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To most bankers, Cirrus is the name of an international ATM network. But to many consumers, the very people expected to utilize Cirrus ATMs when they travel, Cirrus is a car.
With Chrysler Corp. pounding hard on its multi-million dollar advertising campaign to get consumers to test-drive the new Cirrus, the Westchester, Ill-based network may have its job cut out for it to convince consumers that Cirrus is a name they'll find on an ATM, not above a bumper. When Chrysler first announced the name of its new sports sedan, executives of MasterCard, which owns the ATM network, considered a legal challenge. But it turns out that when MasterCard secured the rights to the name Cirrus, it could only protect that name in financial and banking applications.
THE NAME GAME?
"We had no right to prevent Chrysler from using the name Cirrus on an automobile product any more than Chrysler had the right to stop MasterCard from naming one of its banking products the Plymouth," says Alex "Pete" Hart, the former MasterCard president who is now executive vice chairman of Pennsylvania-based Advanta Corp. Furthermore, Hart says he's not convinced that having Chrysler spend a lot of advertising dollars promoting the Cirrus automobile will hurt the ATM network.
"It doesn't worry me," Hart says. "People will hear and understand what is meaningful to them. If they're interested in...