by Elyse Kazarinoff
Creative Director, Verbal Branding,
based in Landor New York
Creative Director, Verbal Branding,
based in Landor New York
June 06, 2013
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After the merger of SCDP and CGC, the
partners are faced with the question of what to do with their cumbersome
combined name, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Cutler Gleason and Chaough.
Their decision may surprise you.
As creative director for verbal branding in Landor’s New York office, I was interested to see how the partners of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Cutler Gleason and Chaough arrived at their new name on the show this past Sunday.
The process of renaming begins when Cutler receives a piece of mail with the wrong company name on it. Campbell remarks that it’s annoying to have to explain his business card with all those surnames in play. As he wryly stated in the prior episode, “Two of those men are dead as doornails” (referring to Pryce and Gleason). So, with two men down, the partners consider SCDCC, but Don says it looks like a typo. Given the proliferation of four-letter names in the ad business of the day, they propose dropping one of the Cs, but Cutler and Chaough will have none of it, saying it would look like one of them had been left out.
In what is more of a political move than a branding decision, Cutler and Chaough ultimately suggest the name Sterling Cooper & Partners. They position the name as equally bad for Draper, Cutler, and Chaough. The three men agree that the change is okay as long as they can just find a name that works. Don immediately leaps to the acronym (SC&P). The ampersand really appeals to Don as he muses about the new shorthand they will use. The guys rush off to the art department to create a new logo featuring those letters.
I have to say, I was surprised by the move and the political maneuvering behind it. However, from a branding perspective, it makes a lot of sense. As an avid fan of the show, I’ve come to know that the fictional Sterling Cooper had a long-standing good reputation in the business, as they celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the firm during a prior season. I’ve also gotten the feeling that Cutler Gleason and Chaough were the newer upstarts, continually nipping at the heels of the more established agency, and Don Draper in particular. When Ted Chaough comments to a reporter that “Whenever Don Draper looks in his rear view mirror, he sees me,” Don shoots back that he has “never heard of him.” It makes perfect sense that the newly combined agency would keep the more established brand’s name.
From a best practices perspective, Sterling Cooper & Partners is brief and memorable, with that awesome ampersand giving the logo some distinctiveness. Using the word “partners” is a diplomatic and egalitarian way to acknowledge all of the guys (and the one gal!) that head up the firm without using a long, awkward string of surnames. It’s also a nice way to signal that the company is not your father’s Sterling Cooper any more.
Kudos to SC&P and particularly to creator and writer Matthew Weiner, who continues to bring us not only great stories, but also good branding decisions.
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Source: http://landor.com/#!/talk/blog/what-mad-men-reveals-about-agency-renaming/
