Two years ago, when the rebrand from HBO Max to just Max was announced, I wrote a post titled Max Mayhem: Warner Bros. Discovery's Rebrand Fail.
At the time, I said of the name change to Max: “It’s crazy! Parent company Warner Bros. Discovery took a decades old brand, HBO, a pioneer in the world of delivering video content, and stripped away the brand equity.”
In a press release, Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content said: “With the course we are on and strong momentum we are enjoying, we believe HBO Max far better represents our current consumer proposition. And it clearly states our implicit promise to deliver content that is recognized as unique and, to steal a line we always said at HBO, worth paying for.”
As I said in my original post, “The suits at large companies frequently fail to recognize that marketing and branding is about emotion built up over time. So what if New Coke “tastes better”? People hated the idea that the product they love was changed.”
When companies compete with a larger and better-known competitor, they often look to a rebrand with silly name change to create an investor and media smokescreen and to buy some time.
That’s what happened to HBO Max > Max > HBO Max as the grasped at anything to compete with Netflix.
Don’t want to gloat here, but it was clear two years ago that the name change was a bad idea.