Inspired by bookselling brand name changes in the UK (once known as the U.K.), Barnes & Noble has decided to rebrand itself.
Noting that more than a dozen years ago, he dropped the apostrophe from Waterstone's, James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble and managing director of Waterstones, said the company was especially inspired by last week's news that WHSmith had sold its WHSmith high street stores in the U.K. to a venture capital firm that is renaming the stores TGJones, a made-up name intended to resemble WHSmith. He also observed that B. Dalton Bookseller, long owned by B&N, was a name based on the name of the head of the company at that time, Bruce Dayton of Dayton-Hudson.
"Dayton-Dalton, Smith-Jones, Barnes-Noble," Daunt mused. "Ampersands, apostrophes, initials with abbreviations and space in people's names! In the digital age, it's better to be clean and streamlined."
B&N top staff considered several name changes, according to people who were involved in the decision making but wish to remain anonymous. Among the options were rebranding all B&N stores Tattered Cover, after the Denver bookstore company it bought last year, as well as naming the company BarnesNoble. In the end, however, Daunt took to a suggestion by a staff member to follow in the tradition of WHSmith and TGJones. Barnes & Noble will soon become AJDaunt.
Daunt noted that "of course" the new name will be easily adoptable by the company's divisions in the UK: Waterstones, Foyles, Hatchards, Hodges Figgis, Blackwell's, and his own London company, Daunt Books. Moreover, Daunt said he liked the idea of being put personally on a par with other iconic booksellers, real and not. "Imagine a dinner party of just WHSmith, TGJones, BDalton, and AJDaunt," he said. "Brilliant."