Tag: corporate-america

Change is Good. Right?

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

The current political atmosphere has us talking about change. Change is good, except, of course, when it isn’t. Here are a few examples:

  • The Daily News is reporting that the Tarzana portion of Encino-Tarzana hospital has been sold… to the same company that runs Provident Holy Cross in Granada Hills and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Burbank. This is good news, as those are good hospitals. For those in Encino, the news isn’t quite as good: The Encino campus has been sold to Prime Healthcare, the same folks now operating Brotman in Culver City. Prime is a for-maximum-profit group, and I haven’t heard good about them. But anything may be better than Tenet.
  • The shape of the milk jug is changing. According to the New York Times, Wal*Mart and Sams Club are introducing a new half-gallon milk jug shape that provides fresher milk, eliminates the milk carton, and reduces storage costs. Of course, it is harder to poor, and deprives college students of a furniture necessity: the milk carton, which is great for holding, uh, LPs.
  • But Wal*Mart itself is changing. Wal*Mart is refreshing its logo, with a new mixed case, rounded logo. The Wal*Mart doublespeak on this is “This update to the logo is simply a reflection of the refresh taking place inside our stores and our renewed sense of purpose to help people save money so they can live better.” You can find the history of the Wal*Mart logo here. Of course, there’s a real reason behind the change: Sales have been dropping.

And speaking of change and the current political atmosphere: We all know how the president’s poll numbers have been changing. They’ve been going down. Of course, the President doesn’t sense this: he thinks he’s got an upsurge in popularity. But he also believes in the Easter Bunny, weapons of mass destruction, and the fact that opening drilling in coastal waters to oil companies will immediately reduce the price of gasoline.

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Corporate Comings and Goings…

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Folks who know me know that I have a fascination with corporate names, history, and logos. I guess I can trace this back to the time NBC abandoned its peacock for the infamous N. Anyway, today’s news brings a bunch of little things regarding corporate names and such:

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Look! Up in the sky! It’s not a bird or a plane, but an advertising logo!

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Yup, they are even marketing with the clouds. It appears a special-effects entrepreneur from Alabama has come up with a way to fill the sky with foamy clouds as big as 4 feet across and shaped like corporate logos. His name for the product: “Flogos“. A Flogo machine works a little like a Play-Doh Fun Factory: A boxlike contraption produces a specially formulated white foam in a big round tub and forces it upward through a stencil. Once the foam is several inches thick, a metal cutter slices it and a faux cloud floats into the sky. The foam is mostly water, air/helium, and a soapy agent that creates bubbles. A single Flogo can travel as far as 30 miles and as high as 20,000 feet, and a machine can produce one every 15 seconds. The company is working on a version that will spit out 6-foot clouds. Whether they will be a commercial success is unknown.

View the demo. It’s creepy.

To me, this is yet another example of corporate culture and marketing taking over the world. I think Stan Freberg predicted this many years ago. If there’s a blank space on it, expect there to be advertising. After all, advertising is the American way!

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Brand-Name Recognition

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

The New York Times Magazine had an interesting piece over the weekend on a company called River West that is in the process of reviving dead brands, which prompted even more discussion. It appears this company purchases brands that have been abandoned by their owners and revives of the products (of course, usually with different formulations, and sometimes even different products). Some of the brands that have been revived or may be revived include Brim Coffee, Salon Selectives, Underalls, Eagle Snacks, and Nuprin. Very interesting article.

So, think about the dead brands of your childhood. What brands would you like to see again? Funny Face drinks? Helms bread? Burma-Shave shaving cream?

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Thursday News Chum

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Because I’ve been so quiet all week, some news chum especially for you:

  • From the “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” Department: Lawyers in the UK are very reluctant to give up their horsehair white wigs and robes with wing collars. After all, it has worked for hundreds of years. But come October, the wigs are out, at least for civil cases. Lord Chief Justice Nicholas Phillips has unveiled the modern new robe that judges in the civil courts of England and Wales are expected to wear beginning in October — minus the traditional wing collar and the venerable white horsehair wig. Judges, barristers and solicitors will continue to sport traditional attire in criminal courts, where lawyers say it’s important for defendants not to be judged by their advocates’ suits (an argument I never actually thought of). The new continental-style outfit, featuring such innovations as pockets, snap fasteners and color-coded bands depending on the court. The lawyers complain they look like Star Trek uniforms.
  • From the “If it’s not broke, fix it” Department: General Electric, feeling the squeeze from the credit crunch (not to mention NBC), is planning to sell its appliance division. This could fetch at least $5 Billion. As part of a potential sale, G.E. is likely to hand over a license to use the G.E. brand for a short period of time, the people briefed on the proposal said. After the initial license for using the General Electric brand expires, the buyer of the appliance unit would be allowed to continue to use the Monogram and Profile badges.
  • From the “If it’s broke, don’t fix it” Department: It’s really odd when doing poor comes across as doing good. Freddie Mac lost $151 Million in the quarter, but that was less than they thought they would lose, so it was good news. Macy’s loss of $59 Million was less than expected, so people were happy. But Jack in the Box tumbled on a bad forecast.
  • From the “If it’s broke, fix it” Department: The California Supreme Court overturned the gay marriage ban. But I wonder how quickly some self-righteous (insert noun) will break it again.

As for why I’ve been quiet? I’ve been busy busy busy at work, with loads of documents to review and comments to enter. I’ve been busy, busy, busy at home, completing the painting of the media room, hosting visiting cousins (my uncle is in the hospital), and getting ready for the bathroom remodel to finally be completed (I’ll post pictures when it is done).

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Doing My Part for Earth Week

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

As you know, Earth Day was Tuesday of this week. I’m doing my part, reading the news online and saving a tree. By the way, have you noticed that newspapers never promote themselves as being green, because the best green thing to do for a newspaper is not to print it, which saves energy (the presses), fuel (the delivery), and paper. So, to save you the energy of reading things yourself, here are some articles of interest:

  • From the “…and that little minx Wendy” Department: The owner of Arby’s is buying Wendy’s for $2.34 Billion Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers. This does not please the families of Dave Thomas, who have a beef with the buyer. The new owner will change their name to include “Wendy’s”. Also, remember that the little minx still won’t care about you. In related merger-mania, Rupert Murdoch wants to buy NY Newsday.
  • From the “What Will They Outsource Next?” Department: We’ve all heard of things being outsourced, from customer service to take-out orders. Even legal research is being outsourced. The new frontier? Debt Collection is being outsourced to India.
  • From the “I-24 G-(cough cough)” Department: It appears that banning smoking has one bad side effect: The income at bingo games supporting charities has gone down. It appears that those that like bingo would rather do it at Indian Gaming where Native American Tobacco can be used, as opposed to forgoing it for a good cause. Remember: People don’t play Bingo to support your charity.
  • From the “If They Don’t See It, It Doesn’t Exist” Department: The Washington Post has an interesting piece regarding the Iraq War. It appears that even when the family invited the media to the funeral, Arlington Cemetary Keeps Them Away. It appears a significant lesson has been learned from Vietnam, and it wasn’t regarding getting out of unpopular wars where victory wasn’t possible. No, the lesson was that media coverage of the horrors of war makes people hate war. The daily reports from Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather made people grow to hate the death and destruction of young lives. So, in this war, we don’t show them. No flag draped coffins, no parents mourning the loss of a child, no coverage of the damage to vets. We don’t report it, it didn’t happen. Sad.
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Monday News Chum

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Some news chum, from a stinky house (they are hot-mopping, i.e., tarring, the bathroom) on a headachy day:

  • From the “Thank You, Republic Airlines” Department: It appears that Delta Airlines has reached an agreement to takeover Northwest (Delta, of course, is itself the merger of Delta and Western, and I believe that Northwest absorbed Republic Airlines). Of course, next to fall will be Continental, as United is poised to absorb Continental once the DL/NW ink is dry. In electronics retailing news, Blockbuster wants to buy Circuit City, and Chrysler and Nissan have a production alliance.
  • From the “How Much Do Your Drugs Cost?” Department: It appears that health costs are rising even greater than gasoline or food costs. Some health insurers are instituting a Tier 4 Prescription Coverage, which for certain high-cost drugs makes your co-payment 25% of the cost of the drug. For some new drugs, this can results in thousands a month–more than mortgage payments. Some are even instituting a Tier 5. What’s worse, is that drugs can move from tier to tier without notice to you. Very scary.
  • From the “My Heart Will Go On” Department: Well, they think they have found what sunk the Titantic. No, not an iceberg! Poor quality steel used in rivets. Studies of the wreck show that six seams opened up in the ship’s bow plates, and these are where the weak rivets were.
  • From the “Curses, Foiled Again” Department: An attempt by a construction worker to curse the NY Yankees by buring a Red Sox Jersey under the new stadium has failed. Team officials watched Sunday as construction workers removed the jersey, with slugger David Ortiz’s name on it, from 2 feet of concrete in a service corridor of the stadium that’s under construction. Two other supervisors found the tattered shirt Saturday. The Yankees plan to donate the jersey to charity, and may pursue a lawsuit against the construction worker. Don’t they know: You’re supposed to bury mob bosses when you build stadiums in the Tri-State area and want to curse the team.
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Foremost, Thrifty, The Broadway, Flying A, Quasar, et al: Disappearing Brands

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Today’s 24/7 Wall Street has an interesting article on brands that they believe will disappear in the next year or two. This is of particular interest to me as I find the life and times of various brands to be fascinating. We’ve all seen a number of well-known brands disppear, from GTE to Oldsmobile, from Robinsons and May Company to CompUSA, from Tow7er Records to etoys.com. What brands do they think will disappear?

  • XM Satellite Radio. Will disappear in the merger with Sirius. I give this one only a 50/50 chance of being likely, as the merger might not happen. If it does, I hope that Downstage Center (one of my favorite XM programs) doesn’t disappear.
  • E*Trade. They think this will be bought by another company, due to home loan exposure. I give this a 75% chance.
  • K-Mart. They predict this will be incorporated into Sears. I agree, but think the stores will be renamed into the “Sears Essentials” brand, which gives a more upscale image.
  • Dodge. They predict this will be incorporated into Chrysler. I disagree, but only because they’ve already eliminated Plymouth as a brand. Instead, I think that the Dodge and Chrysler brands will be more clearly distinguished, with Dodge focusing on muscle cars and trucks, and Chrysler focusing on family and upscale cars. What is killing American brands is thinking that each nameplate needs to have a full spectrum of vehicles.
  • Circuit City. Yup. They shot themselves in the foot when they opted to get rid of their skilled staff. Best Buy will end up the winner in this category.
  • Gateway. Quite likely. They’ve been bought by Acer, which also owns the Dell brand. Unless they can find a niche for the Gateway brand, it’s toast, because Dell has the better reputation.. Gateway also owns the E-Machines brand, and I can’t see Acer keeping all three brands. They will choose one for business, and one for consumer. E-Machines is the better known consumer brand, and the company is Acer, so Gateway gets squeezed out.
  • Vonage. Possibly. They’ve had so many legal issues, I see them resolving the problem by being absorbed into an existing telecom company.
  • Old Navy. They believe this will be absorbed into the Gap. I disagree, and rate this as only 50/50. I think Old Navy will be retained, but will be moved to a more Outlet Store, quasi-Gap-outlet brand. This is especially true at we move into recession, and value and cost consciousness grows.
  • Countrywide. Yup. They’ve been bought by BofA, which is known for swallowing things.
  • Yahoo. They think Microsoft will win. They may, but I think Yahoo will just be slightly renamed into MS Yahoo!
  • Motorola. They predict the handset operation will disappear. That’s possible, but I still see the company hanging around.

There are some brands they don’t list that I think will disappear. My list would also include:

  • AOL. AOL has a lot of negative baggage, and I think at somepoint it will be brought and rebranded. However, there is the possibility that the name will remain, just like the name of some former Earthlink acquisitions have remained, as has Compuserve.
  • Radio Shack. Tandy has had trouble for a long time, and I don’t think the brand has the positive reputation it needs to survive the recession.
  • The CW. Well, this one should just die. But it won’t.

So what brands do you think will disappear in the next few years?

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