Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum adds Automobile to its name...

It's a good idea to add Automobile to the description. I noticed that if you Google ACD club, you will also get "Australian Cattle Dog Club of America"...
Not as exciting as a supercharged Cord or Auburn.

Mark

A rose by any other name smells as sweet.

As some of you know already, the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum has revised its name to include "Automobile" in the title to attract more people to the museum in hope to educate them about these great A-C-D cars. Below is the official news release about the name change and what went into it.

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Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum Updates Name

Museum to add ?Automobile? to its name. The name revision to Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum will attract new visitors and make it easier for them to find the museum both online and offline.

AUBURN ? The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum announced today that it will officially revise its name to Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum. The name change is effective immediately with 2008 being a year of transition. The museum expects to have all of its promotional items such as signage, brochures, rack cards, forms, documents, newsletters and envelopes updated and in place by January 2009. The museum had done business as Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum under the legal name of Auburn Automotive Heritage, Inc. since the museum opened its doors in 1974.

?The name change will make it easier for new visitors to find us, while increasing our visibility to a more diversified group of automotive related visitors,? said Laura Brinkman, executive director of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum. ?Although the name revision is not a drastic change, it is a very powerful and exciting move for the museum,? said Brinkman.

The museum believes the name revision will have an impact on its marketing efforts, ?The effect this will have on our online visibility alone is worth it,? said Gran Roberts, marketing director for the museum. ?By adding the word ?Automobile? to our name, we are 10,000 times more likely to attract an automotive related visitor,? said Roberts. As the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum, the museum?s previous name was lumped with tens of thousands of other types of museums on the web, like natural history museums, and art museums. Having ?Automobile? in its name allows the museum to make itself more accessible to automotive related audiences without losing its impact as a museum and it makes it easier for potential visitors to find the museum online. ?Through our research we were able to find key search phrases that people commonly use when they are searching online, such as ?car museum? or ?automobile museum.? Under our previous name, someone searching online would almost already have to know about the museum or what an Auburn, Cord or a Duesenberg were in order to find us online,? said Roberts. ?Adding ?Automobile? to the museum?s name, and to our website search tags, allows us to reach new automotive related visitors without being buried within hundreds of pages of search engine results,? said Roberts.

The name change stems from the results of input received from general survey and peer review activities the museum participated in over the past few years including the American Association of Museum?s Museum Assessment Project Public Dimension Assessment. Results repeatedly indicated that the museum is associated locally and nationally with automotive related audiences, but struggles to reach potential visitors that are not aware that Auburns, Cords and Duesenbergs are automobiles. ?For most of us that have grown up in northeast Indiana, northeast Ohio and southeast Michigan, we know what an Auburn, Cord or Duesenberg is and how innovative these automobiles were in their prime,? said Laura Brinkman. ?By participating in the general survey and peer review activities and assessments, the museum was able to take a step back and look at the big picture. We were able to see the museum through the eyes of the general public The positive impact this will creates is exciting and we are looking forward to the results of the transition,? said Brinkman. The museum will unveil its new logo at a later date in 2008.

The museum welcomes more than 60,000 visitors each year from all 50 states and from over 30 foreign countries. To date, nearly two million people have visited the museum since 1974.

The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum ? where the world?s finest cars of yesterday live today! Over 120 classic, antique, vintage and special interest cars are displayed with other automotive related exhibits on three floors. The museum is located in the original 1930s national headquarters of the legendary Auburn Automobile Company and is a National Historic Landmark. Admission is charged, with group and family rates available. The museum is open daily from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. year round. In 2008, plan a visit and bring your family to the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum, a place where automotive history comes to life! acdmuseum.org