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December
31, 2004:
Origins of Brand Names II
Interview
with Evan Morris, author of From
Altoids to Zima |
Mike Carruthers:
A man named Donald Fisher opened the first Gap store in San Francisco
in 1969 to sell jeans and records, and planned to call his store
“Pants And Discs.” Evan
Morris:
But, then, the night before the store sign was supposed to be
painted, his wife had been at a party where there was a lot
of discussion of the generation gap - this being the 1960s.
Evan Morris,
author of the book, From
Altoids to Zima ...
So, his
wife thought "generation gap" or just "gap"
would be great name for the store. And she argued with him,
and finally convinced him. And, the next day they changed the
sign, and it became "The Gap."
There is
nothing "Scotch" about Scotch Tape. In 1925 Richard
Drew developed masking tape for 3M primarily for use in painting
cars.
And it
was very popular, but they had decided to put adhesive only
on the edges of the tape, not the center of the tape. Pretty
soon some technicians began complaining that the tape was falling
off. And one of the engineers took a sample of the tape, and
thrust it back into the inventor's hand saying, “Take this tape
back to the Scotch bosses of yours, and tell them to put more
adhesive on it.” The "Scotch" in that sentence is
slang meaning "stingy." The people at 3M hearing this
story decided that Scotch would actually make a good name for
the tape, and decided to market it with all the packaging we
know today.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net,
I’m
Mike Carruthers, and that’s Something You Should Know.
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