Network Appliance Re-brands as NetApp

By Greg McNevin

March 12, 2008: In a major re-branding exercise, Network Appliance has announced that it is ditching its full name and officially going with the more concise NetApp.

After a lot of soul searching and extensive market research, the company has decided to forge a new identity system that “crystallizes its promise to the market”.

“With this initiative, we are looking to increase our impact and relevance with a broader range of people,” writes Dan Warmenhoven, CEO of NetApp in statement. “It's all about taking the success we've had and letting more people know about it.”

The re-branding exercise is aimed at exposing the company to a broader audience in the largest awareness campaign in its history.

Aside from the official name change, NetApp’s new identity includes a new logo designed to convey its data management history and a “gateway to new possibilities, new ideas, and new perspectives”. The company has launched an completely revamped website, and has instigated a new tagline “Go further, faster”.

In an official blog posting titled "NetApp is a Well-Kept Secret. Time For That To Change", NetApp founder Dave Hitz outlines some of the reasons behind the re-branding.

“Less than 10% of potential customers list NetApp. That means our unaided awareness is very close to our market share, which is also about 10%. Pretty much everyone who knows about NetApp is buying from us. Think about it: Everybody knows about EMC, but only a third of them choose to buy from EMC,” writes Hitz.

While he expects that many readers regard branding and awareness as “marketing bulls&%#”, Hitz writes that until recently, the company’s engineering-centric executive staff largely shared this view. He stresses, however, that while some aspects of NetApp are changing, the company’s anima is not.

“As part of the launch we are changing many things – the logo, the tagline, the messages – but we are not changing NetApp itself,” writes Hitz. “The brand launch is not about driving more change; it is about introducing people to what NetApp has matured into, after fifteen years of successful growth.”

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