The Manulife Financial brand name is gradually being changed to Manulife across the company’s various business sectors. The company has also removed the For your future tagline from its logo. The branding change should be completed within 16 months.

The insurer quietly began the transition at the end of 2014. In an interview, Manulife’s vice-president, Branding and Creative, Jeronimo De Miguel, said that while the company made the decision to change the name in 2014, it preferred not to implement the change suddenly.

“The change is being made gradually. We plan to complete the changes to our web pages, marketing documents and buildings by the end of this year. All the other changes will be completed within the next 12 to 16 months or so, depending on the business line,” said De Miguel.

He added that the company wants to reflect the habits of consumers’ who commonly refer to the company as “Manulife”. Shortening its brand name will also enable the insurer to have its name on documents appear in larger-sized letters, he added.

Although the insurer manufactures a wide variety of financial services products, the company did not hesitate to drop “Financial” from its name. “This is an opportunity to reiterate that we are in the business of life,” says De Miguel.

On its website, the insurer has included a history of its logo, which over 125 years has been changed 10 times “from a symbol representing Sir John A. Macdonald’s political platform to one representing the company’s values of professionalism, financial strength and growth.”

The latest logo is the insurer’s 10^th version. The explanation beside the new logo says, “The simplified identity has more impact in marketing communications and continues to reflect the brand name introduced in the 70’s. A dual brand logo (using Manulife and the John Hancock logos) has been introduced and will be used where appropriate to show that the two brands are operated by the same entity.”