Shareholder

The lights will be going out on an icon of the Toronto skyscape, as FAIRMONT Hotels rebrands the roof-top sign on its flagship ROYAL YORK property.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?Y10C65435

Cloud Lounger

Geeez... You scared me! A city without a grand old railway hotel is city not worth staying in.

airbus320

I too thought that they were tearing it down!

stinger

Glad to hear that it is just a change of the sign. Also wish politicians would not get so sentimental about a sign. Fairmont owns the hotel and should be able to put their name on it.

Everyone will still call it the Royal York. As far as I remember we still refer to the large mall between Dundas and Queen as the Eaton Centre even though there isn't a store!

Cloud Lounger

I expect that the company will be okay as long as they do not try to change the name from the Royal York or Fairmont Royal York simply to the Fairmont or Fairmont Toronto.

Folks in Ottawa were up in arms when the company wanted to change the name from the Chateau Laurier to the Fairmont Ottawa. The decision in the end was to name it the Fairmont Chateau Laurier.

LeSabre74

Ridiculous. To me the Fairmont name only conjures up an image of a cheap Ford compact of the late '70's. When they replaced Canadian Pacific their excuse was that that name didn't have the brand recognition they needed. Right, after 100 years of advertising. When was the last time you saw a vintage poster for a Fairmont hotel?

airbus320

Agree 100%! Branding is the establishment, nurturing of a consistent, enduring, distinct and unique impression in the minds of your customers.

The CP brand is part of our Canadian heritage. It works...

And somewhat off topic, that is the AC challenge re-establishing a brand that is consisent, enduring, distinct and unique.


Presently what comes to mind when the AC brand is mentionned is a grand old company presently in the decline. Not a good brand messaging.


[This message has been edited by airbus320 (edited 07-09-2003).]

AC*SE

It was easier out here, I guess, because the "Hotel Vancouver" could easily be rebranded as the "Fairmont Vancouver".

But tell me, has the Plaza been renamed the "Fairmont Manhattan?"

David,Mississauga

I am heartened to read that I am not the only one who has not been impressed with the change of name of the chain from Canadian Pacific to Fairmont. If the name on top of the Royal York had been "Canadian Pacific" instead of "Royal York" there would be a better argument for changing it. A Fairmont spokesperson is quoted in today's Star as saying that the old sign has to go in the interest of providing "a little clarity and brand consistency to our loyal guests." What piffle. A guest stepping out of an airport bus or cab or coming out of Union Station is not going to see the sign. It is obviously meant as a marker of a landmark to be viewed from afar (a little more difficult these days with all the high-rises in the area.)

What next: will the attractive "Empress" sign at the grand old hotel in Victoria be replaced? I suspect there will be riots in the streets if that happens.

LeSabre74

The more I thought about this the more peeved I got so I sent them a nasty e-mail (let's see if I get a response). It was bad enough when they changed the chain's name. Then the CP Store, which used to carry a lot of interesting repro CP stuff became the "Fairmont" store, carrying a lot of cheap and tacky trinkets. Sad to see the heritage commission in YYZ is even more toothless than hear in YVR.

airbus320, you're right. It's the same kind of disregard shown for a venerable brand as AC.

Altaflyer

I do sympathise with CP a bit as the "Canadian" brand would not do well down south and since they bought Fairmont they made the choice to change the name. I guess they could have run with 2 names but that would be potentially confusing.

B767

IMHO it would be a big mistake to change the name to simply the Fairmont ignoring it's history as the Royal York. I believe the building is actually owned by A REIT (owned 40% by Fairmont) and the Fairmont has a management contract to run it. The reason CP Hotels used when it changed it name after purchasing the Fairmont was that Fairmont had a name recognition with Americans. I am guessing that marketing believe it will make the property easier to market in the USA.

Shareholder

LeSabre, I think that was the Ford FAIRLAINE, not FAIRMONT. CP has been selling off bits of its heritage, piece by piece for a while now. They sold their old Beaver Crest logo rights to SLEEMANS for use on its beer bottles. I think grandma went shortly after EXPO67. Curiously, though, the railway redesigned its logo two years ago when the company was broken up, and they opted for going back to their roots in it.

Crampedin13A

Actually the crappy Ford car he was referring to was the Fairmont. What a piece of junk however it morphed into the '80's Mustang so Ford did well on that. Back on topic I always thought that the Canadian Pacific name had a lot of cachet especially to well heeled non North Americans.

Cloud Lounger

The Fairlane was a good economy car from the 60's; the Fairmont was a not so great economy car from the 70's