I noticed in this somewhat creepy NYT piece about recent branding changes that the company formerly known as Blackwater USA is now (since February) known as: Xe Services LLC. How forgettable a name is that?

Spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said there was no meaning in the new name, which the company spent over a year to arrive at in an internal search. [WaPo]

No mention of Blackwater on their new website, not even on About Us. BlackwaterSecurity.com is not working, BlackwaterUSA.com is now USTraining.com.

Anyway, marketing WIN. The word (Xe) is like memory kryptonite. I can’t even remember it and I’m still writing the post about it. I guess sometimes losing mindshare is the goal. Also see: Altria.

ZOMG epic fail with the Tropicana rebranding.

After its package redesign, sales of the Tropicana Pure Premium line plummeted 20% between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22, costing the brand tens of millions of dollars.

… several of Tropicana’s competitors appear to have benefited from the misstep, notably Minute Maid, Florida’s Natural and Tree Ripe. Varieties within each of those brands posted double-digit unit sales increases during the period …

They announced Feb 23 that they were going back to the old packaging.

Via Gawker