Dan and Angi have something to say

Welcome to our site! This is the Lovejoy family blog where we talk about all kinds of stuff. Mostly we talk about minutia and our beautiful son Elijah.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Dan says:

Bank Name Bingo

Remember Local Federal Bank? Probably not - because it soon changed its name, for no apparent reason, to Local Oklahoma Bank. I never could get that out without saying “LocalOklocalOklahoma Bank.” Now they’re owned by IBC Bank, whose tag line should be “No, not the root beer.” IBC Bank spends considerable advertising dollars trying to convince us that they’re local, like LocalOklocalOklahoma Bank was. However, their sign features a thumbnail map of the US AND Mexico. Sure, you could say, “Dan, Quantum Physics dictates that the universe isn’t really local at all. And you’d be right, I suppose. But if anything is local to Oklahoma, Mexico ain’t.

Anyway, IBC bought LocalOkLocalhoma Bank, so they changed names. All right. This, along with Kirkpatrick Bank buying American Bank, and Chase buying BankOne is just one more step in the consolidation which will bring us to the “There can be only one Wells-FargAmerica Bank.” I can deal with this.

But, what, in the name of all that is good in branding, would cause Coppermark bank to go through two name changes in the last two years?

First, they were Guaranty Bank. Meh. Nothing flashy, but a good, solid, banky name. Then they were Americrest - which sounds like patriotic toothpaste, for about five minutes. Now they are Coppermark - which is the mark a coppersmith puts on his work. And they’re advertising that they’ve NOT been sold.

“At Coppermark Bank, we’re still the same bank. The same branches - the same people - the same owners.”

What they should say after that is, “We just like to force you to get new checks and jerk you around for no obvious reason.”

Full disclosure: My alma mater went through an unfortunate time when it was called “Oklahoma Christian University of Science and Arts.” Ewww. We jettisoned “of Science and Arts,” and we’re still correcting people who call us that.