International clothing retailer Gap has finally officially announced “Forth & Towne” is the name of the company’s new women’s apparel retail concept. We got wind of this a couple of weeks ago when I was in New York, talking to various fashion industry insiders. It comes as no surprise that Gap, along with many other retailers, are looking to target an older and more wealthy demographic, the Boomer.
According to Forth & Towne President Gary Muto, the name was chosen because “we wanted it to evoke a sense of place - to signify a special and unique shopping destination.”
'Forth' references our fourth brand, and 'Towne' conveys a sense of community that we want to create for our customers when they shop with us,” added Muto.
Unsurprisingly the intention to develop the new brand was announced last year. It’s intended to target women over the age of 35, a rapidly growing segment of the population. Apparently this group’s spending power accounts for about 39 percent of all US (we assume) women’s total apparel expenditures.
However, we also understand it’s really Gap Inc’s attempt at targeting women closer to 55, the mind-numbing Boomer market.
We’re not sure of the validity of being so self-referential as to name your new brand after the fact that it’s your Fourth (alongside, Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy) and we’re not so sure of the idea that 'Towne' will create that old special feeling of an old city style neighbourhood department store, especially since Gap-like stores helped push to closure these very same neighbourhood department stores by locating to edge of town malls.
Still, they are trialling the concept in four locations in Chicago and New York. And that’s for starters.
Gap Inc also announced that they trying to refocus the old Gap brand into something more “fresh and relevant”. They’re even looking at franchise models as they continue their international expansion (think China). Our recent experience is that it’s hard to even find a good t-shirt in the store. James Perse having long ago taken that mantle from the Gap stores by doing it so much better.
22 April 2005
01 April 2005
Granola name finally packs a punch.
We hear the Sanitarium Food Company here has started coming down hard on the users of the name "Granola", forcing many Australian companies who use it to remove the name and the offending products from supermarket and deli shelves. But as a name it has something of a spotted history and it maybe that Sanitarium may find itself on crumbly ground.
According to foodreference.com, the origins of "granola" date back to 1863 and the work of Dr. James C. Jackson of New York. Jackson developed what he called "Granula", a Graham flour formed into sheets, baked until dry, broken up, baked again and broken up into even smaller pieces. In 1855 at the Battle Creek Michigan headquarters of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, their Sanitarium director Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (later to found Kellogg's) was experimenting with foods and one of his developments was a breakfast food of whole grains, baked and ground up, which he named "Granula". He was later sued by Dr. Jackson for copying the name, so he renamed his concoction "Granola"!
Kellogg lost interest in cereals for a while, and turned his attention to nuts, and "Granola" as he named it never became a commercial success. But the Granola name was revived by the modern health food movement and it became a health food in the 1960s.
So what is it with generic names? Companies may have to check out licensing arrangements for common names. We think it's a little like wine and cheese naming. And when do names become so generic that they are no longer the property of their inventors - take band-aid and hoover, for instance. We think the difference is in the active appropriation and exploitation of the name.
Sanitarium claim they trademarked the name in 1921, so why does it take them over 80 years to act on it? Is this the forerunner to a new marketing campaign for Sanitarium Granola? We haven't heard of similar activity in the USA, but we'll let you know.
Now we're waiting for the Bircher company to claim the "Muesli" name. "Muesli" was developed in the late 19th century by Dr. Bircher-Benner, a Swiss doctor and nutritionist. And we always thought it was just a type of muesli.
According to foodreference.com, the origins of "granola" date back to 1863 and the work of Dr. James C. Jackson of New York. Jackson developed what he called "Granula", a Graham flour formed into sheets, baked until dry, broken up, baked again and broken up into even smaller pieces. In 1855 at the Battle Creek Michigan headquarters of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, their Sanitarium director Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (later to found Kellogg's) was experimenting with foods and one of his developments was a breakfast food of whole grains, baked and ground up, which he named "Granula". He was later sued by Dr. Jackson for copying the name, so he renamed his concoction "Granola"!
Kellogg lost interest in cereals for a while, and turned his attention to nuts, and "Granola" as he named it never became a commercial success. But the Granola name was revived by the modern health food movement and it became a health food in the 1960s.
So what is it with generic names? Companies may have to check out licensing arrangements for common names. We think it's a little like wine and cheese naming. And when do names become so generic that they are no longer the property of their inventors - take band-aid and hoover, for instance. We think the difference is in the active appropriation and exploitation of the name.
Sanitarium claim they trademarked the name in 1921, so why does it take them over 80 years to act on it? Is this the forerunner to a new marketing campaign for Sanitarium Granola? We haven't heard of similar activity in the USA, but we'll let you know.
Now we're waiting for the Bircher company to claim the "Muesli" name. "Muesli" was developed in the late 19th century by Dr. Bircher-Benner, a Swiss doctor and nutritionist. And we always thought it was just a type of muesli.
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