Advantage renamed Provenco

By PETER GRIFFIN

Tech-wreck survivor Advantage Group is to have a new name and stock ticker, the result of a messy court case in which Palmerston North company Advantage Computers affirmed its rights to the name.

Provenco is the new name of the Auckland-based IT company, which will be known on the sharemarket as PVO and switch its colour scheme from red to blue.

The rebrand is the culmination of a three-year battle for the Advantage name.

Palmerston North-based Advantage Computers had trademarked the brand in the early 1990s, before Advantage Group arrived on the scene.

A High Court decision barred Advantage Group from using the name in association with many parts of its business.

Advantage Group appealed the decision but was unsuccessful.

Costs were awarded by the court and Advantage Computers was given the option to pursue damages. The two companies ended up striking a confidential out-of-court settlement.

Advantage Computers managing director Mark Ward said he was "happy the trademark stood up" through the case and subsequent appeal.

Provenco managing director Tony Butler said the new name did not mean anything in particular but had been well received in focus groups. The 120,000 Advantage-branded eftpos terminals in circulation would not have the name removed, but all new products would carry the Provenco tag.

Advantage/Provenco has learned from its mistakes. It has reserved eight Provenco-related names with the Companies Office and secured some real estate in cyberspace.

Less certain is how the name will be received. The corporate world is littered with examples of brand name changes - some successful, some disastrous.

Advertising executive Howard Russell of Strategic Insight said people categorised brand as "names we like, names we don't like and names we're not sure of".

Convincing the market that Provenco does not fall into the latter categories would require a lot of communicating with customers, business partners, staff and analysts.

Russell says the New Zealand benchmark for "making the change positive" has been Vodafone - which took over the assets of Bell South in 1997 and established the Vodafone brand locally.

Aoraki Corporation had thought long and hard about rebranding its software division Jade.

"They were very apprehensive about changing from Aoraki. But it's Jade now and it works," said Russell.