Few companies are so simultaneously successful and reviled as Facebook, which may be why its CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a “rebranding” of the company from “Facebook” to “Metaverse.” Presumably, this was done to announce the company’s future focus on virtual and alternative reality. Some may think this is appropriate and prescient, reflecting Mr. Zuckerberg’s visionary nature; others have concluded this is just his attempt to ‘change the subject’ from the current controversies around the negative impact of social media on politics and the young.
Whatever his motivations, branding guru Denise Lee Yohn thinks Mr. Zuckerberg may be doing too much too soon; that he has a vision without a vehicle and until he has one, Metaverse will be merely a distinction without a difference. In short, it’s not a rebranding but merely a renaming. Her short HBR Blog Post, Facebook’s Rebrand Has a Fundamental Problem, offers the fundamental insight that Mr. Zuckerberg may have his action steps backwards.
