First, let me say I understand the need to rebrand after a merger, but I think the new name is kind of dumb.

But I don't understand all the comments here about how Marriott should have done focus groups, should have listened to FlyerTalker's opinions, etc. The following things come to mind immediately as I read the thread:

- We (and I include myself) all think our opinions are more important than they probably are -- to Marriott or anyone else. Ultimately, we're a small sample of the customer base.
- Who says they didn't do focus groups? If I were rolling out new branding, it wouldn't be focused on keeping existing customers that had already proven their loyalty, it would be focused on appealing to new customers. So why would I include elites in the focus groups?
- AND, adding onto the bullet above, I suspect they were doubtful that they would lose existing loyal customers due to a loyalty program name. So a few people will complain about how stupid the name is for a while, maybe a few will even prefer it, but in the end if you leave Marriott because of the loyalty program branding, you were probably going to leave anyway.

The fact that people are discussing the name change and what it means might be exactly what they wanted -- a distraction from some of the IT problems that have affected a portion of their customers.