In a move that is expected to cost the Yell Group hundreds of thousands of pounds, the troubled company has decided it’s time to rebrand changing their online services from ‘Yell’ to ‘Hibu’ (pronounced ‘high boo’).
In what has been a tough year so far for the Yell Group, the rebranding of the companies online services is hoped to freshen up the image of the company and shake the publics perception of it being ‘old fashioned’.
All of the Yell Group online activities will be consolidated under the new ‘Hibu’ name while its offline products will remain under the ‘Yellow Pages’ brand.
The chief executive of Yell confirmed that the name doesn’t actually mean anything, but it is short and catchy and that we should remember that “If you go back 15 to 20 years, Google and Yahoo didn’t mean anything. It’s how you support the brands”.
The company has recently blamed difficulty trading conditions for their massive losses and drop in share price however it is reported that Yell have small businesses in their sights as they look to SME’s to boost the companies revenues. Part of the reason for the companies fall from grace is due to the reduction in revenue for its offline activities as more members of the public flock to online services.
This announcement from Yell has again been met with criticism from former customers and members on the public with some commenting on the Daily Mail‘s website:
“They should have rebranded themselves “hell” as i have experienced them first hand.”
“It’s just as stupid as the Royal Mail’s fatuous rebranding to Conneckt or something similar, what a waste of money!”
“It costs a fortune to place an ad on Yell.com, then no-one looks at it… I know, I did it, and that’s why I stopped using them”.
The new Hibu website is already online and is due to take over from Yell.com in the near future.