Voters transfer brand loyalty to a name regardless of who holds it.

Evidence

The subsequent birth of a new party, Rifondazione Comunista, from a splinter group made the problem more acute for the PdS. This party managed to retain not only the old name communist but also the hammer and sickle emblem. Setting aside ideological differences, several heterogenous groups, including the old Democrazia Proletaria, which thereby fulfilled its wish to seize the name, joined this party. The election in April 1992 revealed that the fears of those in the PdS who had felt “robbed” were well founded. Despite the fact that during the campaign the leaders of the PdS had gone hoarse proclaiming that they were still “the true communise parry,” many votes for PdS candidates were mistakenly cast under the symbol of the Rifondazione Comunista. The PdS lost thousands of votes in this way. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 373

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Extends the ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ theme of symbolic markers as identity signals, but more directly it’s a pure illustration of brand-as-signal relevant to the reader’s trademark framing.