The Name Game

I blame Richard Branson . It's one thing to call a record label Virgin; record labels are suppo...

I blame Richard Branson. It’s one thing to call a record label Virgin; record labels are supposed to have silly names. Just look at Stiff, Factory and my personal favourite, Alternative Tentacles. But as the empire of Branson grew, suddenly there were radio stations, airlines, shops, trains and, by the mid-1990s, financial services all bearing the Virgin brand. Before we knew it we had Aviva, Accenture and a credit card called Marbles. In the past couple of weeks we have seen the venerable Liverpool Victoria become LV= (do you pronounce the equals?) and the rather more upstart GE Li...