Speaking to Business Insider, AOL’s marketing chief Allie Kline admitted that the company is suffering from an identity crisis. Customers don’t recognize that the Internet provider also owns some of the most popular news sites around like The Huffington Post and TechCrunch, along with mapping service MapQuest and several ad platforms.
Kline’s biggest goal for 2016 is to correct this issue, which may mean rebranding the company as something besides AOL. “I actually don’t think there’s a bad choice, but we have to make the choice,” she told BI. “Are we going to keep the AOL brand or are we going to bring a new brand to market?”
Beyond a new name, this could be an opportunity to restructure the company and give some of its properties more room to breathe. One option might be something similar to how Google became Alphabet, allowing its many different branches to blossom into their own full-fledged companies.
Kline doesn’t seem to have a new name picked out just yet, but she’s definitely open to the idea. “Is AOL the right brand? If it is, let’s invest in it,” she said. “And if it isn’t, let’s figure out what is. But either way, not investing in the brand is not an option.”
By: Jacob Kleinman.
Review: Emerging Market Formulations & Research Unit, Flagship Records.
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