CORPORATE NAME CHANGE; SINGING SANDWICHES

Corporate naming

A standard filler in business magazines and the business pages of serious newspapers is that of corporate naming; articles on this topic are always readable, generally enjoyable and rarely time-sensitive. One such piece that the IPKat's just been reading is this little feature by Brian Millar in today's Telegraph. Starting with the return of Cingular to AT&T Wireless, he reviews some of the recent trends in corporate styling and cites the pertinent observation of Steve Manning (Igor International) that

"the trouble with meaningless names is that you have to spend millions making them mean something".

The IPKat agrees. In his opinion a change in corporate name is a complete waste of time and resources unless it's part of a coherent strategy for raising credibility with creditors, appealing to consumers or boosting staff morale.

Merpel nods sagely but adds that, against the cost of implementing that grander strategy, the bost of changing names and reprinting stationery is usually trivial.


Singing sandwiches

The IPKat doesn't know if this item's a spoof, but he hopes it is. Highly successful British supermarket-to-corner stores Tesco are reported in The Register, citing Ananova, to have inserted a music chip in the packaging of its turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich packaging. According to Ananova, the sandwich plays a medley of classic Christmas tunes including Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

The IPKat is fascinated to know what the Performing Right Society's and Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society's tariffs are for the recording and public performance of sandwiches. Merpel says, "I can tell you: on this issue their websites are (unlike) the sandwiches silent. I've visited both sites and searched under 'sandwich'; there's nothing to be found. It's quite possible that these are infringing sandwiches".

For musical food, get your drumsticks here ... and your earplugs here.