Farewell to Esso?

The rented car swung off the forest-flanked road in the North Carolina countryside and moved into a clearing on which had been erected a bright sign bearing the cryptic letters EXXON. Several high-priced executives climbed from the car, scrutinized the sign, conferred enthusiastically--and then just as mysteriously drove off. Within minutes, workmen ripped down the pole and emblem and sneaked away.

All this huggermuggery was to enable executives from Standard Oil of New Jersey and its Humble Oil subsidiary to get a secret peek at the mock-up of a gas-station sign that will probably become familiar to millions of American motorists. After two years of intensive sorting and musing, Jersey Standard officials have all but decided on a new brand name to be used in all the company's 28,600 U.S. stations. In a final test of consumer reaction, oil and gas are now being sold under the Exxon name at 33 company stations from New Hampshire to California. The decision represents a considerable gamble. Adopting Exxon, the company will be giving up one of the world's best-known brand names: Esso.

Cloak-and-Dagger. Why the switch? Ever since the 1911 breakup of the Standard Oil trust, legal restrictions have barred any firm from using the name Standard nationally--or even the name Esso (which comes from S.O.). Jersey Standard had to operate Esso stations in the East, Humble stations in Ohio, and Enco stations elsewhere. But this was no way to build strong national-brand consciousness. In their search for a new name, Esso executives worked in cloak-and-dagger secrecy. To ensure security, they typed their own letters and memos. The project even had a code name: Operation Nugget.

The search team considered thousands of possibilities, including meaningless letter combinations clacked out by computers. Because the new trademark might eventually become global, one of the company's existing brand names, Enco, was quickly discarded. In Japanese it means "stalled car." At last, after polling 7,000 consumers and testing names in 55 languages, the company chose the computer-produced name of Exxon. Its basic appeal, explains one oil executive, is that "it says nothing and it means nothing."

If, as expected, the market tests are successful, the changeover should begin in earnest next year with an expansive TV ad campaign. Plans call for Humble to be renamed Exxon U.S., and for Standard Oil of New Jersey to become Exxon Inc. The estimated cost of research, advertising and physically changing the name on signs and other items is $100 million.

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