Rebranding: Why Do Companies Shed Their Names?

Rebranding seems popular in India. It reached new heights in 2025, with 99 total publicly traded companies changing their stock names, ticker symbols, or both! The saga continues as on October 7, 2026, Kotak Securities consolidated its digital trading platform, research services, and retail wealth management under the consumer-facing brand Kotak Neo. While this is a business integration move, rebranding is always a high-stakes decision for a company. 

Let’s take a look at the various scenarios where rebranding happens.  In her blog, Artthi Ponnuswamy, a branding expert, has pointed out that when a parent company gets rebranded globally, its local arm also follows through, such as ABB Power Products & Systems India renamed to Hitachi Energy India.

Another common example of rebranding is when a company goes bankrupt. A well-known case is Ruchi Soya, once India's edible oil titan, which hit a severe insolvency wall due to crippling debt and aggressive expansion, triggering corporate bankruptcy in 2017.  In 2019, Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved successfully acquired the debt-laden firm for over 4,300 crore rupees, rescuing it from liquidation. Following a successful turnaround and massive public equity offering, Patanjali rebranded the entity to Patanjali Foods Limited in 2022. This strategic name change completely shed the legacy distress of Ruchi Soya, placing the business firmly within Patanjali's consumer goods empire.

A third and common case is when a company’s reputation gets too toxic, such as the case of Hyderabad-based brothers Narendra Surana and Devendra Surana, associated with Bhagyanagar Industries Ltd. and the broader Surana Group in Hyderabad, founded in 1978, who have been involved in multi-crore financial probes and asset/cash seizures by federal agencies. The Enforcement Directorate scanned them for money-laundering investigations and serious financial allegations, including the use of fabricated documents to secure high-value loans. Systemic concerns regarding corporate governance and debt management led them to rename Bhagyanagar to Tieramet as per a company announcement in 2025. Ripples of their corruption probe even extended to high-profile summons, drawing prominent public figures, such as actor Mahesh Babu. 

Overcoming such severe reputational damage is extremely important when brands go in for a fresh fundraise, etc; 

Ashita Aggarwal, a marketing professor at SPJIMR who is an expert on why companies change identity during turbulent shifts, has pointed out that name changes cannot be executed in isolation. A name change requires an aggressive, transparent, and robust communication plan because attempting to simply slip under a new moniker risks alienating existing connections without genuinely repairing the underlying damage.

“ When a rebrand is used to announce a transformation that has not yet happened, audiences, including employees, investors, and customers, notice the gap. And a gap between what a brand says and what a business does is more damaging than saying nothing at all, “ Ashish Mishra, Co-Founder and CEO, Interbrand India, has cautioned earlier. 

Barring reputational damage, renaming brands could well be an opportunity. A fourth reason to change name is to indicate that the company ownership has changed.  Such as, Elon Musk, changed Twitter to X. 

Finally, remember that Google’s earliest name was BackRub! And that WIPRO was Western India Vegetable Products Limited, and it changed to Wipro Products Limited. So brand name changes may be necessary after all.