mbols help establish an overall image.

PRODUCT PLANNING

Corporate Symbols
Corporate symbols are a firm's name, logo, and trade characters. They are signifi,-2ce parts of overall company image. When a firm begins a business; merges with ano,:for company; drastically reduces or expands product lines; seeks new geographic r-.,erkets; or finds its name to be unwieldy, nondistinctive, or confusing, it needs to evai and possibly change its corporate symbols. In 1988, almost 1,900 existing U.S. adopted new names 52 per cent because of mergers, 23 per cent because of c sizing or restructuring, and 25 per cent for other reasons. 8 Following are illustr: of the role of corporate symbols in situations involving a new business, mer_ revised product lines, new geographic markets, and unwieldy, nondistinctive confusing names. In 1982, a new manufacturer of portable computers hired a consultant to de, company name. It wanted a name that "would be memorable and at the same - - take command of the idea of portableness; something that would distinguish - from all the other IBM PC compatibles." The consultant recommended a name - combined two syllables representing "communications" and "small but importrr: By 1987, Compaq had annual sales exceeding $1 billion, the fastest that any companz has reached that milestone. Today Compaq is the leading maker of portable comp in the world. As a result of mergers, these firms have new corporate names: Burroughs Sperry are now Unisys. The Bank of Virginia and Maryland's Union Trust are Sipe/ Bank. Standard Oil, which was acquired by British Petroleum, is BP America. Pec Express and Continental Airlines, both acquired by Texas Air, are known as Co nental Airlines. If the nature of its business is altered, a company often changes its name. Tinzi, today International Harvester is Navistar International, after selling its farmmerit business; and Zenith Radio is Zenith Electronics because it believed the old name was too restrictive. When making this type of name change, many firms retain parts their original names (Walt Disney Productions becoming Walt Disney Co.) or devek acronyms from their former names (General Shoe Corporation becoming Genese* This allows them to be more flexible in representing their product lines, as well as retain their identities with loyal customers. Because it expanded into new geographic markets, Allegheny Airlines changed IS name to US Air; the old name suggested a small regional airline. See Figure 11-4. Taw Exxon name was developed because the company's regional brands, such as Esso anif Humble, could not be used nationwide and others had unfortunate foreign conn-.11. tions (for example, Enco means "stalled car" in Japanese). The National Railroad Passenger Corporation was an unwieldly name; it beue-re Amtrak. Consolidated Foods was a nondistinctive name; it became the Sara Lee C r.rporation, based on its leading brand (today, Sara Lee has an 87 per cent recognitKe rate, compared with 7 per cent for the Consolidated Foods name). See Figure 11-7. The United Biscuit Company of America changed its name to Keebler to avoid cothi,sion with the Nabisco name.'
To, 1988 of company name changes.