Renaming a Chicago Landmark
As a native of Chicago, I was astounded to hear rumors about the potential renaming of The Sears Tower. The famous Illinois skyscraper reigned as the tallest building in the world for quite some time, and still remains among the top ten loftiest structures. Appropriately named, The Sears Tower was designed as the headquarters for Sears, Roebuck & Company (the largest retailer in the world in the late 60’s) whose employees were previously scattered throughout Chicagoland.
If you’ve shopped at Sears lately, or heard of Wal-mart, you probably know that Sears, Roebuck & Company no longer stakes claim to the ‘largest retailer in the world' title. Sears sold the tower in the early 90’s and eventually gave up the naming rights.
The Sears Tower will now be known as The Willis Tower, a tribute to the building’s current largest tenant. Willis Group Holdings is an insurance brokerage based out of England.
We often hear of stadiums changing names, but this is a national landmark. How long will it be before people start to use the new name in place of the old? Probably a long time.
The Willis Tower website website includes future plans for several on-site green initiatives like wind turbines, solar energy and conservation. Funny, it doesn’t mention all the trees that will be eradicated to reprint all those history books and encyclopedias.
Contributed by Laine Beyerl
Whatchu Talkin’ About Willis?
Re-branding and corporate name changing initiatives are commonplace in the branding world. It’s only human nature that it takes time for a new name to catch on once we’ve gotten used to the old one. That’s why in June, it will take some time to get used to the new identity of the nation’s tallest skyscraper. The Sears Tower as we’ve known it since 1973 will officially be renamed the Willis Tower. The London-based insurance broker, Willis Group Holdings is consolidating its Chicago offices and will acquire the building’s naming rights. How will local Chicagoans embrace the new name? Being such an iconic and international landmark, I imagine it may take months, if not years for the new name to catch on.
By: Kelly Wilson
Pfizer – Wyeth Merger
On January 25th, Pfizer leapfrogged over the tradition of buying smaller research companies to purchase Wyeth for 68 billion dollars. With their forces combined, Pfizer/Wyeth becomes the 4th largest US-based company; Exxon, Walmart, and Proctor & Gamble hold the top three spots. The merger process can be complicated and delicate to finagle on the finance end but the branding or re-branding process should be approached with just as much care.
During a re-branding of this size it is important to approach the naming process with an open mind; having the larger company name always win out over the smaller company name might not always be the best choice for company morale or client impressions. The four naming options, as I see them are:
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Wherefore art thou Bailout?
John McCain recently had an interesting proposal: instead of calling the revised $700+ billion financial package that's heading from the senate to the house a ‘bailout’, we should refer to it as a ‘rescue’. This change in verbiage might provide the shift in outlook necessary for both government and public buy-in.
In other words: whereas a bailout is simply removing water from a boat, a rescue is saving that boat from the storm.
Will a little re-branding be enough to give this mammoth bill a boost? Or was Juliet right when she said, “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” (Or in this case, perhaps the expression is better updated to “that which we call a bailout by any other name would be rejected”)?
Contributed by: Maghan Cook
The Knight and The Hare
My recent wedding presents me with a personal re-branding opportunity and a potential new revenue generating stream for Addison Whitney. I face a question that thousands of others do after marriage- Do I take my husband’s name, hyphenate or keep my current name? Could Addison Whitney solve this dilemma for me and thousands of other retired Bridezillas?
Below my current brand name and potential new brand name are run through an abbreviated review process.