Unintended Consequences of names

Back in the early 1990s the Austrians were found to be adulterating their wines with diethylene glycol (anti-freeze) in order to make them sweeter. When this became public knowledge in Japan the consumers not only stopped buying Austrian wines ,they also gave Australian wines a miss too. If you cannot differentiate your brand sufficiently in the consumers' mind then you may lose out through no fault of your own.

There is a limit to this same name concern and somehow I don't think that Northern Foods or Hard Rock Cafes need to be as agitated at present as the Alliance and Leicester.

However a consequence of the Northern Rock bailout means that the chances of Brown calling an October General Election have almost dropped to zero and Alistair Darling may yet join Norman Lamont and James Callaghan as a Chancellor for whom events in the markets exposed the limitations of their power.