What were they thinking? In a reverse name change, Thinking Tools just announced that they have changed their name to GVI Security, a company that they recently acquired. To celebrate, the board has approved a one-for-65 reverse stock split.
And today’s Philadelphia Inquirer leads off its own perverse reverse renaming section with this hilarious hallucination:
The bid by Robert Edward Forchion Jr. to change his name to NJWeedman.com has been kept alive by an appeals court.
Superior Court Judge M. Allan Vogelson in Camden had rejected the marijuana advocate’s request after the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office argued in court Feb. 15, 2002, that the new name was aimed at selling marijuana.
But because Forchion, 39, of Pemberton Township, was in jail on a marijuana-possession charge at the time of the hearing, he did not have his day in court to make oral arguments, three judges of the Appellate Division in Trenton said this week.
To learn more about the Weedman, click on his pic:
But be advised: the music and images on The Weedmeister’s website are likely to impart a contact high. So what are you waiting for?
UPDATE 3/8: Mr. Weedman himself just wrote to us to suggest we link to his page explaining the name change. Light up.
Since Coke owns MinuteMaid and Pepsi owns Tropicana, it’s not surprising that the orange juice battle between them is being fought in the same way as their long-standing cola war, which is further identical to the marketing skirmish between Dasani (Coke) and Aquafina (Pepsi) bottled water.
Both companies are committed to shadowing each other’s moves, resulting in products and brands that are virtually indistinguishable. The dueling carafes below were predictable:
Simply Orange, by MinuteMaid, has a cleaner, more effective label. The messaging on the Tropicana carafe is too busy; watch for it to get cleaned-up and for the illustration of the orange on the label to increase in size. Since MinuteMaid has perhaps half the market share of Tropicana in the non-frozen category, they will be “taking chances” and Tropicana will be reacting.
POM Wonderful
An interesting new player in the juice business is POM. The pomegranate juice is called POM Wonderful after a variety of pomegranates. Other blended varieties are just called POM, but “Wonderful” is carried over throughout the messaging. The packaging is unique, and the sales pitch is anchored in the health benefits of antioxidants. At 26 cents per fluid ounce, POM is 3 to 4 times more expensive than national orange juice brands.
POM is leveraging several points of contact in differentiating its brand. The name “Pom” gives consumers a short and sweet way to get a handle on the rather awkward mouthful, “pomegranate juice.” It also helps make the idea of trying it less scary. Don’t be surprised if “pom juice” is adopted by the public as shorthand for all pomegranate juice, giving POM a big advantage over their inevitable competitors. POM’s tagline, DRINK TO YOUR HEART’S CONTENT™, works on two levels: It reinforces the health benefits of the juice and plays off of an emotional idiom.
If all that weren’t enough, we’ve posted a new Juice Name Taxonomy over at Igor. Drink it up.
