Two years ago, it started rolling out the ProLine name for its tax and research products, along with its nascent practice management software and one of its FaceBook pages. It withdrew ProLine from the research and online tax products, and then the practice management application. And the name finally disappeared from Facebook when the Intuit ProLine page became Intuit Accountants. There were some compliments about the change, although nothing either direction that involves hordes of responses.
The obvious counter to unifying names in a product line has been General Motors, whose many brands succeeded, and when the company ran into problems, it had nothing to do with the names, although having too many brands was one of the issues.
What do names mean to the people who buy? A name cannot make up for a lack of quality, an inability to deliver or lackluster service. They can indicate the suitability of a product for a particular market, although neither the old Sage, nor new Sage names do that, except when coupled with tags that show an edition for a particular market such as construction or the nonprofit space.
No, names ultimately stand or fall on the value purchasers find in a company, its products and services. There are some limits. Few would likely purchase a package called Awful Software. On the other hand, no advertising firm would have come up with the names of IBM or Microsoft as trusted names. Think about why the Great Plains name is still used despite the branding. The company and its products were respected.
Brands must be based on performance. When performance falters, a brand can only stave off lost sales for a time. Performance cannot guarantee success or a great brand. But few succeed without it.