Neo-Aspilets renamed to Neo-Kiddilets. What the???

I heard a radio commercial this morning (AM radio, i rarely listen to FM) that said "Neo-Aspilets is now Neo-Kiddilets" or something like that (dunno if I got the spelling right). I have no idea what's the market share of Neo-Aspilets compared to the rest of the paracetamol brands for kids (Tempra for kids and Calpol) but I believe this is just a big waste of effort, time and money and that renaming from Aspilets to Kiddilets is a really, really, really bad idea.

As far as I know, nothing bad or controversial happened to the brand. No kids got sick further nor died from taking Neo-Aspilets. So why the rename? Was it a big ego trip of the current brand manager (you have to leave a legacy to the brand you know...)? Or was there really a strong, compelling, valid reason to do it?

How can they just throw away the Aspilets brand? Years and years of branding, milllions of pesos invested... gone, just like that. Now they are back to square one, spending huge, buying lots of airtime, hoping mothers would forget about Neo-Aspilets and instead, think of Neo-Kiddilets whenever their young ones are sick. The problem is, it's now considered a new brand and when you're a new brand - it's a long and difficult way to the top, where Tempra and Calpol are.

Neo-Aspilets still has the brand recall, brand presence and more importantly the market to compete with other kiddie paracetamol products. What it needed was brand revitalization, not brand rename.

The New Touch Mobile. New???

tm
Originally uploaded by mylesgj.

Goodbye Aga and Charlene, hello Cesar Montano. New look, new endorser, new rates...but sad to say the new TM (Touch Mobile) is not "new". It's just a me-too (and I'm sure another telco will follow suit). It's Globe's reaction to Sun Cellular's 24/7 free text and call.

But I think Sun will still prevail in this "pamurahan, pasulitan" game. Why?
Number One: They were the first to offer the FREE
Call and Text. First one who stakes the claim, most of the time, wins.
Number Two:Nothing beats the word FREE. In Sun Cellular's 24/7 Call & Text Unlimited, you can call and text all you want Sun to Sun for FREE vs. Touch Mobile's Piso Service, where all Touch Mobile to Touch Mobile calls will be charged P1.00 per minute only starting on the 3rd minute of each call.

See? Which one sounds better?

If Smart (Talk and Text) will follow suit, they should come up with something better than FREE. Kinda' hard to top if you will ask me.