DuPont Textiles & Interiors Becomes "INVISTATM"

Furniture World Magazine

DuPont Textiles & Interiors (DTI), a wholly owned subsidiary of DuPont (NYSE:DD), has announced that it will be called INVISTATM effective immediately. The name change represents the company's next step toward separating from its parent company and crystallizing its distinct, independent corporate identity. Steve McCracken, president of DTI, now INVISTA, said, "We are stepping forward into our future - with more than 70 years of DuPont innovation and market strength behind us - creating a vital new company and identity that is up to the challenge of serving our global customers with renewed determination and clarity." "INVISTA will start life as the world's largest integrated fibers and intermediates company with more than $6.3 billion in revenue, 18,000 employees and a presence in 86 countries," McCracken said. "We have a new name, new vision and new look - all backed by our unsurpassed R&D capabilities and some of the best consumer brands in the world - like LYCRAâ, COOLMAX®, STAINMASTERâ, ANTRONâ, and some of the best known specialty chemical brands like CORFREEâ M1 and TERATHANEâ." The new name will be accompanied by a linking line -- "Built on DuPont Innovation" -- to underscore the company's heritage, and a tagline -- "Step Forward" - which reflects the promise of the future. "INVISTA will continue the work we began as part of DuPont, partnering with our customers to transform the economics of their businesses, the performance of their products and drive demand through the power of brands," said Carol Gee, global director, brands for INVISTA. Gee, who led the corporate identity effort, continued, "One way to think about it is: INVISTA will serve as the stage on which our real stars -- our consumer and product brands -- can shine." The company will build the INVISTA name primarily with trade audiences, and will link the consumer product brand marketing campaigns to the corporate identity. INVISTA will launch a business-to-business campaign to support its corporate identity to global trade media via a variety of communications channels. Details of that plan will be revealed in the coming months. To develop the new name, DTI, now INVISTA, conducted extensive worldwide research into how employees, customers, consumers and investors view DTI and its position in the global marketplace. The naming process considered over 600 potential names, conducted worldwide trademark and company searches in more than 200 countries and conducted comprehensive linguistic and cultural evaluations in 47 countries. The work also considered the core values the audiences associate with the company, the opportunities for change that would be highly valued, as well as the need for a consistent brand identity across the company's three business areas: apparel, intermediates, and interiors and industrial textiles. Enterprise IG, New York, one of the world's leading brand and corporate identity consultancies, worked closely with DTI to develop the INVISTA identity. The company, which has developed powerful and engaging identities for such companies as Bank of America, Lockheed Martin, and Hilton, led DTI through a rigorous, analytically-based development process. McCracken said, "Our goal was to define our enterprise in a way that will deliver competitive advantage for each of our businesses. The research learnings guided all elements of this work in order to do that." "The process Enterprise IG guided us through was truly comprehensive and market-focused," said Gee. "It provided a solid foundation for decision-making and helped to ensure that our choice of the INVISTA name and the Rings of Innovation symbol was not just exciting creatively, but also the right choice for our markets-and for ourselves." According to Gee, the company will be updating all external communications materials and signage to reinforce the new name. "We have developed a process and timeline to ensure a smooth transition during the coming months and our marketing team will be working with our partners to help guide the way," said Gee. For more information about INVISTA, please visit our micro-website, www.invista.com. DuPont announced in February 2002 plans to create DTI, now INVISTA, as a wholly owned subsidiary and to separate it from DuPont. On Aug. 11, 2003, DuPont announced it is in exclusive negotiations with subsidiaries of Koch Industries Inc., of Wichita, Kansas, regarding the possible sale of DTI, now INVISTA.