VIRGINIA BEACH – One of my first childhood memories is being on the kitchen floor of our garage apartment on 78th Street, looking at a corrugated Brach’s Candy box. It had to be before 1969, when we moved to a real house, and my parents got out of the business of beach cottage rentals. I would play on the floor of the kitchen and one day I looked under the sink, and there was that Brach’s Candy box. I believed it was full of candy, but they showed me, and they had to prove that there was no candy there. Even after they showed me, I would look to see if somehow Brach’s appeared.

It was before I could read, so I must have connected the images I saw at our neighborhood Be-Lo store Brach’s Pick-a-Mix display with the logo on the box. (Be-Lo, headquartered in Virginia Beach is now owned by www.freshpride.com. The Be-Lo brand could do with a bit of nostalgic freshening, as well, btw.) Pick-a-Mix was the legendary grocery display where you could dish up your own assortment.

I recalled that memory today when looking at the new Brach’s candy logo. It’s not good, and keeps none of the block lettering that has been its design scheme for at least the last 50 years. A few years ago, they jazzed it up a bit, but now they have discarded that legacy with the new design under the brand’s ownership by Farley & Sathers. The story of the redesign is posted on the company website.

Under Farley’s & Sathers, there is investment in the brand, which is what it needed. The company was sold out of family ownership in the 1960s, and under American Home Products it was sort of ignored, but preserved.  By most accounts, Raider Klaus Jacobs pillaged the company, which once employed 3,700, but at least he was wise enough to see some value in the brand. I will give him that. Look here for his foundation; perhaps it could invest in a run-down neighborhood in Chicago? Funding Universe says a major mistake was reducing SKUs from 1,700 different candies and packaging types and sizes to only 300 SKUs.

The tragedy was that the company had a Wonka-like candy factory in Chicago, and an iconic status that was connected to the plant. The factory ruins are the subject of great interest, including a View Master version created by Wurlington Brothers Press. But the brand was stronger than the corporate vampires, and Farley’s & Sathers wisely found value in Brach’s, and decided to invest. Farley’s is a company to be trusted; they have preserved Chuckles packaging pretty much as it was. They also own other classic brands like Fruit Stripe gum and the Heide brands which include Jujyfruits and Jujubes. Thankfully, they have preserved Heide because it was so connected with its products.

The company, in an article published by Candy and Snacks Today, contends that the design change harkens back to an earlier time, when the purple dominated. That’s good. The company also said in the piece that they made the changes with intensive market research. The article quotes a consumer who said that they’ve actually had people in focus groups cry. The article also has a declaration that private capital status of Farley’s doesn’t mean that it is for sale. All good.

In an magazine interview back in the 1980s, graphic designer Lou Dorfsman told of a time at CBS when that network almost eliminated the eye logo. Smarter heads prevailed, but the episode is proof that good work (and the decades of public goodwill that it stirs) can be easily destroyed by the unthinking.

Brand relationships are formed over the years, and when companies nurture those images and connections, customers feel that the product is consistent. When they screw with the images and brand design, it tells the consumer that things have changed. Sometimes, brands need to be tweaked; this is a delicate process and it shows the older customers that the product has changed, but then makes the product attractive to new customers. But when it changes too much, and the actual factory even changes, customers begin to wonder…is this the same product that I loved, or not?

No matter what happens, however, if a brand is still in business, and still has sales, mistakes in packaging are easy to correct. In fact, time begins to fix errors, and what’s new today is old tomorrow, and when the new becomes old, companies can easily go back to classic.

See what you think. Is the new package design better, or not?

Logo History of Brach’s

Below, an early version of the logo from the now-shuttered factory in Chicago. This image was posted on Ken Faber’s excellent blog on gritty American history, American Urbex, at americanurbex.com.

Below, the 1960s look of the brand. The concept is a bit cheesy, but earnest:

Next, the revised version, familiar to many today. It is patently awful, with a horrid smiley face in the middle. Good riddance:

The current design.

Love some reader thoughts; you can comment before you shop from the obligatory ad for Brach’s on Amazon!

CHICAGO – An American-born graphic designer is working on a project to explore Cuban brands. It’s a visual exploration of Cuba through the lens of branding, and the designer, Emily Lozano, hopes to document the Cuban brands in order to tell about daily life.

Writes Lozano:

As an American-born Cuban I grew up surrounded and influenced by brands before I could even articulate what a brand was. From the cereal we eat to the cars we drive our lives can be roughly described through the brands we prefer. Coke or Pepsi. Cubs or Sox. Democrat or Republican.

My plan is to document Cuban life through these very broad brand categories. It’s a chance to look at Cuba in a way that has not been done before — through branding. I’ve taken a few sample photographs around Chicago (as well as some stock photos of Cuba) to give you an idea for the layout of the book.

It’s an interesting idea; there is a large amount of nostalgia in Eastern Europe for old Commie brands of the Iron Curtain. Even though they can remind people of a system that was oppressive, because they were so ubiquitous, there is some nostalgia for them as time goes on.

One overlooked part of tourism branding is local brands. Where there are none, the place becomes generic. Brands are intimately connected to a community’s sense of place.

Lozano is raising money on Kickstarter for the project. If you like the idea, please donate!

Interested in Cuban brands? Read the original BrandlandUSA story on the history of pre-Castro Cuban brands.

Founded in 1952, Carnival was one of many household brands that have disappeared in recent years. For a time they were made by Clear Shield National, part of Envirodyne. They were also apparently associated with Diamond Brands.

Roadfood.com says that they were purchased by Solo, but the trademark was not renewed.

The clown on the package was a bit creepy, but they were sturdy and the colors on the outside were bright.

Better yet, they were strong enough so they did not crack when you used them and bent the top. Unlike current cheap ones, they were wide enough so you didn’t have to work hard to drink with it.

The package here was found in our church kitchen. They advertise on the package that they are “Supra-Plastic” and “Squash Proof.”

Below, a few varieties on sale with Amazon.

Would love to know from BrandlandUSA readers which brands are decent, and which ones are junk.

Since the 1970s, the greatest magic marker for kids has been the Sanford Mr. Sketch. You know this one; its a set of a dozen or so markers, all water soluble, that smell like their colors. They are sold in sets of different sizes, including 4, 8, 12 and 16.

They have great cult appeal; on YouTube all sorts of folks have posted videos, including the favorite practice of Mr. Sketch users, painting the smelly moustache!

Urban legend says that they had to stop making them because the government didn’t want kids to be sniffing pens, but this is not true.

Taste wise, they sort out  like this, for instance:

Black/Licorice
Red/Cherry
Yellow/Lemon
Brown/Cinnamon

Of course, my favorite is the cinnamon, but they are all pretty good. However, there is some debate as to whether the quality is what it used to be, and the markers apparently don’t last as long as before. Currently part of Newell Rubbermaid, the Sanford brand has been ignored, and Mr. Sketch too. There is definitely alot more that could be made out of the brand; it just needs to be connected to Sanford, not Sharpie, which is all about being indelible.

Sanford as a brand has a long history. It was apparently founded in Massachusetts in 1857 by Frederick W. Redington and William H. Sanford, Jr. as the Sanford Manufacturing Company. It later moved to Illinois.

Question for BrandlandUSA readers..is the Mr. Sketch as great as it was? And if you were to give some advice to Newell Rubbermaid, what would you say?

Below, a vintage marker box from Flickr.

This did not happen with British brushmaker Mason Pearson, a favorite brand of preppies and style conscious folk in the U.S. and other Anglophone  countries.

Mason Pearson, who apparently worked at a company called British Steam Brush Works, was an inventor in what became known as Raper Pearson and Gill. In the late 19th century, Mason Pearson invented a machine to mechanize brush production

In 1885, he invented the rubber-cushion hairbrush. Today’s design is remarkably like the old, and have minor improvements, all in the same sizes of Large Extra, Small Extra, Popular and Junior.

Notice it’s “TM” rather than “R” on the packages. Interesting choice of a very generic word for products.

Do you like Nice?

Nevertheless, the return is good news. Because through the years, one niche that Chrysler excelled in was the market for small, economy cars. Mostly un-hip, Chrysler cars were never boring and because they were so unfashionable (but practical in price and maintenance cost), they had a sort of reverse snob appeal.

Chrysler small cars were always interesting, unlike GM and Ford, which had AWFUL early small cars like the Ford Pinto and Chevy Vega. The late 1970s-1980s Dodge Omni/Horizon was terribly practical, even though some of its features (such as corduroy fabric seats and fake exterior wood grain) were oddly compelling. Based on a French Simca model, the series lasted for a dozen years, from 1978-1990. It had American parts; even the radio was  standard-issue Chrysler (really hard to push channel buttons) and was the same that appeared in Chrysler’s larger cars. The Omni/Horizon was a copycat VW Rabbit; oddly the Fiat Ritmo (sold in the U.S. as the Fiat Strada) also channeled the VW Rabbit.

The Dodge Neon (1994-99) was another under-appreciated upstart. While it did not survive permanently as part of the Chrysler lineup, those who still drive the car today swear by it, even with the odd colors. In fact, there is even a dealer in northeastern North Carolina who makes a habit of selling used, rebuilt Neons to be used for knockabout cars.  (If anyone has the name, please leave it below in the comments section).

Chrysler had a long string of imports badged as Chryslers. In the early 1970s, they imported the Hillman Avenger and sold it as the Plymouth Cricket; its most unique feature for an early 197os car was a manual choke! Chrysler also imported Mitsubishis as the Dodge Colt and Plymouth Champ (and also the sporty Sapporo); they were miraculous cars because of their mileage, durability and cheap introductory price.

But perhaps the most pioneering of Chrysler’s small cars were the Plymouth Valiant and Dodge Dart; a commercial is seen below. Introduced in 1959-60 as the Valiant (the Dart and Valiant became essentially the same car) and produced until the arrival of the Dodge Aspen, it was a small car that acted big. An introductory speech on the car line is at the site Valiant.org. The originals were light, airy, roomy and a bit snazzy,  with seating for six.

The names Valiant and Dart were replaced in 1976 by the Plymouth Valiant and Dodge Aspen, the former of which was a sort of Mercedes wanna-be and much more of a lunky mid-sized car. The originals had so much authenticity, derived from their simplicity, including Chrysler’s legendary Slant 6 engine, wonderfully described at the website Allpar. Allpar also has a brilliant history of the Dart on its site.

The famed Reliant K-car replaced the Plymouth Volare and Dodge Aspen, which were smaller, yet still held six passengers. The “A” platform survived until the late 1980s, when the line was updated as the downsized Chrysler LeBaron and Plymouth Fury. One of the more interesting variants was the wood grained Chrysler Town and Country, which later morphed into the minivan of the same name.

New Dart for 2013

Chrysler has released images of the new Dodge Dart; it will be based on an Alfa-Romeo. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but Dodge is making a mistake if it makes it too much of a racing car.

Certainly, it needs a sport version, but the genius of the original Dart/Valiant was that the same car could be  sold to a mom, a dad, a 70-year-old church widow AND then customized for the rural and suburban youth market. There was not only the Dart, but then there was a Dart Demon and Swinger (such a name!). Plymouth had the Duster and Scamp sport versions. At their top, they were selling nearly half a million cars a year for Chrysler.

The Dart/Valiant was replaced in 1976 by the Volare/Aspen, which was plagued by recalls, though long-term was pretty reliable.

Below, a reel of Plymouth Valiant commercials.

Below, an ad for the Plymouth Horizon. Don’t you just love the grille? So “big American car” yet a copy of the VW Rabbit.

Meanwhile, the Omni, which “Does it all”

The question becomes; is it too sporty? Does it deserve to have a less sporty version? Personally, I think so, but time will tell.

A recent campaign by British Airways points up exactly what United, Delta and American are missing in their approach to airline branding. Namely, a sense of history and drama.

BA’s Brand Engagement Head Abi Comber, in an interview posted on YouTube, says the campaign is all about what BA stands for as a business.

The venerable airline has taken a bold move to brand itself as the world’s most experienced. Its new campaign centered around “To Fly, To Serve” shows a narrative of British Airways, and its predecessor companies such as BOAC, BEA and Imperial Airways. The film is directed by Frederic Planchon; the flight director is Simon O’Connell.

British Costume Drama

There is great CGI work on the film, including animations of a Concorde flying alongside a VC-10. Each plane has been filmed with costumed passengers and staff.

This campaign is running not only on Facebook and other social media channels, but it is on major news networks as well. The big push comes as American Airlines is rumored to be running short of cash, and Delta and JetBlue, USAirways and Southwest all have stock prices less than $10 a share.

BA is now part of IAG, which now includes Iberia. Each airline is to be branded separately as a nationalistic flag carrier, but then is part of a larger whole. The intent is to add other airlines to the group.

In just about every restaurant kitchen, the decaffeinated coffee pot has an orange band. Ask a person under 30 why that band is colored orange, and they won’t know. They will know that it means decaf, but they won’t know why.

The reason, of course, it is orange is because orange is the packaging color of Sanka, the freeze-dried decaffeinated coffee. Sanka was invented in German at the turn of the century, and in Europe is known as Coffee HAG because of the original manufacturer. In the states, the company sold their invention as Sanka, French for Sans Caffeine. For most of the 20th century, it was ubiquitous in most American households.

The word Sanka was so much a part of the American pantheon that most Americans would ask for “Sanka please” when they went out to eat at a restaurant. Today, folks just ask for a decaf.

General Foods took over Sanka, and made it a household name in the U.S. They invested massively in advertising the product, including the sponsorship of top shows like CBS’ The Goldbergs, where protagonist Molly Goldberg spoke about Sanka through a window.

But when Kraft obliterated the General Foods brand, many of the top General Foods products languished, including Sanka. You see, the former General Foods brands were tightly associated with the parent company, and when that relationship was confused, consumers stopped trusting it. In addition, because Kraft owned so many brands, its less prosperous brands did not get the advertising attention they deserved. One silly notion..that Sanka could be sold as decaf Maxwell House.

Some products, like Postum, completely disappeared. In the case of Sanka, it got confused with other Kraft brands. Oddly, it suffers now, in a health-conscious era when decaffeinated coffee is ubiquitous. In fact, it is so omnipresent that Folgers, long a competitor with Maxwell House, uses the green color to identify decaf (as did Taster’s Choice).

Currently, Sanka is sold as a sub-brand of Maxwell House. That is a mistake, as they were always very separate products.

But it has not been successful. It has in recent years laid off some longtime employees, and some stores are closing. The store closures are particularly troublesome because they are locally owned, and for generations have held together Main Streets and neighborhood shopping centers.

In thinking about what is wrong, I did not have a clear answer as to why the company is off-track. Thoughts:

• Fashion cannot be blamed. A card is still an essential thing for birthdays and Christmas and the like. Realistically, you don’t have to think with a greeting card; it does the thinking for you. Nor can I blame the struggles of Hallmark on the recession; after all the company has been through many. Indeed, you could argue that a card and an inexpensive gift should be more popular in lean times, as all can afford it.
• Gift cards rule: The ideal gift for a teen (or any child) is a gift card, and to give one of those, you need to put it in a card.
• I could not blame the struggles on Hallmark not being hip. Hallmark has tried to be hip of late, without being edgy. Nevertheless, Shoebox Greetings seem to be quite clever, and it does not confuse with the main Hallmark brand.
• The television arm of Hallmark seems rather vibrant. While I don’t recall seeing a memorable Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie recently, their cable channel is plenty watchable, and is doing wholesome, positive series like the western drama Love Begins and Time After Time, which stars Richard Thomas of The Waltons fame.

So what is wrong? I found the answer while looking at an old Hallmark book, first published in 1962.

It was the book Flowers of the Holy Land by Bertha Spafford Vester. Vester was not only an artist, but an amazing American expatriate in Palestine, a dynamo who built hospitals, set up food kitchens and even ran a school for Arabs. She was the daughter of Horatio Spafford, whose great tearful hymn, It is Well With My Soul, was written after Bertha’s sisters were all killed in the 1873 sinking of a ship in the Atlantic. (Christian singer Chris Rice does a spectacular version.)

The smallish book includes some three dozen watercolors of Holy Land flowers painted by Vester, as well as an introduction of Vester by Lowell Thomas and Norman Vincent Peale, the Tom Brokaw and Oprah of their era.

The typography is classic, tasteful and elegant, and the print reproductions are so good they might be the sort of pages that are torn out and sold by prints dealers for high prices.

Each flower has a description; the description of the Palestine Cornflower is perfect:

The Palestine cornflower is similar to the English and American cornflower, or bachelor’s button. Thistles and thorns are mentioned in Genesis as part of God’s punishment of Adam. They grow in such enormous numbers as to take possession of whole fields in the Holy Land.

I think of this book, and then I think of the Peanuts gifts and ornaments in a Hallmark store today. Not that there is anything wrong with Peanuts gifts, but they are definitely pop culture. The Spafford book, however, is a classic, and would be a fitting feature of any coffee table or library. But even with its highbrow appeal, it is also something ANYONE would give at Easter or Christmas or anytime, a true mass market item.

Sadly, I don’t recall seeing such products sold in a Hallmark store recently.

Certainly, retailers give their consumers what they want, and for years, consumers have wanted Peanuts ornaments. But for me, these days, I think Americans have higher aspirations, and tchotchkes don’t satisfy like they used to.

Putting a book together like Flowers of the Holy Land is not an easy enterprise, and requires imagination and many staff resources. But it can be done.

Reading Spafford’s description of the Pink Cistus (myrrh), I found the Genesis description she quoted also applied to Hallmark. The riches are there for the picking; it is up to Hallmark’s leadership and artists to make a new generation of products that does more than clutter up America’s already-too-hoarded houses.

Take of the best fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts and diamonds.

MOLLUSK, Virginia – One of the most brilliant recent relaunches of a great American brand is the rebirth of Gulf. The company almost totally disappeared, the only remnant being the assorted consumer products branded with Gulf. Pictured here, a new Gulf station and pump in the tiny “town” of Mollusk, Virginia, located in Lancaster County on the scenic Northern Neck of Virginia.

Once one of the nation’s great oil companies, the brand since a merger with Chevron has mostly been in the Northeast, connected as a brand with the convenience store chain Cumberland Farms.

Chevron has been diligent in allowing the brand to live on. Indeed, while they almost killed it off, the use of the brand is an excellent example of how a brand can survive mergers and re-brandings, still adding value to a company’s portfolio, when a purchasing company decides that it is best not to obliterate an old brand, and instead milk it for all it is worth. In the last few years, the Gulf brand was even licensed to Old Navy.

But in January 12 of 2010, the company Gulf Oil Limited Partnership acquired all rights, title and interest to the “Gulf” brand in the U.S.  1986. Now, it’s beginning to be a company again. The Framingham, Massachusetts-based company has more than 2,500 branded gas stations, 12 proprietary oil terminals, and a network of more than 50 other supply terminals. They supply gasoline, heating oil, diesel fuel, jet fuel and kerosene through its Gulf Oil terminal network.  They also have a wholesale subsidiary, Great Island Energy, that sells unbranded Gulf gas to other stations. The company is led by an appropriately named fellow, Joseph H. Petrowski.

Gulf Family of Brands

Gulf had a number of spin-off brands that carried the name when the brand was diminished. These are:

• Gulf Lite, the charcoal lighter fuel, and
• Gulf Wax, the household paraffin used for canning.

Sadly, these brands do not use the iconic Gulf design, though the orange color and nomenclature has survived. It would be a good idea to re-unite these brands.

Gulf sold a wide variety of auto products, as did most of the other oil companies. Some brands did not survive that could have, including the Gulf Travel Card, which was accepted at Holiday Inn. Back in the day, oil company brands really did have personalities, each brand with different products, gifts, uniforms and styles.

Many of the Gulf products were simply plays on the Gulf name, including Good Gulf, Gulf Supreme and Gulftane. Some of the Gulf family of brands included:

• Gulfpride was the oil brand; as far as can be found, the oil is just simply named Gulf.
• Gulf Space Sprayer was the insect atomizer brand
• Gulf No Nox was a fuel brand
• Gulflex was the oil brand
• Klear Shield was the windshield wiper fluid

Anyone have any memories of Gulf stations and the various permutations of the Gulf brand? Love to hear them below.

In recent years, there have been a number of retro product re-issues by the original company. But a brand doesn’t have to be from the original company to grab the latent brand equity from a classic product that has been discontinued.

One way to grab the brand equity from another brand (and company) is to introduce a previously popular product under a NEW brand name. This works particularly well with food brands, because even if a consumer would like to have the OLD brand, under the old logo, what they really want is the taste sensation, not the brand name. Ideally, you would have both, but you don’t have to.

You harken back to what was good, and the consumer responds.

This is evidenced by these Lemon Cookies, which are obviously copies of the tasty Lemon Coolers which were a product of the Sunshine Bakery. Sunshine merged with Keebler and left Lemon Coolers in the old cookie graveyard. For some reason or another, Sunshine discontinued them, even though they had a large fan base.

In the case of this tasty knock-off (here seen at Dollar General in Lively, Virginia), they have given it a generic name, yet made the tagline “Cooler than Ever.” This is smart, as it does not confuse the customer by tricking them into thinking the old product has returned. But the “cooler” on the front indicates they understand the nature of the product. The consumer instantly understands that the product is inspired by the original, and will likely taste authentic.

Keebler could always come back and reintroduce Lemon Coolers, but until then, fans can be happy with this version.

The drink Like was popular in the 1960s, but was discontinued when cyclamates were banned, making its slogan, “Diets Like Like” a bit obsolete.

Back in the day, soft drink companies had different brands for their diet drinks. For instance, Coca-Cola had Tab and RC had Diet Rite.

It later became Diet 7Up, and 7Up apparently brought back the brand Like as a cola drink.

Question: Was it a good tasting drink?

Martin Motors was from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. This motor was made when the brand was part of the National Pressure Cooker Company. Apparently Martins were made from 1946 to the early 1950s, and had “poppet” valves.

Can someone please explain poppet valves?

The brand survives today; Larson Outboard apparently owns the blueprints and supplies parts for the old ones.

Over the years there have been dozens of motor brands sold in the U.S., including Chrysler Marine, Perkins, Rootes, Oliver, Flambeau, Champion, Sea Flyer, Elgin, Scott-Atwater, Lauson, Neptune, Reily, West Bend and Hiawatha. My cousin Mark is a big fan of British Seagull engines.

Any memories of vintage outboards? And what brands were noted for styling, technological innovation, durability and economy?

Recently, Coleman brought back its original steel cooler. It’s sold as an exclusive for the 50th anniversary of the sporting goods supply company Cabela’s. It’s part of a trend of retro products, reintroduced as specialty products for particular retailers, similar to Fisher-Price toys sold at Cracker Barrel and vintage Tide sold at Target.

The cooler dates from 1954, and has become a classic. The $119.99 cooler is made in the USA and it promises to keep ice cold for three days for up to 100 degrees.