There’s a clothing store here in Southern California called Joseph A. Bank, and ever since the financial crash, they’ve been running ads with unbelievable deals, like: “Buy 1 get 2 free!”, etc. I used to call it the “We can’t give it away sale!” But now that it’s been going on for a few years at this point, I’m starting to worry about these guys. They seem to sell nice stuff, so could it be a marketing issue? Maybe it’s a problem with their name.
The name of the company is “Joseph A. Bank”. (The logo just says: “Jos. A. Bank”.) Now that’s got the word “bank” in it, and based upon the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the media coverage of it, and the zeitgeisty anti-bank sentiment these days, maybe they ought to consider changing their name. Maybe it could be a subtle change, but still tap into that anti-bank sentiment.
So how about using a different man’s first name, like, say, Rob? Then it would be called “Rob A. Bank”. That might make them more popular! And if anyone got mad about the name, and accused them of being anti-bank, they could just say that Joseph sold the store to his brother Robert, who goes by “Rob”, so it’s just an accident that it says “Rob A. Bank”.
But then again, they sell suits and ties and other business wear, and stuff like argyle cashmere sweaters and such, so perhaps a name change won’t be sufficient to revamp their image enough to suit the current zeitgeist. Oh, well: you can’t say I didn’t try to help. Maybe buy 1 get 3 free?
Here are some examples of the Joseph A. Bank ads:
