STRIKE UP THE BRAND © BY DON READ 6.3.05
I remember driving along Lenton Lane some years back and noticing something odd about the neon sign on the roof of Central TV. The letters T and V were missing. My immediate thought was for passing strangers who might be forgiven for thinking the building could be Central bus station, Central Engineering or Central Pharmaceuticals. The removal of those two vital letters reduced the identity of the premises yet this was simply a re-branding exercise. Central TV had become Central. This was all part of the craze of the late eighties when, presumably a proliferation of companies specialising in rebranding other companies names .were doing a roaring trade.
Mention Halifax to most people and they will think of a Yorkshire industrial town. We all know Halifax is the home of a financial organisation once known as the Halifax Building Society. But the organisation became a bank and rebranded itself as The Halifax. Just down the road in my hometown I grew up being aware of the Bradford and Bingley Building Society now known only as the Bradford and Bingley.
A few years ago the Post Office/Royal Mail somehow got talked into rebranding its image. Now you can’t do much to glamorise an organisation that delivers mail. It is a basic utility and needs no embellishment to make it prosper yet overnight it became Consignia. Did you hear anyone say they were just nipping down to Consignia for a stamp ? The whole idea was ridiculed and within months the fancy name was dropped. But at what cost ? Many thousands of pounds. You can’t change all your stationary, repaint your transport and rebadge uniforms etc. for peanuts.
Remember British Airways rebranding mania with aircraft tail fins painted with abstract images of African art ? Mrs Thatcher exploded at the removal of the Union flag and images were quickly replaced.
Companies used to have Personnel Managers but imagine the reaction of someone I heard of who received a letter, typed by an inept secretary, apparently from the Head Of Human Race Horses. The National Housing And Town Planning Council sought brevity in its name change to ROOM. A lady celebrating her ninetieth birthday received a congratulatory letter from her building society’s Twilight Administrator.
Of course some things do need renaming. In the fifties I once found myself in New Brighton-just why I cannot recall. At one end of the promenade was a long low building emblazoned with huge lettering GENTS URINAL STALLS..Now there was a no nonsense council that believed in calling a spade a spade. In America it would probably have been designated as a BATHROOM or RESTROOM. Kentucky Fried Chicken has become KFC, The early morning news on BBC TV is known as Breakfast although you can’t actually eat it. and a clothes chain called the French Connection invented a sub heading which left little to the imagination but due to its implication adorns many a T shirt.
Some towns could use a little rebranding. You would never find a Grimsby, Grimethorpe, or aWorksop in California but I wouldn’t want to change Giggleswick which conjures up an image of a town full of happy smiling folk.
No one could imagine rebranding such solid institutions as the BBC although I bet they’ve tried. In my young days in Bradford I fantasised about opening a chain of restaurants right across the industrial landscape of West Yorkshire and calling them Dark Satanic Grills. After the war lots of businesses sprung up using the word Enterprises as in Jo Bloggs Enterprises. It was so common, and still is, I thought it grossly unenterprising and unimaginative. It didn’t give you a clue as to what they did but it was supposed to create an image of entrepreneurial skills. I hated the word and dreamed up the term Encore Musical Administration for a countrywide network of jazz clubs I dreamed of developing.. Being just seventeen at the time I found it difficult to raise the capital required and with National Service looming I abandon the idea..
But names change with generations. The humble British bun has metormorphised into the American muffin.Chips are fries and if you are into computer technology you will use the American slash instead of the British stroke we used to have on our typewriters.
East Midlands Airport has been rebranded as Nottingham East Midlands Airport because foreigners don’t know where the East Midlands is but Doncaster Airport has added Robin Hood to is name presumably in the hope of attracting hordes of Japanese tourists searching for Robin and his merry men.
A recent addition to the plethora of TV advertising is one for a detergent with a name that defies belief. Introduced by a completely unknown (to me) chap in rolled up shirt sleeves going by the name of Barry Scott who demonstrates the miracles of the wonder stuff named Cillet Bang. I wonder what committee of clever marketing executives dreamed that one up and how much they charged the client? They might just as well have called it Zebra Crossing.
Celebrities get unusual names..River Phoenix, Paris Hilton (after her Dad’s hotel- what was wrong with Grantham Travelodge ?) Rugby star Austen Healy named after the famous sports car should have teamed up with Minnie Driver and made a “road” movie. American politicians with such ridiculous names as Newt and Mitt. Countries and their cities have joined in. Ceylon is now Sri Lanka, Bombay has become Mumbai, Thailand used to be Siam and Peking is Beijing.
The PR people rebranded Nottingham in the hope of attracting more tourists. They used a big N (no, not a big Hen). If you live abroad and are thinking of visiting the UK just look for the big N and be careful you don’t wind up in Norwich, Northampton or Newcastle.
Finally there was a delightful song in the sixties called “The Days Of Wine and Roses”. Today it might be rebranded as “The Daze Of Rows Of Winos”.
I remember driving along Lenton Lane some years back and noticing something odd about the neon sign on the roof of Central TV. The letters T and V were missing. My immediate thought was for passing strangers who might be forgiven for thinking the building could be Central bus station, Central Engineering or Central Pharmaceuticals. The removal of those two vital letters reduced the identity of the premises yet this was simply a re-branding exercise. Central TV had become Central. This was all part of the craze of the late eighties when, presumably a proliferation of companies specialising in rebranding other companies names .were doing a roaring trade.
Mention Halifax to most people and they will think of a Yorkshire industrial town. We all know Halifax is the home of a financial organisation once known as the Halifax Building Society. But the organisation became a bank and rebranded itself as The Halifax. Just down the road in my hometown I grew up being aware of the Bradford and Bingley Building Society now known only as the Bradford and Bingley.
A few years ago the Post Office/Royal Mail somehow got talked into rebranding its image. Now you can’t do much to glamorise an organisation that delivers mail. It is a basic utility and needs no embellishment to make it prosper yet overnight it became Consignia. Did you hear anyone say they were just nipping down to Consignia for a stamp ? The whole idea was ridiculed and within months the fancy name was dropped. But at what cost ? Many thousands of pounds. You can’t change all your stationary, repaint your transport and rebadge uniforms etc. for peanuts.
Remember British Airways rebranding mania with aircraft tail fins painted with abstract images of African art ? Mrs Thatcher exploded at the removal of the Union flag and images were quickly replaced.
Companies used to have Personnel Managers but imagine the reaction of someone I heard of who received a letter, typed by an inept secretary, apparently from the Head Of Human Race Horses. The National Housing And Town Planning Council sought brevity in its name change to ROOM. A lady celebrating her ninetieth birthday received a congratulatory letter from her building society’s Twilight Administrator.
Of course some things do need renaming. In the fifties I once found myself in New Brighton-just why I cannot recall. At one end of the promenade was a long low building emblazoned with huge lettering GENTS URINAL STALLS..Now there was a no nonsense council that believed in calling a spade a spade. In America it would probably have been designated as a BATHROOM or RESTROOM. Kentucky Fried Chicken has become KFC, The early morning news on BBC TV is known as Breakfast although you can’t actually eat it. and a clothes chain called the French Connection invented a sub heading which left little to the imagination but due to its implication adorns many a T shirt.
Some towns could use a little rebranding. You would never find a Grimsby, Grimethorpe, or aWorksop in California but I wouldn’t want to change Giggleswick which conjures up an image of a town full of happy smiling folk.
No one could imagine rebranding such solid institutions as the BBC although I bet they’ve tried. In my young days in Bradford I fantasised about opening a chain of restaurants right across the industrial landscape of West Yorkshire and calling them Dark Satanic Grills. After the war lots of businesses sprung up using the word Enterprises as in Jo Bloggs Enterprises. It was so common, and still is, I thought it grossly unenterprising and unimaginative. It didn’t give you a clue as to what they did but it was supposed to create an image of entrepreneurial skills. I hated the word and dreamed up the term Encore Musical Administration for a countrywide network of jazz clubs I dreamed of developing.. Being just seventeen at the time I found it difficult to raise the capital required and with National Service looming I abandon the idea..
But names change with generations. The humble British bun has metormorphised into the American muffin.Chips are fries and if you are into computer technology you will use the American slash instead of the British stroke we used to have on our typewriters.
East Midlands Airport has been rebranded as Nottingham East Midlands Airport because foreigners don’t know where the East Midlands is but Doncaster Airport has added Robin Hood to is name presumably in the hope of attracting hordes of Japanese tourists searching for Robin and his merry men.
A recent addition to the plethora of TV advertising is one for a detergent with a name that defies belief. Introduced by a completely unknown (to me) chap in rolled up shirt sleeves going by the name of Barry Scott who demonstrates the miracles of the wonder stuff named Cillet Bang. I wonder what committee of clever marketing executives dreamed that one up and how much they charged the client? They might just as well have called it Zebra Crossing.
Celebrities get unusual names..River Phoenix, Paris Hilton (after her Dad’s hotel- what was wrong with Grantham Travelodge ?) Rugby star Austen Healy named after the famous sports car should have teamed up with Minnie Driver and made a “road” movie. American politicians with such ridiculous names as Newt and Mitt. Countries and their cities have joined in. Ceylon is now Sri Lanka, Bombay has become Mumbai, Thailand used to be Siam and Peking is Beijing.
The PR people rebranded Nottingham in the hope of attracting more tourists. They used a big N (no, not a big Hen). If you live abroad and are thinking of visiting the UK just look for the big N and be careful you don’t wind up in Norwich, Northampton or Newcastle.
Finally there was a delightful song in the sixties called “The Days Of Wine and Roses”. Today it might be rebranded as “The Daze Of Rows Of Winos”.