Iconic Benzina will be forgotten, experts say. Changing the name emphasizes foreign origin

This is not the first time that a Polish company operating in more than 110 countries has tried to change the name of the network in the Czech Republic. Ten years ago, it renamed several gas stations to the Star and Orlen brands. In the end, however, it returned everything to its original state due to not very positive reactions. Even now, he plans to rename the pumps to Orlen only very slowly – as he reconstructs them.

“Changing the name of an established brand is always a controversial topic. In the short term, it is mainly a very expensive matter, both in terms of changes in physical materials and in terms of subsequent communication and possible customer confusion leading to declining sales,” describes a marketing expert and specialist in on-line marketing Vladan Košut.

“In the long run, however, there are a number of legitimate reasons to change the name. Building one strong multinational brand instead of several smaller ones will be easier and therefore cheaper for Orlen. , “explains Košut.

However, according to marketing expert Tomáš Jindříšek from the DarkSide agency, it cannot be expected that a Czech customer will welcome a similar change immediately. “The brand is popular and traditional, and a number of negative comments will certainly take place in the public space. Some consumers may realize that their favorite Czech brand does not actually belong to the Czechs,” he reminds for the online daily Aktuálně.cz.

This is pointed out on the social network Twitter, for example, by Tomáš Hájek, a former minority shareholder of the petrochemical holding Unipetrol, which has controlled Polish PKN Orlen since 2004. “PKN Orlen did not think so. even a premium brand, motorists there were willing to pay a higher price, this willingness is now disappearing, I have been refueling elsewhere since the crowding out, “he states in his contribution. The ousting of the remaining minority shareholders was approved by the General Meeting of Unipetrol in 2018, when Orlen is the sole owner.

Nevertheless, Jindříšek is convinced that from the point of view of a Polish company this is a logical step. “Today, they are global corporations and need to show the world their scope, and it makes sense to use one brand,” the expert adds.

It’s not a lovebrand, experts say

Also the consultant Filip Novák from the marketing show ZeptejSeFilipa assumes that there will be no major problems with changing the name of the petrol station, which has been operating in the Czech Republic for decades. “Benzina is not a lovebrand and never has been. They have no co-products for their customers, such as Shell petrol stations,” says Novák.

According to Novák, it is an established synonym for a gas station – ie petrol, but according to him, Benzina has never used it in any campaign. “Definitely not in a way that would imprint customers’ memories in connection with some original advantage that the competition does not have,” he explains for the online daily Aktuálně.cz.

On the contrary, he sees the occupation of the local market as essential. “Which Benzina has very good and in this way the brand changes quite easily. By the end of the year there should be the first eight branches like Orlen and gradually next year. Once Benzina has finished its end, no one will even remember it,” he predicts. Novák.

In the Czech Republic, Benzina operates 421 filling stations and is a long-term market leader with a market share of 25.2 percent of retail fuel sales. It has 15 stations in Slovakia, which are also awaiting renaming.

Aral, Eurotel and Česká pojišťovna

Brand changes in the filling station market are nothing special. “Let’s remember Agip, BP or Aral, for example, which we only remember thanks to Nohavic’s song or when visiting abroad,” Jindříšek recalls.

The German company Aral entered the Czech market in 1991 and announced its withdrawal in 2005, and the station was subsequently bought by the Austrian OMV. Aral operated in most Central European countries, but also withdrew from Slovakia and Hungary. In Poland and Austria, it renamed its network of stations BP.

Czech customers can also remember brand changes in telephone operators. “Even though they were not such an old brand, they were considerably entrenched in the consciousness of consumers thanks to television commercials,” recalls Košut. “Nevertheless, no one will applaud them and few people will remember Pegas, Eurotel, Telecom or Oskar today,” adds the marketing specialist.

At the same time, however, brands that had a significantly older tradition and were among the oldest in the Czech lands also had to end. Two years ago, for example, the Generali and Česká pojišťovna brands merged their activities. Česká pojišťovna was established under the original name “Imperial-Royal, Privileged, Czech, joint compensation for damage caused by an insurance institute” already in 1827. Later, it simplified its name to “The First Czech Mutual Insurance Company”.

She has been using the iconic logo with three linden leaves since 1971, but by merging with Generali she had to give it up and after the merger she also changed her name to Generali Česká pojišťovna.

The Živnostenská banka also ended earlier. The name of the oldest Czech financial institution came too complicated for the new Italian owners, and thus adopted the name of the parent group UniCredit.

The Czech Start cigarettes, which were gradually transformed into Chesterfield, also fell on the altar of brand globalization. The same fate awaits the Peter brand.

However, other products have defended their name and global corporations continue to offer them under the Czech brand. These are, for example, Jar, which is known in the world as Fairy, or Lentils, which are sold outside the Czechia as Smarties.

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