Central Pacific brings back mascot Alex
Alex, the Shetland sheepdog who served as Central Pacific Bank’s loyal mascot for more than six years before being retired at the end of 2008, has been unleashed again.
The state’s fourth-largest bank, which had been conducting teaser advertising campaigns for the last three weeks by displaying paw prints and leashes, showcased Alex during four spots in the Super Bowl.
"We’ve turned around so our focus is back on expanding market share, and we want to increase our brand awareness," Central Pacific spokesman Wayne Kirihara said Friday. "We know from our past experience with Alex that he’s been very successful in doing that. And actually one of the things that we were amazed at is our market research indicated that even after three years of being absent that Alex was still associated with CPB, which means there was a lot of brand equity in Alex."
The marketing campaign is being conducted in print, online and on radio and television by Honolulu advertising agency Matsumoto & Clapperton.
Kirihara said Alex, who was known as the loyalty officer and was identified with "fiercely loyal banking" when the campaign initially was launched in 2002, will now be associated with the tag line "Works for you."
"The first ads that have come out are really to introduce Alex as our mascot, or icon, as a marketing perspective, and eventually it will turn into advertising to market our products and services," Kirihara said. "Alex will still appear in those ads, but he won’t be front and center. The value proposition (what Central Pacific is offering) will be front and center, but Alex will be there to connect the value proposition with our bank."
Kirihara said Alex, now 6, has been entering agility competitions to keep busy during his retirement. He said the bank retired him when it did, so that it could address its financial challenges in 2009. A different Alex was used when the bank first began the campaign.
Premier says default would lead to ‘chaos’
ATHENS, Greece » Greece’s future in the eurozone came under renewed threat Friday as popular protests again turned violent and dissent grew among its lawmakers after European leaders demanded deeper spending cuts.
The country’s beleaguered coalition government promised to push through the tough new austerity measures and rescue a crucial $170 billion bailout deal after six members of the Cabinet resigned.
Prime Minister Lucas Papademos promised to "do everything necessary" to ensure parliament passes the new austerity measures that would slap Greeks with a cut in the minimum wage during the fifth year of a recession. He also promised to replace any other Cabinet members who did not fully back his efforts.
"A disorderly default would cast our country into a catastrophic adventure. It would create conditions of uncontrollable economic chaos and social explosion," he warned.
Air Force might buy 18,000 Apple iPad2s
The Air Force could buy as many as 18,000 iPad2s in what would be one of the military’s biggest orders of computer tablets, accelerating Apple Inc.’s inroads into the federal government. The service’s Air Mobility Command plans to issue a request for proposals to buy between 63 and 18,000 "iPad 2, Brand Name or Equal devices" to lighten the load of flight crews, according to a notice posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website.
The goal is to replace the bag of manuals and navigation charts weighing as much as 40 pounds that are carried by pilots and navigators, said Capt. Kathleen Ferrero, a spokeswoman for the command.
"The airline industry is way ahead of us on this," she said in a telephone interview. "Most, if not all, of the major airliners are already switching to tablets."
Apple has been eating away at Research In Motion Ltd.’s market share in the federal government market.
The Department of Veterans Affairs last year announced a plan to let its employees use iPhones and iPads to conduct official work on the agency’s network. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this week said it would supply employees with iPhones, the latest government organization to drop RIM’s BlackBerry.
Midwest bank failures bring 2012 total to 9
WASHINGTON » Regulators on Friday closed small banks in Illinois and Indiana, increasing to nine the number of U.S. bank failures this year, a slower pace than in 2011, when there were 92 bank closures. The number of closures already had dropped sharply in 2011 from the two previous years, when banks were working their way through the bad debt accumulated in the recession. But by this time last year, regulators had shuttered twice as many banks — 18.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized Charter National Bank and Trust, based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., with $93.9 million in assets and $89.5 million in deposits, and SCB Bank, based in Shelbyville, Ind., with $182.6 million in assets and $171.6 million in deposits.
ON THE MOVE
» The University of Hawaii Alumni Association’s 2012 Distinguished Alumni Award honorees are:
Robert Alm, executive vice president of Hawaiian Electric Co.; Frederick D.S. Choi, dean emeritus and distinguished service professor of business at New York University; and Patrick H. DeLeon, professor and retired chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye.
The 2012 UH Founders Alumni Association Lifetime Achievement Award honoree is Ted T. Tsukiyama, attorney, arbitrator, historian and 442nd veteran.
The 2012 UH Alumni Association President’s Award honorees are Virginia S. Hinshaw, University of Hawaii at Manoa chancellor, and Ann Dunham Soetoro, anthropologist. The awards will be presented May 10 at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.
» State Farm Insurance has appointed Ashley Gundaker as agent at their Mililani Town Center office. She was a therapist-case manager for Hale Kipa.
