Acer name change promises 'enjoyment'

The disease of inventing new brand names has infected the Acer Group. Its Communications and Multimedia division (Acer CM) will henceforth be known as Benq Corp.

Benq, which may sound sexier to the Chinese, is an acronym of sorts, standing for Bringing Enjoyment and Quality to Life (www.benq.com).

You would be forgiven for recalling the episode when British Airways paid a fortune to repaint its aircraft in ethnic colours - and then paid a second fortune to paint them back again after the new designs caused dismay all round.

'Ebusiness-enabling' products - that is, notebooks, servers and PCs - will still be branded under the Acer name, but the 'digital life devices', which is corporate code for optical drives, scanners, digital cameras, CRT and TFT monitors, will be sold under the new Benq name.

Notebooks accounted for 60 per cent of the company's £2b revenues in 2000, with 11 per cent coming from PCs and five per cent from motherboards.

Before 1 March 2002 there will be a transition period when Acer CM products will ship with a label that says 'Acer inspired by Benq'. Benq will then launch fully at Cebit on 1 March and we'll see Benq-labelled and boxed products.

These corporate shenanigans are all very well, but how will this affect you, the consumer?

The Acer/Benq product roadmaps have a line drawn in March to denote the change, but after that time it's business as usual. If you trust the Acer brand, don't be put off by the sudden appearance of Benq. It's the same people in the same factories with the same R&D and the same level of product support.

Repeat the mantra: 'Acer - technology and service; Benq - technology and enjoyment'. Then sit back and wonder at the ways of marketing folk.

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