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Monday, 10 June, 2002, 14:53 GMT 15:53 UK
Monday name change for PwC
Audit firm PwC has said its consulting arm, earmarked for a demerger later this summer, is to be re-named 'Monday.'
The demerger and name change, overseen by branding consultants Wolf Olins, is expected to cost about $110m (£75m).
The company's new name is intended to denote fresh thinking and new beginnings, rather than the unwelcome start of the working week after two days of freedom.
"Sharpen your pencil, iron your crispy white shirts, set the alarm clock, relish the challenge, listen, be fulfilled, make an impact, take a risk," runs a PwC slogan designed to publicise the new name.
Greg Brenneman, chief executive of PwC's consulting arm, described the new tag as "a real word, concise, recognisable, global and the right fit for a company that works hard to deliver results."
PwC is the latest in a long line of companies to launch an expensive re-branding exercise to mark a new phase in their development.
Rival audit firm Andersen's consulting arm renamed itself Accenture when it split from its parent company two years ago.
And in the UK, the Post Office adopted the new name Consignia to underline its re-birth as a semi-independent mail operator.
Consignia is now thought likely to ditch its new name in favour of the more recognisable 'Royal Mail'.
PwC decided to spin off its consulting arm, previously known simply as 'PwC Consulting,' earlier this year in order to protect its reputation in the wake of the Enron scandal.
The collapse of Enron has focused attention on whether auditors can be sufficiently independent of their clients if their in-house consultants were providing those same clients with costly advice.
Enron's auditor, Andersen, which also earned lucrative consultancy fees from the energy giant, failed to spot accounting irregularities in the company's books.
Its subsequent bankruptcy, the biggest in US corporate history, left investors nursing heavy losses and wiped out many employees' retirement savings.
US regulators have introduced new rules to force clearer disclosure of fees received by the consultancy arms of accounting firms.
Most of the other global accounting firms have also separated their consulting arms from their audit divisions in an attempt to restore confidence in audited financial statements.
What does "Monday" mean to you? A fresh start or Monday blues? And is it a good name for a company?
As a PwC employee in London, I can only say that we've had hysterics in our office this (Monday) morning. This is out of the blue to us as well!
The word on the street is that the PwC board called their creatives last Friday. "Have you come up with a name yet?" they asked. "Probably Monday" said their contact.
This rebranding was supposed to produce a globally meaningful identity. Obviously PwC's view of global only extends as far as the western, English speaking world. "Monday" is global in neither a linguistical, nor cultural sense - apologies to the Middle East, where we would be better off being called Saturday.
At least this renaming has prompted hilarity, and maybe it will also mean we only have to work on one day a week from now on!
The name reminds me a bit of 'marchfirst' a similar rebranding of a consulting company. marchfirst is no more, so the omens of naming yourself after part of the calendar is not good. Funny how new names come in cycles, I guess this is the new fashion after meaningless but boring latin derived names which end in 'a' 'ia' or 'ure'.
£75 mil down the drain on a silly stupid name when they will be sacking a third of the workforce this Friday in redundancies and have announced there will be no pay rises this year. It all makes total sense and it great for staff morale. Another example of how 'out of touch' our leaders are. And I dont like coffee and doughnuts anyway. ..It's just another MANIC MONDAY...whoooaaa
At first I thought it was a joke, but I now realise that I will actually have to say "I work for Monday" when asked. I would love to have been at the presentation when Wolf Olins unveiled their radical "new" name. How can senior management be so out of touch?
MONDAY is bad enough! But wait till you see who has web presence on www.tuesday.com, www.wednesday.com etc!
Looks like PWC weren't alone in this branding exercise
I think it's brave, different and arresting. At the very least people are 'talking' about it - how many rebrands go totally unnoticed these days?
Will there be 2 divisions - one called Monday AM and the other Monday PM ?
...and they haven't checked monday.fr; monday.de; monday.it all of which are in use. And has no-one in the UK told them about the right-wing connotations of The Monday Club?
Thank heavens I'm not in the consulting arm - even so, this is humiliating. Senior management are so upbeat about this nonsensical name, and are so out of touch with every member of 50 or so PwC staff I've talked to so far today.
I might work for Monday, but I live for Friday!
A quick straw poll in the office reveals that most peoples' opinion is not 'a fresh start, a positive attitude', but "I hate Monday".
But that fits with their opinion of management consultants too.
Its great, we won't have to ridicule our competitors for free any longer - they're paying others to do it for them.
From an internal communication:
Finally, as we mentioned earlier, getting used to our new name and infusing it with new associations and attributes will be a process. It will be up to all of us to make our new name stand out from the crowd; to make it a name we can all be proud of. And you'll know when we've achieved this by the look of recognition and respect you get when you say: "I work at Monday."
Need we say more?
Will this start a trend of naming companies after days of the week, or even months of the year? When will Mckinseys become Saturday, or Accenture July?
I would have thought a more recognisable derivative of PriceWaterhouseCoopers would have been more apt......like 'Poopers'! It can't be any worse than Monday
... and we thought Consignia was daft! "Monday" is so appallingly, awe-inspiringly dreadful, that PwC'll probably never be heard of again (except in joke asides referring to Consignia's own goal). Give me strength!
Let's see if the Chief Executive of PwC has got the guts to admit he's got this one wrong before he wastes a lot more money on it. Monday is synonymous in most people's minds with the depressing thought of having to go back to work after the weekend.
I think that Wolf Olins have done PwC consulting a big favour. They've given them a name that is, let's face it, nuetral (despite the rhetoric raised by the antis and the pros), but memorable. It's also miles apart from either mock latin or a 'legacy' name. To have found such a simple, recognisable name that's usable across the world, and available in multiple markets, is quite impressive.
I'm surprised that the PwC employees that have replied have been so against the name - they should know that no-one likes organisational change, at least at first. They knew that change was inevitable. I'm sure that once the dust settles, that PwC people will grow to like the name, and already people outside the business will be aware of who Monday are.
I read all your comments, the humor, the dismay and so on. But, without being offensive, a name has been created that you are all talking about and you know where "Monday" came from and what they represent - The connection is easy. I think Andersen Consulting is now called Accenture but I am not sure - and I work in the financial/business sector!
I wonder if this means I should change my name to PwC Consulting, or just stick with my name as now have a supply personalised mouse mats.
Quite stunning in it's brilliant incompetance. What on earth are they thinking of - hot doughnuts and coffee ? Not only is the name poor, the associated brand image they are trying to conjour is nothing short of bad.
I am so glad I am staying with the non-consulting arm of the firm.
I've got Friday on my mind.....
And when the pressure is on one of their consultants, it will be 'just another manic monday'
Does this mean that we can take out a class action suit for flagrant disrespect for the calendar?
Monday, Monday, can't trust that day
Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way
Oh Monday mornin' you gave me no warnin' of what was to be
Oh Monday, Monday, how could you leave and not take me
If this is the result of the sum of the creative minds at PwC, would you really want to trust them with your business?
Just think how difficult this will make it to find references for them on the Internet. There must be billions of Mondays on web pages - and PwC claim to be experts in IT consulting!
There are around 18,300,000 results for Monday from Google including Monday Magazine, etc, etc I think someone got there first!
Good effort. It's better than the current crop of boring monikers such as Consignia, Novartis and Accenture. Any brand name/advertising/logo that's either loved or hated passionately can only garner more publicity. I bet the narrow-minded luddites who are knocking it once hated Orange, Goldfish, Chicken Tonight, PowWow and other fine, memorable names.
And the receptionist on a Friday morning...
"Hello, its Monday, how may I help you?"
I don't think that this name will be around too long. How can you take a company called "Monday" seriously? To say it is a stupid name would be a major understatement.
Well it's a lot easier to say and write than PricewaterhouseCoopers!
Imagine how I feel, having to work for the company. I used to be proud to work for PricewaterhouseCoopers and quite frankly I am now rather embarrassed. "Good Morning Monday, how can I help you" - doesn't really work does it?
Biggest laugh I've had for ages. It really cheered up my Monday morning. Another nail in the coffin of the 'big boys'and brand 'makeovers'. Weren't Olins responsible for British Airways too?
Did they do ANY focus group testing before letting this one out?
Good to see all the PWC employees contributing - I hope their clients aren't picking up the cost of their time here.
If Monday cost this much, how much is the rest of the week!!!
I am going to change the name of our company to Tuesday as we always go in to fix the mess created by Monday.
Nice use of money, considering that they are sacking a substantial proportion of the workforce on Friday
They could have called it "Monkey" instead and picked up some of the brand equity from ITV Digital!
This is too embarrasing - What will our clients say! - "Oh, Monday is coming next Monday", or "Linda, Please cancel my meeting Monday, with Monday". This can not be true. I am really looking forward to using my business cards...
Well, it seems to be doing quite well - look how much free publicity it's got already!
Once the jokes have worn off there is little substance in this brand name. "I need this done by Monday" does not have the same ring to it as "This must be done by Friday". "I can absolutely guarantee that the job will be finished by Monday". "It's the groundhog day effect - these projects never get past day one". Monday is about starting, not finishing.
I think it is an awful name, lacks creation and does not give PWC that something extra that it should be looking for. I think its a name that will be laughed at!
Wow! That must have been a long branding meeting. Hopefully, they will stick a TradeMark (TM) sign at the end and 'MONDAY' will disappear from timesheets all around the world.
After a PW office sweepstake of 30 people agreed on Coopers Price Waterhouse as the name (See PW), and a marketing guru was paid for PwC, this is hardly a surprise. Lack of cultural considerations also clear based on failure to consider immediate link to Sir Bob.
How many PWC consultants does it take to tell you the first day of the week!!!
This is truly the most ridiculous thing I have heard of this year. And what's worse some marketing guru has been paid millions for this creation.
Just how many clients look forward to Monday when they are invoiced for another week of astronomical consultants fees, and how many PwC Consultants look forward to Monday and the 60+ hours at work they face before they make it to the weekend?! Truly Amazing.
Bob Geldoff will be happy
We have PWC consultants in our workplace - Shall we start calling them the "Happy Mondays ?"
Another example of senior management making a silly decision - remember the story of the Emperor's new clothes ? Why didn't someone say something ?
Tell me why I don't like Mondays...
Ever heard the one about the definition of a consultant? Someone who borrows your watch in order to sell you the time? Not satisfied with that, PwC have now gone one step further and will also sell you the days of the week as well.
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