It is not all sweetness and light at a Belgian chocolate company as its brand name ISIS left a bad taste in the mouth of customers.

The original brand name Italo Suisse was created in 1923. After deciding the name did not really have any association with either country, they changed it to ISIS... creating a much worse association.

Owner Ignace Libeert thinks the ISIS rebrand has cost the company millions in lost business.

“When we saw that the orders, planned to get in by the latest at the beginning of September for this Christmas, didn’t come in, neither from the US nor from the UK, we wondered what was going on here.

We had orders but realised that the name ISIS was actually disturbing our consumers

“We had orders but realised that the name ISIS was actually disturbing our consumers. They were very upset with that name and therefore we had to make a decision.”

ISIS is also the acronym derived from Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the jihadist group that arose in the Syrian civil war and has now invaded parts of Iraq.

Changing a brand name is a long and costly process. Robert Haigh of the brand Equity thinks some other smaller businesses called ISIS might think twice about changing their brand name.

“You have to think about the implementation of that new identity, so the visual identity is a very important process, but it is a costly and meticulous one that has to be managed, often by external agencies, and one that has to be rolled out in a very systematic way across the organisation.

“Depending on the size, it can run into millions and millions of pounds or dollars.”

The chocolate company makes more than 5,000 tons of chocolate each year, with a turnover of about $45 million.

It has now changed its name to Libeert, the family name of the company’s owners, in a bid to attract more customers.

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