LONDON – Barclays plc has rolled out a new, revamped Barclaycard Arrival card for the U.S. market. The card promises that you can earn all sorts of travel perks for signing up for their plastic. Just last week, they even had booths in major airports like Tampa. But the card is missing any connection to [...]

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Last week, I was in a Wells Fargo branch, looking at a beautifully produced booket/story of the company. It included an explanation of how it ran stagecoaches and ran money to the West, and detailed many of the innovations of the hundreds of banks that made up what is now Wells Fargo. Inside the leaf [...]

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Prudential’s nearly forgotten Bache brand is being given more prominence, this week appearing in ads in Financial Times. New York’s Bache & Company was one of the great old brokerages, with roots into the 19th century. It went through dozens of names; it eventually merged into Prudential and became Prudential Bache. However, in 2003, the [...]

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We tend to think that carriage brands that might have been around during, say, the time of Little House on the Prairie would be gone. Perhaps most are, but one wagon brand is still around. It’s the company Swab Wagon Co., makers of fire and rescue trucks, pumpers and animal transports. A bit about Swab [...]

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The Australian bank Westpac is apparently considering to use a predecessor bank name as a separate online brand to help lure deposits. Reviving a brand online is one that is gaining increasing currency in an Internet age. Even retailers are doing it, the best example being the British version of Woolworth’s, which is being revived [...]

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Actually, there are many more, but I just present these to get them off my brain and onto a page. Co-branded VISA and Mastercard. I mean, how great is that for a brand to get yourself connected to a bank that’ll rack your customers with 25 to 30 percent interest, an interest rate that used [...]

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LONDON – The UK seems to have been a holdout in the brand-washing category, namely dumping old brands in favor of invented ones. But this is no longer the case. We heard about the news that the Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley brands are to be scrapped in favor of the Spanish [...]

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Uplifting in a difficult time In a new article from Brandweek, Managing Editor Robert Klara takes an in-depth look at the hottest new thing in marketing: the Great Depression. Companies like Allstate Insurance have been stressing assets like home, family and quality time in recent ads– themes that are more resonant and uplifting from Depression [...]

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Brand consultants messed up some great brand names Any person who lived in Virginia in the 1970s would know these regional bank jingles. “F&M’s free banking puts you and your checkbook … a jump ahead.” “Virginia National is the way Virginia Banks today.” The two banks merged, and became Sovran. Something was lost. Little was [...]

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We got our Wall Street Journal this morning and noticed how in an ad for Wachovia’s merger with Wells Fargo, the A.G. Edwards logo is prominently displayed as an equal to Wachovia. The ad is called “The Wisdom of Age. The Strength of Experience.” It cites Wachovia and A.G. Edwards’ combined 120 years of experience, [...]

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