Michael Abbot, head honcho at mobile payments outfit ISIS, has put out a statement today saying that his company is about to go on a rebranding process. The call to rebrand has been triggered by recent political and militant movements in the Middle East, where a group with the same acronym (ISIS) has been linked with violent actions in the area.
Abbot said in his statement that the observed actions of ISIS – which translates to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria – has caused veritable concern in the company and most likely its stakeholders. The naming is purely coincidental, as ISIS mobile payments launched in November of 2013 without any knowledge or indication of the recent troubles in Syria and Iraq.
With this situation, Abbot says that his company “has no interest in sharing a name with a group whose name has become synonymous with violence” and that ISIS mobile payments has made the decision to rebrand because of this. Abbot has not given any sort of timeline in his statement for the rebranding, only that he will be giving updates “in the coming months.”
The mobile payments industry in the US is a niche market, and we feel that no one has really stepped up to claim market leadership yet – but ISIS is probably one of the top contenders for it. How this rebranding/renaming process will affect their brand recognition is still up in the air, so it will be interesting to see how the company deals with this situation.
SOURCE: ISIS