Renaming your product or company may be the start of something big.

Sure the Patagonian Toothfish had a great sense of humor and a charming personality, but thanks to its frightening name, most people never gave it a second look. That is until it got rebranded by marketer Lee Lantz in 1977 as the Chilean Seabass.

Starting as a fish stick filler and eventually becoming a favorite entree of 5 star restaurants, demand grew so quickly that the species went from near obscurity to near extinction, being almost wiped out in the course of a decade.

Of course that huge demand wasn't solely based on it's new brand name. Chefs liked it because it was versatile and worked with almost any seasoning and it was flaky and mild and almost impossible to overcook. Consumers liked it because it sounded exotic and tasted delicious.

When Lantz coined the name, the fish had virtually no existing equity and a negative image in its current market of South America. It tasted bland. It was ugly too. He created a market for it by renaming it and importing it into the U.S.

Renaming isn't always a simple task or an easy solution, however. With a product or company that is struggling already, or has a lot of existing equity, a renaming process can be a minefield according to Killian Branding. http://www.killianbranding.com/whitepaper/how-to-rename-a-company/

Or renaming could create such strong demand that it even brings in pirates. Do you have a Patagonian Toothfish in your lineup?

To learn more about the Chilean Seabass, check out the links below.

According to Ethiciurean.com: "Until the 1990s, it was more or less unknown to most of the world. By 2002, stocks had been depleted so much that the National Environmental Trust launched a preservation campaign called "Take a Pass on Chilean Sea Bass" and the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch eventually added it to its "avoid" list."

Reveries.com references the book “Hooked: Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish,” by G. Bruce Knecht, - See more at: http://www.reveries.com/2006/05/patagonian-toothfish/#sthash.PKkzzktY.dpuf for more info.