The Name Game- Part 2

InTroubleAlltheTime said:

Can we make a deal to buy into using another manufacturer's name? Can we use the name of a company that went belly up?
:222: :446: Best Regards, Rich

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I agree with this and what Kbear suggested - that is to first try to stay affiliated with Case - barring that team up with a major full line tractor manufacturer, an easier target would be one that did not make their own lgt.

The problem with going with another name is there would be no association with a full line tractor manufacturer making your new business enterprise unrecognizable to the average Joe. You really wouldn't have to worry about Colt being remembered because they weren't around that long to begin with.

One of the things that could have been done would be to ask Case if they could use the color combo Desert Sunset/Power Red being as they no longer were using it or just stay with the current color Power Red/Power White and deviate as little as possible from that to keep a familiarity and then perhaps the name Colt could be reserected as it starts with the letter"C" and is also 4 letters.

No matter what this would have to be the most difficult thing to overcome with you new business enterprise, once your loyal base found out that you were no longer supported by Case fear would set in.

I don't think that there is anything wrong with Ingersoll. It should have opened up a whole group of potential new dealers. When Case had them they were marketed to Case dealers first. If a Case ag or industrial dealer took them on, Case stuck with them whether they put any effort into selling them or not. In areas where big ag was booming or construction was booming I can tell you that GTs didn't get much attention. Case would almost never cancel a dealers OPE contract to set up someone else in town.

In a case where the local AG dealer absolutly did not want OPE (believe me they pressured you to take it) a L & G dealer was set up. One problem was that with the Case name you were never going to sign up a dealer with another tractor line. No Oliver dealer was going to promote the Case name for instance. When Ingersoll took over, dealers that were doing well kept the line and the Case associaton was still there. The dealers that took it because of the pressure from Case and only sold one when someone stumbled in the door with a hand full of cash quickly let the line go. If they had marketed better, expanded (who heard of Husqvarna in 1985) and modernized the line (the same headlights for 40 years?) I believe that they were actually in a position to upgrade their dealer network.

Association with a big name doesn't guarantee success. Kbears Cat suggestion is a perfect example. Cat sold their Challanger line of rubber tracked tractors to Agco (Massey) about 10 years ago. Don't ask me to explain the whole deal but part of it was that Cat was going to market the full line of Massey tractors painted Cat yellow. I could never understand why they labeled them Challenger and not Caterpillar but I'm sure their marketing people are smarter than me.

To say the least it was a complete disaster and they have now parted ways. I had a Cat salesman tell me that he didn't have time to screw around with a $15,000 compact tractor.
There are a lot of names that were unknown in 1985 that have done very well. Walker Mowers, Hustler, Exmark, Landpride (I had to throw that in) and Scag are a few that come to mind. The dealers that I go to have showrooms full of this stuff.

Sorry for rambling.

When one of the automobile companies decides to build a brand new model, they hire a company that specializes in researching names. Today, they don't limit their investigation just to North America. They go world-wide to see if the name has ever been used anywhere else because they don't want to get into a copy-write infringement battle nor do they want to take on a name that already has a bad image elsewhere. They also research the language used in a huge number of countries to see how that name translates in the standard dictionaries of those languages but also in the slang dictionaries. As an example, I give you this link.

http://www.billcasselman.com/unpublishe ... _names.htm

The name chosen needs to be simple and easily spoken by everyone. It can't be more than one word nor more than three syllables. Ford, Buick, Chevrolet, Durant, Rolls-Royce, Dodge, Edsel, Chrysler and Duesenberg are all names that belonged to the owners of those companies. Pontiac, DeSoto, Cadillac, LaFayette and Mercury are names taken from historical or mythical figures. Saturn is a car but it's also a planet. What does the planet Mars have to do with candy? Do you think that you would get away with calling your tractor Coca-Cola or Pepsi or Rolls-Royce? Their lawyers would be on you like white on rice. I never said this would be easy and I truly appreciate the feedback so far. But you have to put yourself into the shoes of Jack Ingersoll. I'd be willing to bet that he went to his relatives at Ingersoll-Rand and got legal clearance just to use his own last name. After all, do you think that Cadillac would say nothing if that name was chosen for the tractor? And do you think that a court of law would rule in the tractor owners favour just because his last name was also Cadillac? Not a chance. Now, if you chose a well-known brand name for your tractor but that company had absolutely nothing to do with the transportation side of the universe, then you might get away with it.

The name Kellogg is instantly associated with the cereal company and there is also an air compressor company that uses that name. But once again, brand confusion might be the result and brand ridicule is also a possibility. As the world continues to grow into a global marketplace, the issue of name choice becomes more and more difficult. Fortunately for you guys, things back in 1983 weren't quite so bad on this issue so try to think in the terms of that era.