Innocent until proved guilty?

What's in a name? What's in a word, in fact? Words. Humpty Dumpty, as I've said before, made them mean what he wanted them to mean. In the world of business, names mean a lot. But do words mean as much as names, or less?

A mother of two, Dawn Reid, is facing a ‘David and Goliath’ battle with an international drinks company over the name she has given to her vitamin capsules for children. Innocent Drinks objects to her selling a food supplement called Innocent Vitamins, and has asked her to cease trading under that name. But the small-business owner insists the drinks market and the vitamin are totally separate and accused the British-based firm of over-reacting.

This is Dawn's company logo:

All green and very innocent looking. Seems to me it's all about vitamins. Innocent Drinks' logo looks very different. Not only that, but their smoothies tend to sell in stores around the milk section and not in the pharmacy.


Innocent Drinks say people have been calling them up asking whether these are their vitamins. Is that because these callers are genuinely confused, or are they thinking vitamins don't go with smoothies. Would people get confused? Even if they were, they can now know with complete clarity that these two innocents have never had any relationship whatsoever!

The Innocent Drinks "brand" appears very different. But this may not be as innocent as we are led to believe. After all, there are plenty of businesses trading with similar names to other businesses.

Can Continental Airlines be confused with Continental Tyres?


Or can EasyJet be confused with EasySpace?



I don't think the public is that dim. And even if they don't know, would it really bother them? Mostly business is about "brands going forward" to use the jargon. If a brand has a similar name, but is in a dissimilar market place, does the customer care? EasyJet flies people to places and EasySpace gets them on the web. Easy really. Or am I just too innocent?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365443/Innocent-Drinks-set-inot-battle-Dawn-Reid-Innocent-Vitamins.html#ixzz1GQmlwGYg

Spanish practices and the Abbey habit

Thought Woolworths was the last big name to go? Wrong! The Spanish banking giant Santander is taking a bag of castanets to the High Street names of Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley. In a flourish of flamenco style dancing, the banking names will be attending the last dance for British brands. From now on it will be Sun-Tun-Dare!

Am I upset? Not really. It's just the way things are. I doubt very much that customers will see much change other than bright red logos. Banking is now a global phenomenon. It doesn't matter if it is Spanish or British or whatever. We are told we need banks of this size in order that we can get the service we require. So I am resigned to it all. That is, at the moment.

However, I may wake up tomorrow morning thinking, "Hey wait a minute, do I want this?" and the answer may well be NO! The only way we are going to get back to any semblance of local banking, with local people knowing about local needs is if we demand it. Maybe Mr.Bradford and Mr.Bingley may not take it on the chin. There is talk of splitting the business interests of retail banking and investment banking, which is still no more than vague discussion.

Ordinary customers of banks should speak up. We need a voice that is demonstrably more assertive than the present set-up of FSA lackies and the badger look-a-like in No 11. If this credit crisis and political fall-out lead to anything, surely consumer power is to be part of it.