Despite Overstock’s O.co rebranding being listed in Adage’s annual article about “The Biggest Follies of 2011,” Overstock appears to be continuing with its O.co branding, albeit at a slower pace.
In a press release announcing its partnership with Priceline, Overstock reaffirmed that it will be using O.Co in the branding for its travel offering. “Overstock.com Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTK), today announced that it has selected the Priceline Partner Network, which is a business unit of priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN), to power Overstock’s new travel website, called O.co Travel.”
I find it interesting that the company is using both Overstock and O.Co as brand names, but it appears that the company is intent on utilizing the O.co brand. Perhaps it’s using O.co Travel to differentiate this unit from its other Overstock business, but more likely, it’s launching this new brand with the O.co branding and intends to do the same with future introductions. I suppose they are simply taking the slower re-branding route and will see how things go in the meantime.
It will be interesting to keep an eye on Overstock to see how this branding takes place and over what time period. I am sure other companies will keep an eye on this in light of the new TLDs that will be introduced soon. Companies like Canon and Ebay will probably use this as a lesson if and when they plan to apply for and possibly use brand TLDs.
Another brilliant business strategy by Overstock… use Priceline to offer travel discounts via O.co.
Shouldn’t be any consumer confusion there :-0
So they are launching a travel portal on O.co using the Priceline affiliate program?
Doesn’t really seem like that big of news.
I think companies already learned their lesson when Overstock abandoned O.co for their main site and admitted consumer confusion.
Brad
This doesn’t seem like a great move by Overstock. First of all, it’s confusing, second of all it should hardly be considered re-branding since they are basically just white labeling Priceline’s product.
They should have developed a totally separate brand and then merged it with Overstock if it was successful. This is bringing negative attention to their bread and butter, e-commerce consignment.
Doesn’t seem like they have a well aligned branding strategy
I agree with “Brand Consultants”; Overstock needs to re-focus their strategy to bring clarity and fix their brand image. By spreading out their already thinning resources it is only going to confuse their current customers and split up the company.
The move with Priceline may not have been a total loss had they waited until their stock began to recover. I also would not label the venture with the O.co label, I believe it may become confusing and the better option would have been to create a new brand and later merge if it is successful.