ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER

Abelman, Frayne, &Schwab

On November 15, 1932, Mars Incorporated received a registration for their brand of candy bar:

The 3 MUSKETEERS Bar takes its name from the original design of the product, which was three pieces and three flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. When the bar was changed to chocolate nougat covered in milk chocolate the original name was retained.

On November 17, 1953, Serta Associates, Inc. received a registration for their brand of mattresses:

In 1931, a group of 13 independent mattress manufacturers met to discuss the impact of national brands on their companies. These entrepreneurs recognized that the couldn’t compete individually with the national brands and their large advertising budgets. They knew that by banding together they could share information on manufacturing practices and advertising. Yet, they also wanted to keep their individual companies, customers and marketplaces. These mattress manufacturers became the original stockholders in a nationally licensed company, originally called Guardian Knight, and then quickly renamed "Sleeper Products." By 1937, Fortune Magazine reported company sales of $10 million, while total industry sales totaled $85 million. In 1938, a company executive led a successful campaign to rename the company Serta, a name that consumers would remember and grow to trust over the coming decades.

In July 2000, Serta launched what has become the most popular advertising campaign in mattress industry history, the Serta Counting Sheep. Since the campaign’s launch, there have been 11 total spots produced. From the first ad where the Counting Sheep showed up to a client’s house only to find they had purchased a Serta mattress—and subsequently reminding them "We do have a two year contract"—to the over-zealous No. 8 tearing the "Do not remove under penalty of law" tag off a mattress and landing them in jail, the Counting Sheep have won the hearts of people all across the world and made the SERTA trademark truly famous.