Kickstart: Marketing, April Fools' and truth in business

There's a version of this blog written Tuesday in which I expresss skepticism about whether automaker Volkswagen AG really would change its brand to Voltswagen.

I'd first seen reports on the name change, citing "leaked" details, a day earlier, but didn't write anything until VW issued a news release. The release, on its media website certainly sounded real. But the closeness to April 1, and the whole idea of a branding change made me suspicious.

In that earlier version of the blog, I compared the news to that of Crystal Pepsi and New Coke in the 1980s.

If I may be permitted to quote my own writing from a blog that never was published: "But really? Does Voltswagen sound like anything more than a marketing gimmick?"

Of course by late in the day on Tuesday, Voltswagen did, indeed, turn out to be either some marketing ploy or mistimed April Fools' joke. (Even the earlier news release has been taken down since then.)

But the whole issue raises the question of trust in business. VW may have been intending it as a joke, but as Reuters' reporter David Shepardson noted on NPR's Morning Edition today, it actually reminded people of VW's deception about the emissions from its diesel engines. That business decision landed executives in prison.

In business, both individuals and corporations have to be reliable. A resin supplier promising certain attributes in its material had better not be lying, as the former CEO and chief operating officer of Lucent Polymers, sentenced to prison for fraud, have learned.

That's not to say that the Voltswagen prank cost anything beyond the pride of news organizations who ran stories quoting VW's news release. But it should provide a reminder on being skeptical about claims that seem too good — or too strange — to be true.

Every year when we run the roundup of the Best Places to Work in the plastics industry, I get jealous.

Don't get me wrong, I love my job and coworkers. But just consider some of the perks offered by processors and suppliers who made our list this year.

There are the trips to Japan from Asahi Kasei Asaclean to visit the company headquarters. PolySource, our top supply company this year, has a Florida vacation home available to its employees.

Many firms offer up assistance to get healthy, with on-site gyms or partial payment toward gym fees and fitness devices. Add to that the outings and barbecues and tickets for ball games (in non-pandemic years).

All of those extras are about more than awards, of course. It's about attracting and retaining good people. Those people, in turn, are more willing to commit to companies who respect them.

"We share a unique culture that celebrates the strengths of each individual," M. Holland Co., No. 4 among suppliers, noted. "[Employees] need to be successful in their daily jobs and lead rewarding careers."

You can read more from this week's print issue, or at plasticsnews.com, with stories being posted throughout this week.

Throughout the pandemic, especially during the winter, I've been watching a lot of episodes of a United Kingdom archeology TV series. Why? Maybe because it's very calming in the way of most U.K. TV exports, rather than tense U.S. reality shows. It's also nice to get a reminder that human beings, as a whole, have gone through a lot of disasters, and still made it through the other side.

So the story of a U.K. father and daughter creating a Lego version of the Sutton Hoo helmet, a 7th Century king's prized possession that was found buried in an English field (and memorialized in the recent Netflix movie The Dig) amused me.

Andrew Webb, 45, and his daughter Matilda, 11, spent part of the coronavirus shutdown creating their Lego version, according to the BBC.

The Danish toymaker is featuring their work in its Ideas website featuring projects made with its bricks. And if that's not enough recognition, the BBC says a museum in Sutton Hoo, the English community where the original helmet was found in the 1930s, may put it on display there.