Frankenbrands: Rearranging Logos and Relaunching
The fallout from Border’s bankruptcy and liquidation looms large at the shopping center down the street from our place here in San Francisco. Entrepreneur Martin Carmody bought the inventory of the above Border’s Books after it went tango uniform, purchasing the remaining 40,000 books in the store for $50,000 and establishing his own lease, turning ODE into a budget book store and more.
What I found most interesting in Carmody’s approach is that he was smart enough to use Border’s existing sign and avoid the cost of doing a new one (a cost that would have run anywhere from $10,000 - $20,000). He just rearranged the letters to create ODE. As it turns out, Carmody isn’t alone in saving the detritus of old brands and signs after they go belly up.
A collection of Frankenbrands (a term coined by my friend Sam Valenti IV), companies that use the original corporate branding…for better or worse:
Dad’s Inn in Lansing, Michigan, a barely modified frankenbrand of a Day’s Inn.
“Yes” Thrift Store in Tucson, a frankenbrand of an old Mervyn’s sign.
Conn’s reused the department signage as a partial frankenbrand from an old Circuit City.
Jon’s in Hollywood, a frankenbrand of Von’s Supermarket.
Royal Dry Cleaners in Cleveland uses the old frame and sunburst from a Red Barn restaurant.
This “Antiques” shop in North Carolina uses the original framing from a K-Mart sign.
K-Mart, coincidentally, is perhaps the ultimate and original Frankenbrander. It was the company’s CEO Joseph Antonini who brilliantly reduced the company’s signs from the full K-Mart to a single K with ‘mart’ written inside in 1990. The move reportedly saved $1 million dollars per year in electricity bills.
