HBO Max enters the temple of renown of corporate brand inversions with Netflix, Coca-Cola

HBO is synonymous with a big television – and now HBO Max, the redefined name of the Warner Bros. Warner Bros. streaming service. Discovery, is synonymous with major business reversals.

There is little doubt about this, after WBD announced Wednesday that it changed the name of Max back In HBO Max, the name he abandoned in 2023. This is the fifth name of the HBO streaming service in the past 11 years: HBO Go, HBO NOW, HBO Max, Max and, once again, HBO Max.

“Maybe the fifth time will be the charm,” joked a manager of Hulu for the name change of his rival.

HBO Max, you could easily say, is now the Mona Lisa, Michael Jordan and “the sopranos” of the 180s. But there are other contenders at the first prize in what could be called the temple of renowned business pivot.

Netflix generates Qwikster

If you were asking Netflix veteran investors, they would say that the streaming giant makes many movements – and its price for the increase in 86% in the last year would support this assertion. But not all decisions were winning.

In particular, in 2011, the co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings decided to divide its DVD rental activities and its emerging streaming service into two separate operations. The DVD company by mail would be nicknamed “Qwikster” and customers should pay for each service separately – combined, they would cost $ 15.98 compared to the $ 10 per month that subscribers had paid for both.

The result? Customers revolted. Netflix lost 800,000 American subscribers during the third quarter of 2011, and the company’s share price was halved.

After only a few months, Netflix had to reverse the course. While the price increase has remained in place, Netflix announced that it abandoned its rotation plan for its DVD rental activity. The name “Qwikster” was also abandoned, and everything remained under the Netflix banner.

“I have spoiled,” Hastings in Netflix told customers in a 2011 email.

As two ex decided to give him another blow, Viacom and CBS met in 2019, 13 years after the media giants separated.

Reconciliation was motivated by Shari Redstone in a decision that defined his father Sumner Redstone’s decision to divide media societies in 2006. Shari Redstone’s belief was the new Viacomcbs – which has since been renamed overall – could better compete with streaming heavy goods vehicles as Netflix as an unique disposal. The 2019 merger was an agreement of $ 12 billion.

It was also a familiar path for the two companies. Viacom was initially transferred from CBS in the early 1970s, before the two merged in 2000. When it comes to separating and recovering together, Viacom and CBS are the business version of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.

“Sonic the Hedgehog” by Paramount

Here is the piece A of when the fans’ reaction is so bad that it forces an entertainment company to be rotated as soon as possible.

When Paramount published the trailer for his first film “Sonic the Hedgehog” in 2019, the fans’ reaction was brutal. For what? Because the beloved blue video game character did not look like the fans of the hedge of Sega to know and love.

As Thewrap explained at the time, “Sonic’s look was compared to Mike Myers in the live action” The cat in the hat “, to the film of wooden wood made the budget fraction, or to this child who turns into a werewolf in Robin Williams’` Jumanji. ” ”

None of this was good, and he forced paramount to postpone the release of the three -month film so that Sonic could be reworked. This decision has borne fruit, with “Sonic”, bringing $ 320 million to the box office – more than tripling your budget – and the consequences of Frai.

New coke, we barely knew you

This may not be linked directly to the world of entertainment, but it was necessary to be mentioned-because with regard to the overhaul of botched companies, the “new coke” is the first thing that most people think. At least, it had the advantage of happening in the 1980s, which spared him from the joke dam on social networks that Max Max Max triggered.

In 1985, Coca-Cola was aimed at fighting late sales by introducing “New Coke”, which offered a “smoother, rounder, but more daring” socket of its classic formula. Consumers hated change, many believed that the sweeter “new coke” taste of old Pepsi.

The company pivoted less than three months later, bringing the old formula as “Coca -Cola Classic” – a decision that helped revive sales. New Coke was renamed Coke II in 1990, before being completely abandoned in 2002.