On with Exxon

Along with Coke, Jeep, Mace, Band-Aid and Levi's, one of the world's most famous trademarks is Esso. It is used by Standard Oil Co. (New Jersey) in foreign countries and many parts of the U.S., where Esso is the trademark of the domestic operating arm, Humble Oil and Refining Co. Trouble is, legal restrictions following the 1911 breakup of the old Standard Oil trust have barred Humble from brandishing the Esso name in 20 states. In parts of the South and West, the company uses the label Enco, or, in Ohio, Humble.

After decades of grappling with the national advertising and marketing problems that a multiplicity of trademarks entails, Humble officers last week announced final agreement on a compromise. As of next January, the firm will change its name to Exxon Co., and in July its three gasolines will become Exxon, Exxon Plus and Exxon Extra. A $25 million advertising campaign will herald the name change. Another $100 million will be spent to switch signs at the company's more than 25,000 stations and impart Exxon to its letterheads, gas pumps and trucks.

The name is the product of more than five years of linguistic analysis, psychological testing of consumers, and test marketing (TIME, Oct. 25). Humble researchers examined thousands of computer-chosen alphabetic combinations and words in 55 languages until they found one that seemed to stick in consumers' minds and had no obscene or embarrassing meanings in any foreign tongue. A major breakthrough was the finding that there is no word with a double X in any language except Maltese. Since the new trademark might eventually be used by Jersey Standard overseas, one of its present labels, Enco, was an early reject. It means "stalled car" in Japanese.

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