The August 9th Chicago Tribune had an article "What's in a Name" by Wailin Wong talking about when companies change their names and why.
RADIO SHACK said its changing its name to just The Shack in order to become more relevant as a lot of people don't even know what radio is anymore. Hey, can I download it?
PIZZA HUT was originally going to be Pizza Shack, but they didn't have enough room on the sign, so iot became Hut.
OLD NAME-- NEW NAME, AND WHY
KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN-- KFC--to push its non-fried offerings. Fried is very limiting. Hey, we grill as well.
GALVIN MANUFACTURING CORP-- MOTOROLA--As an update of its image to emphasize a hit product, in this case, Motorola was a hit car radio introduced in 1930. Dropped founding family name, Galvin in 1947.
MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO.-- PANASONIC CORP.-- Matsushita was founded in 1918 and wanted to unify its image under its popular Panasonic brand. I always thought it was just Panasonic. Change became official just last year.
VALUJET AIRLINES-- AIRTRAN AIRWAYS-- ValuJet acquired AirTran in 1997 and took that name, no doubt to forget about the 1996 ValuJet crash near Miami that killed all 110 aboard.
Guess I Have to Update the Cooter's History Thing Blog Name. How About "The Coot's Hoot?" --Cooter
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