By Convenience Store News

Last fall, Atlanta-based Blimpie International Inc., global franchisor of nearly 1,600 Blimpie restaurants, announced that it planned to reinvigorate the Blimpie brand. The company has come through on that promise with a refreshed logo, contemporary restaurant design and an updated menu featuring hot, new panini-grilled Ciabatta bread sandwiches.

"Blimpie was the first sub-sandwich chain in the country and we have always been an innovator in menu concepts -- from our category-exclusive panini grill to our fresh-baked artisan breads including the new Ciabatta bread," said Mark Mears, chief marketing officer of Blimpie International. "Now our brand reflects this forward-thinking positioning, transforming Blimpie from its heritage as a traditional neighborhood sub shop to a more consumer-driven, contemporary deli."

The refreshed Blimpie logo reflects a more contemporary design with bright green and yellow -- retaining the core equity of the previous version, while removing the red "racetrack." According to Blimpie, the updated logo will be integrated first into advertising and marketing materials, and then gradually throughout the system via packaging, merchandising, uniforms and signage.

The redesigned restaurant interiors, created in collaboration with Atlanta-based retail design firm Miller Zell Inc., include modern, earth-tone paint and tile, wainscoting, pendant lighting and hardwood laminate flooring. Some unique aspects include a "community table" to seat larger groups, and curved architectural elements to simulate the look and feel of the logo throughout the interior. One pillar of the reinvigorated Blimpie brand is menu innovation, featuring three Italian-themed sandwiches built on Ciabatta bread and served hot from the Blimpie category-exclusive panini grill. The Ciabatta bread promotion launches April 1 throughout the country.

In addition to panini-grilled sandwiches, Blimpie restaurants feature Gardenburger vegetarian patties, low-carb bread Dietz & Watson meats in each restaurant and artisan breads in seven flavors -- including cheddar jalapeno, hearty wheat, marble rye and zesty parmesan -- baked fresh daily in each restaurant.

By Lori Kurtzman
Enquirer staff writer
news.enquirer.com

The new C-Paw was supposed to be a secret.
University of Cincinnati officials had guarded their revised athletic logo closely, requiring every licensed vendor to sign an agreement not to disclose the design until June 1. The university wasn't releasing it either, hoping to unveil its "bolder, stronger" symbol in late spring, just before UC's entry into the Big East Conference.

And then there it was.
At the grocery store.
Someone affiliated with the university spotted the new logo on a T-shirt at an area Kroger last week, said Carla Crabtree, UC's director of licensing.

The new Bearcat C-Paw - a more claw-like, italicized version of the old - had made an unexpected debut. UC officials started last week trying to track down and pull the shirts while seeking out the vendor and manufacturer responsible for the early release.

Crabtree said the university will reimburse Kroger for the T-shirts and has found "absolutely no fault" with the grocery chain. She said UC could potentially take action against the company that manufactured and sent out the shirts, but "until we get all the information ... we don't want to decide what we're going to do," she said.
"We want to do some investigation to make sure that it was an honest mistake and not somebody intentionally jumping the gun."

Steve Housh, owner of the Kansas-based distributor that acted as the middleman between Kroger and the T-shirt manufacturer, said about 150 shirts went out to 15 to 20 grocery stores.
Someone began circulating the logo via e-mail. Shaun Simpson, a 2000 graduate living in Columbus, got that e-mail and posted a note on a bearcatnews.com forum, offering to share it.

Several people took him up on the deal, Simpson said. Few liked what they saw. UC paid design firm LPK $35,000 to update the logo, which was adopted in 1990.
Tom Schultz, a 1996 graduate living in Mason, posted on the forum: "I'd like to chime in and say that it sucks. ... I'm thinking the design firm made the C-PAW into a font and then pressed Control+I to italicize it."

Some students at UC Monday were equally unimpressed.

"Their goal was to make it look more fierce for the Big East," said 19-year-old Stephen Myers. "But they didn't accomplish that," added Derek Sims, also 19.
The change, announced in November, wasn't meant to be drastic, said UC spokesman Greg Hand, but it was supposed to mark a transition for the Bearcats. The delay between the announcement and the unveiling of the logo was to give manufacturers enough time to create products with the new symbol, he said.

We've been quite clear that what's going to be presented is an evolution of the existing logo," Hand said. "
On Monday, most posters discussing the logo on the bearcatnews.com forum called it a "waste of money" and said the C-Paw's claws look more like apostrophes. But one, Brad Holdheide, defended it.

"I liked the new C-Paw," he wrote. "It looks more like a claw than the current C with some oval blobs on top."