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Originally Posted by barryem
Back to the idea of changing the name of the Nook, I think Nooks used to have a good reputation and now they've lost it due to the mishandling and closures by B&N. The thing to do, I would think, is stick to the Nook name because people know it and make people trust it again. That won't happen overnight but a few statements, backed up by action, from the company can only help.
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Companies generally don't rename even flailing products without good reason.
Even a bad reputation among the masses is better than no reputation; at least it adds name recognition.
One thing B&N can do that won't cost much is to embrace Nook and credit store managers for promoting them. As Walmart has shown with Kobo, if the staff isn't invested in actively moving the product it won't matter if they stock it or not.
A rename might work if it comes with something that separates the new from the old; it could be as simple as a book club users can subscribe to or a Scribd-style limited service or even just access to a library of PD classics, including those used in education, or a section of permafree titles. There actually a few ebook marketing tricks Amazon hasn't tried with Kindle, mostly because it would be overkill.
A rename/relaunch could be something as simple as: NOOK II by BARNES AND NOBLE.
For years, Amazon stamped their name on the back of Kindles until the Kindle name could stand on its own. Nook (or whatever) could use a lot of reinforcement and if they can't afford an Apple-style saturation PR campaign (they never could, nobody else can) at least sustained dual branding can't hurt.