Addison Whitney On the Go
Addison Whitney team members are often on the road, visiting clients, attending conferences and meeting with partners, so we've asked our frequent flyers to send us photos from the road. Every Friday we'll post a new picture, and it will be up to our readers to guess where they were!
Can you guess where we were this week?
Submitted by Beth Anne McPheeters, Manager, Brand Strategy
Submit your guess by posting to comments, and we'll reveal the answer the following Friday. Now get guessing!
JFG Coffee Sign Returns
On Saturday, a Charlotte icon returned to the city's skyline and marked the beginning of Charlotte's Historic Preservation Month.
The JFG Special Coffee shines brightly again, now atop the VBGB Beer Hall & Garden at the North Carolina Music Factory.
The NC Music Factory was a natural fit for the 40-year-old sign because the area is made up of historic buildings that have been converted into venues for producing and enjoying music.
The JFG Coffee sign used to perch along I-277, near Bank of America Stadium. It was removed in 2009 with the hope of finding a new home and funding for its restoration. The mission to save the sign helped to spark a new campaign called Save Our Signs, which aims to preserve other vintage signs around the Queen City.
Another historic landmark benefiting from the emphasis on preservation is Reid's Fine Foods. It's sign at the Myers Park location was also relit over the weekend.
Brand Equity to the Highest Bidder
These days, everything old seems new again: Disney has resurrected Tron from 1982, and Hello Kitty is just hitting her stride at 35 years old. It may seem like a great time to dig up and polish off a few forgotten brands.
On December 8, Brands USA Holdings will auction approximately 150 “priceless” and forgotten brand names for those who might want to cash in on the latest nostalgia trend. Names like Handi-Wrap, General Instrument, Lucky Whip and Meister Brau will be up for grabs to the highest bidder.
With awareness as the first building block of brand equity, it might seem like brand resurrection would provide an immediate head start in the market. As tempting as it may seem to claim the identity of an abandoned trademark, investors should beware that the residual value of the brand is also its risk.
Abandoned, orphaned or zombie trademarks live in a legal gray zone, as explained in the article The Zombie Trademark: A Windfall and A Pitfall, in the law journal of the International Trademark Association. But consumers of Brand 2.0 would most certainly be confused and disappointed if they are allowed to think that the original product is back on shelves. As with any relationship, I would recommend honesty. Telling consumers that you are recycling another company’s brand is a much better strategy than trying to backpedal from consumers who feel duped.
Green Brands Put to the Test
We've talked a lot about how brands are trying to add "Green" to their corporate color palette, sometimes with real, valuable initiatives and sometimes with just words. (Green: Who Can Claim It? and Greenwashing) So in honor of this Earth Day, the 40th Anniversary actually, we'd like put some of those brands to the test to "verdify" how green they really are.
Last month, SunChips introduced the world's first fully-compostable chip bag. The new bags, made of plant-based materials, should fully decompose in 14 weeks (under typical hot composting conditions). A few weeks later, Snyder's of Hanover announced it too would be using sustainable packaging (on its organic line of pretzels).
I don't have a compost pile, much less the perfectly mixed 1-2-2-2-1 “hot" compost that SunChips recommends, but I do find the random scrap of trash in my yard after trash day. Would the bags eventually decompose in my yard or on the side of the road? We plan to find out.
For our Earth Day experiment, we have staked one of these composting bags to the ground to simulate errant trash. We will photograph our progress and share the results on the blog.
A Search Engine By Any Other Name
In a April Fool's shoutout to one of the many cities hoping to woo its high speed fiber-optics, Google (temporarily) changed its name to Topeka.
In the past several months, Topeka, KS and several other cities have changed their own names in hopes of gaining Google's attention and a spot as a test site for the Internet giant’s fiber-optics business. In addition to super-fast Internet access, the cities expect Google's test fibers will create new jobs and attract new business.
Topeka may have been one of the first, but other cities have tried the same flattery. Rancho Cucamonga, CA changed its name to Rancho Googlemonga. And just up the road from us, Hickory, NC has named the section of U.S. Highway 321 between Hickory and Lenoir Google Holler, NC.
Google says plans to announce the winner or winners of the fiber-optic test sites by the end of the year.
And the Oscar Goes to...
Watching the Academy Awards last night, you may have noticed something missing...from the Hyundai commercials.
Jeff Bridges, now an Academy Award winner, normally provides the voice behind the commercials; but Hyundai pulled him after he was nominated for the best actor award in Crazy Heart.
Stand-ins (or voice-ins) for Jeff Bridges, included Catherine Keener, Kim Basinger, David Duchovny, Richard Dreyfuss, Michael Madsen, Mandy Patinkin and Martin Sheen.
Hyundai walks away a winner too. The car company gets kudos for going along with the rules (the Academy limits any nominee from appearing in advertising during the awards), AND it now has a Oscar-winning spokesperson.
[Sic] of Bad Grammar?
![Things That Make Us [Sic]](https://brandsalsa.addisonwhitney.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/sicbook1.jpg)
If you know the difference between good and well, and that and which, then today is your (not you're) day to unabashedly correct and edit bad grammar. *Finally!*
National Grammar Day was established in 2008 by Martha Brockenbrough, founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG) and author of Things That Make Us [Sic].
As a holiday, National Grammar Day is probably too (not to or two) new to have traditional celebrations, but at the minimum, I think it affords you the freedom to use proper English, and to help others do the same, without feeling like a hoity-toity grammar snob. Red pens ready!
Recipe: Pink Fluff Jell-O Salad
It’s Thanksgiving and I’ve timed the shell game of covered dishes in and out of the oven just about right. It’s finally time to spread the feast across the kitchen counters and call the family in. Nestled between the green bean casserole and the mashed potatoes, there is a bowl of bright pink fluff that always gets a few strange looks. Inevitably, my nephew wrinkles his nose and asks, “What is that?”
Jello-O salad comes in many colors and flavors. My mother-in-law serves lime, but the strawberry variety has become my own Thanksgiving tradition. Thankfully, pink fluff is more dessert than salad, so it’s never hard to convince the kids to take a scoop.
Pink Fluff Jell-O Salad
1 (16 ounce) package cottage cheese
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (15 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 (3 ounce) package strawberry flavored Jell-O
In a large bowl, stir together the cottage cheese, whipped topping, and pineapple. Pour the Jell-O over the mixture and blend well. Chill several hours or overnight. You can also add 1-2 cups of frozen berries.
Just don’t call me Grandma!
Today, right now even, pick up the phone and call your grandmother or grandfather in honor of National Grandparents Day.
But as you scroll through your contacts, what name are you looking for? We surveyed our team in search of the most unusual grandparent naming. From the most traditional to the young and hip, we found that everyone has a story to tell about their own Jinx and Boompa. Here’s our list:
Grandmother:
Grandma, Grandmommy, Grandmama, Granny, Grammy, Gramma, Grammy, Granna, Gra-Gra, Mom-mom, Mah-mah, Mam-maw, Me-maw, Mami, Oma, Nana, Missy, Manny, Ninni, Toppi,
Mimi, GiGi, Honey, Banana, Jinx
Grandfather:
Grandpa, Grandaddy, Grampa, Grampy, Pa, Papa, Paw-Paw, Papaw, Opa, Poppy, Poppi, Papi, Pop-Pop, Bampa, Buppa, Boompa
Marian McQuade campaigned for National Grandparents Day, which became official in 1978. She wanted to strengthen the bond between grandparents and grandchildren and to champion the cause of lonely people in nursing homes.
If you don't have any living grandparents, you can visit older adults in area nursing homes or assisted living centers. Some of our AW Helping Hands volunteers have done this through Hands on Charlotte. We can’t guarantee that your new friends will let you call them Granny or Poppy, but we know they’ll be happy to see you…and they might let you call the letters at Bingo.