Re^6: OpenBC becomes Xing
    That is a very interesting question. Either they don't know that guideline or they are not a winning team... In both cases not a very positive impression.
    • 12 Oct 2006, 2:38 pm
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  • Peter Metzinger
    Peter Metzinger    Premium Member   Group moderator
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    Re^2: OpenBC becomes Xing
    I would like to know the opinion of the other forum members. It would be nice if we could raise this as a request by the whole group. I am sure there are hundreds of thousands out there with the same opinion. But it seems they are all remaining passive. A typical campaigning issue... ;-)
    • 14 Oct 2006, 11:33 am
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