Can’t Make This Stuff Up: Sci-Fi Channel Explains Why It’s Changing Its Name to SyFy
“There’s always a resistance to change,” Sci-Fi Network president Dave Howe told the NY Daily News. “But in a few years, no one will notice the difference.”
And that is as good a reason as any for spending gazillions of dollars to change the station’s name.
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn’t be, and what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”
(Alice in Wonderland)
The top reasons the company’s agency gave for recommending the change:
1- The agency needs the money.
2- SyFy is more than an unintelligible word. It “creates an ownable and extendable brand for the future”.
3- Since we’ve removed “Channel” from the name, you will no longer need to associate with your outre core product, television.
4- The names are phonetically identical so all you have to do is spend a gazillion dollars changing all your stationary, business cards, advertising, signage, trade show booths, uniforms, tsotchkes, employee IDs – have we left out anything you need to change?
5. To make sure nobody can find the Sci-Fi Channel online, “An aggressive trade marketing campaign kicked off this spring. scifi.com will assume the URL syfy.com at that time.”
At SyFy.com, it says “This is Sci-Fi Channel’s new brand identity.” And there’s nothing else there, except a link to the SciFi.com. Go figure.
