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Exxon
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This article is about the fuel brand. For the current corporate entity, see ExxonMobil. For the
unrelated genetic term, see Exon.

Exxon logo
Exxon is a brand of motor fuel and related products sold by ExxonMobil. From 1972 to
1999, Exxon was the corporate name of the company previously known as Standard Oil
Company of New Jersey or Jersey Standard.

Contents
[hide]
• 1 History
• 2 Logo
• 3 See also
• 4 Notes
• 5 External links

[edit] History
This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (May 2009)
Exxon branded gas station in California, operated by Valero
Exxon formally replaced the Esso, Enco and Humble brands in the United States on January
1, 1973. The Esso name was a trademark of Jersey Standard, and attracted protests from other
Standard Oil spinoffs because of its similarity to the name of the parent company, Standard
Oil. As a result, Jersey Standard was restricted from using Esso in the U.S., except in those
states awarded to it in the 1911 Standard Oil antitrust settlement.
In states where the Esso brand was blackballed, the company marketed under the Humble or
Enco brands. The Humble brand was used at Texas stations for decades, as those operations
were under the direction of Jersey Standard affiliate Humble Oil & Refining Company. In the
middle to late 1950s, use of the Humble brand spread to other southwestern states, including
Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
In 1959, Jersey Standard gained full control of Humble Oil and restructured it into its U.S.
marketing and refining division, to market nationwide under the Enco, Esso and Humble
brands. Enco was created as an abbreviation of the phrase "ENergy COmpany." Humble
introduced the Enco brand in 1960 in Oklahoma and surrounding states, to replace Humble's
subsidiary Oklahoma and Pate brands. Humble also tried marketing under Enco in Ohio, but
Standard Oil Company of Ohio (Sohio) protested that the Enco name and logo (a white oval
with blue border and red lettering) too closely resembled that of Esso. Consequently, stations
in Ohio were rebranded as Humble, and remained so until the Exxon brand came into use.
After the Enco brand was discontinued in Ohio, it was moved to other non-Esso states. In
1961, Humble stations in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas were rebranded to
Enco. That same year, Enco appeared on former Carter stations in the Midwest and the
Pacific Northwest.
In 1963, Humble Oil and Tidewater Oil Company began negotiating a sale of Tidewater's
West Coast refining and marketing operations. The sale would have given Humble Oil a large
number of existing Flying A stations and distributorships, as well as a refinery in California,
the nation's fastest-growing gasoline market. However, the Justice Department objected to the
sale on anti-trust grounds. (In 1966, Phillips Petroleum Company bought Tidewater's western
properties and rebranded all Flying A outlets to Phillips 66.)
Humble Oil continued to expand its West Coast operations, adding California to its marketing
territory, building a large number of new Enco stations and rebranding others. In 1967,
Humble Oil purchased all remaining Signal stations from Standard Oil Company of
California (Chevron) and rebranded them as Enco outlets, greatly increasing Enco's presence
in California. Finally, in 1969, Humble Oil opened a new refinery in Benicia, California.
In 1966, the U.S. Justice Department ordered Humble Oil to "cease and desist" from using
the Esso brand at stations in several southeastern states, following protests from Standard Oil
of Kentucky (Kyso), which was a Standard of California subsidiary in the process of
rebranding its Standard stations to Chevron. By 1967, Humble Oil's Esso stations in the
Southeast were rebranded to Enco.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, Humble Oil continued to have difficulties promoting itself as a
nationwide marketer of petroleum products, despite a number of high-profile marketing
strategies. These included the popular "Put a Tiger in Your Tank" advertising campaign and
accompanying tiger mascot, introduced in 1964 to promote Enco Extra and Esso Extra
gasolines. Humble Oil also used similar logotypes, use of the Humble name in all Enco and
Esso advertising, and uniform designs for all stations regardless of brand. In addition,
Humble Oil was a major promoter and broadcast sponsor for college football in the Pacific-8
(now Pac-10) and Southwestern conferences.
But Humble Oil still faced stiff competition from such national brands such as Shell and
Texaco, which at that time was the only company to market under one brand name in all 50
states. By the late 1960s, Humble officials realized hat the time had come to develop a new
brand name that could be used nationwide.
At first, consideration was given to simply rebranding all stations as Enco, but that was
shelved when it was learned that "Enco" is a Japanese term for "stalled car." [1]
In 1972, Exxon was unveiled as the new, unified brand name for all former Enco and Esso
outlets. At the same time, the company changed its corporate name from Standard Oil of New
Jersey to Exxon Corporation. The rebranding came after successful test-marketing of the
Exxon name, under two experimental logos, in the fall and winter of 1971-72. Along with the
new name, Exxon settled on a rectangular logo using red lettering and blue trim on a white
background, similar to the familiar color scheme on the old Enco and Esso logos.
The company initially planned to change its name to "Exon," in keeping with the four-letter
format of Enco and Esso. However, during the planning process, it was noted that James
Exon was the governor of Nebraska. Renaming the company after a sitting governor seemed
ill-advised, and the second "x" was added to the new name and logo.
The unrestricted international use of the popular Esso brand prompted Exxon to continue
using it outside the U.S. Esso is the only widely used Standard Oil descendant brand left in
existence. Others, such as Chevron, maintain a few Standard-branded stations in specific
states in order to retain their trademarks and prevent others from using them.
[edit] Logo

Lit Exxon sign logo

The rectangular Exxon logo, with the blue strip at the bottom and red lettering with the two
interlinked Xs, was designed by noted industrial stylist Raymond Loewy. The interlinked Xs
are incorporated in the modern-day ExxonMobil corporate logo, but the original Exxon logo
continues for marketing and station signage.
[edit] See also
 • ExxonMobil
• Exxon Valdez
• Esso

[edit] Notes
1. ^ "On with Exxon". TIME. Time.com. 1972-05-22.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,879122,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-
25.

[edit] External links

• Exxon Official website
• Exxon wins delay again; convinces Supreme Court to review Exxon Valdez damages
• Exxon Company Profile on Portfolio.com
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon"
Categories: ExxonMobil | Companies established in 1972 | Rockefeller family | Automotive
companies of the United States | Automotive fuel brands
Hidden categories: Articles needing additional references from May 2009
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