I have to admit I've never really bought into this "companies have personalities" argument. Corporations as entities - of course. I'm not sure I buy the concept of assigning gender characteristics to companies - "feminine" traits like above-market compensation, worker housing, company-provided healthcare as compared with "masculine" companies where the emphasis is on "getting the job done" and "making a profit." You're kidding yourself if you think any corporation exists for a purpose other than generating profit - community support is only one way to promote the company - but if things get tough a lot fewer libraries and endowments get created. It's the way of the jungle.
I did find the discussion of corporate imagery in this week's reading to be interesting - I remember one old brick factory in Norwich Connecticut that had large concrete or stone "bottles" at each corner. The bottles seemed an odd shape until I learned it was the former American Thermos plant!
Corporate imagery has become more and more critical in today's visual media world, but logos, strong graphics, and the like are nothing new. As I'm trying to narrow the focus for my final paper I got thinking of a marketing scheme one of the two railroads in the Thames River valley used back in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It was an overnight delivery service (well, next full business day service between New York City and Montreal) using a combination of trains and boats, and for a while in the 1930s, the railroad-owned airline for service throughout the northeast. I don't know a great deal about how this service operated or how successful it was. I've become interested enough in it that I may make it a focus of my paper.
So, what do you call an fast package delivery service in the days before everything became an abbreviation? In the days of Buck Rogers serials and the like? Why, you call it "The Rocket" of course - no one seemed to mind the trains and boats often dated from the 1880s.
Should be interesting to see what, if anything I can turn up about this.
I do know the Rocket service appeared on timetables and other promotional literature - it also appeared painted on some rail cars and trucks.
It even appeared on giveaway promotional items - what we call SWAG today - like this matchbook cover.
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