To what extent do major companies play to regional audiences?

January 12, 2007 6:46 PM

I've noticed that lots of major nationwide American companies sell special "Texas" items here in Texas. Do they do they personalize stuff for other states?

It just dawned on me that Buger King offers a Texas double Whopper, Jack in the box offers the Big Texas cheese burger, Nissan offers a special edition Texas Titan truck... There are ton of similar examples. I am really curious if other major companies either offer these Texas items outside of the state or if fast food joints are offering Ohio bugers in Ohio and Vermont bugers in Vermont and so on....

posted by magikker to society & culture (41 comments total)

Nope, in California I have never heard of any of these special Texas items, nor do I recall any special California items. I'm kind of jealous though...
posted by mwang1028 at 6:47 PM on January 12, 2007

The items mentioned above are marketed the same in Colorado (Texas Double Whopper, etc...) using the Texas name.

There's a bit of "intrigue" associated with Texas that helps feed the marketing. Look at shows like King of the Hill.
posted by Octoparrot at 6:52 PM on January 12, 2007

Short answer... no fucking way. I've been all around this country and spent a lot of time doing mundane consumption in a lot of places (can't vouch for Alaska or Hawaii).

The sheer volume of shit that is branded "Texas" (beer cans, billboards, etc) has always astounded me.

When I was in a hardware store once, and saw paving stones in the shape of the state of Texas I thought... "there is no way this would fly anywhere else in the US"... (then I thought of Wyoming and Colorodo and granted them exceptions).
posted by cadastral at 6:55 PM on January 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

Ha! My friends and I had this exact discussion 12 years ago when we were in college at Rice. I think the "Ford trucks are built Texas tough" commercial was the first one we noticed. We tried to picture a similar commercial for Virginia and just couldn't do it. Texas is very proud to be Texas in a way that not many other states are. Mostly, I think it's charming. Mostly.
posted by MsMolly at 6:56 PM on January 12, 2007

Cadastral, you just need to break the paving stone in the bottom left corner and you can easily make a New Mexico or Arizona.
posted by Octoparrot at 6:57 PM on January 12, 2007

I believe that "Texas" just means extra big. I think it comes from Texas being the biggest state in the contiguous US.
posted by MeetMegan at 7:00 PM on January 12, 2007

There was more to my answer that didn't get posted. Weird.

It went something like this:

We have the Texas Whopper, Texas Titan, Texas Toast, and I'm sure there are a bunch more others, in Chicago.

I always took Texas to mean BIG. Like honkin' big.
posted by MeetMegan at 7:02 PM on January 12, 2007

So I was drinking a beer with some friends here in Hawaii and one of them had gone to school at SMU for a year before transferring out here. I asked him what he thought about Texas (where I'm from) while he was there, and he said he had a good time and the people were nice and all, but that he found Texas/Texans a little too prideful. I asked him what that meant, and he said, "well, for instance, the beers there say 'The Lone Star State' and have a flag or an outline of the state." So we look down, and there on our Bud Lights is a picture of the Hawaiian islands. I look back up at him and he's all, "well, yeah, but here it's cool."
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 7:16 PM on January 12, 2007 [3 favorites]

Texas here has two meanings--and in most national advertising, it's used as a wild 'n' wooly adjective, as opposed to something meaning the specific State of Texas.

I've seen a lot of other regional branding, but they don't necessarily associate states with them. I was in Maine one summer when the local McDonalds were offering lobster rolls. Didn't get that in Chicagoland. In Chicago, often the word Prairie is thrown about.
posted by lester's sock puppet at 7:19 PM on January 12, 2007

As a non-native Houstonian, I have to say that the Texas pride thing is overblown and does get a little old. No other state flies as many gi-normous state flags or has as much branded crap.

Then again, I think "Where else can I drive for 10-12 hours and still not be out of the state".
posted by chrisamiller at 7:48 PM on January 12, 2007

California has had several products tied to the state's name in marketing campaigns. The 1968 Ford Mustang California Special (which is being reintroduced for the 2007 model run), California Cheese and the Happy Cow TV ads, and innumerable sunbathing priducts. California produce used to also carry a certain cachet, but imports and the recent e coli runs have put an end to that.

Texans have a sense of patriotism to their state that doesn't exist elsewhere. I remember a similar feeling among Californians in the 50s and 60s, but that's long gone now.
posted by buggzzee23 at 7:50 PM on January 12, 2007

ISTR one or another of the major burger chains used to have some sort of Carolina burger back when I lived in NC. I think it was a normal burger with "barbecue" sauce, or a normal burger with coleslaw on it, or something like that.

Then again, I think "Where else can I drive for 10-12 hours and still not be out of the state".

Alaska. Montana. California. Florida, if you really want to. Hell, Montauk to Buffalo would probably be 10--12 hours.

That Texas pride thing gets real fucking old after about 10 minutes in the state.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:59 PM on January 12, 2007

There are special "Oklahoma" packages for pick-up trucks. I saw "New Mexico" package pick-ups when I lived there, too. As for general merchandise, Texas definitely has more than anyplace else I know.

As I understand it, one of the terms of the deal when the United States annexed Texas was that Texas reserved the right to secede at a later date. I don't think that it would stand today, but it was taken seriously by Texans for many years, and helped give them a greater sense of a Texas "character."

Full disclosure: my dad is a Texan
posted by Quonab at 8:00 PM on January 12, 2007

I have heard of a Montana pickup truck, and I remember Arby's or Hardee's or one of those fastfood joints had a Big Montana burger advertised a while back.

So while it seems like it might be more prevalent in Texas, it does happen in other states from time to time.
posted by Paul KC at 8:05 PM on January 12, 2007

there's the "New York Deli", the "New York Pizza", and so forth
posted by paul_smatatoes at 8:10 PM on January 12, 2007

Ha! I've wanted to ask this question for years. I've lived in Texas all my life, and I squirm in embarrassment every time one of those dumb ass "built texas tough" or whatever commercials come one. I hate when marketers/ad people (and a lot of the time, it's them, not the actual residents) do the Texas thing- shit kickin' rednecks with big trucks and big hats. I imagine it's rather like being from New York and seeing an ad for Domino's Brooklyn style pizza or whatever, complete with broad accents and overused stereotypes.
posted by MadamM at 8:14 PM on January 12, 2007

Here in NC, Wendy's makes the "Carolina Classic" burger, although I'm not sure that this is exclusive to NC and SC or if they market it nationwide. Cheerwine (a cherry-ish soda) is a "Carolina Thing" - this is how they brand the soda in all of their advertising campaigns. I've found that almost all fast food restaurants here serve sweet tea, which seems to be a cultural phenomenon confined to the south, but it is not specifically marketed as a southern thing to my knowledge.
posted by btkuhn at 8:15 PM on January 12, 2007

Ha! I've wanted to ask this question for years. I've lived in Texas all my life, and I squirm in embarrassment every time one of those dumb ass "built texas tough" or whatever commercials come one.

After spending a couple decades as a used car/truck buyer for California dealerships, I can vouch for Texas trucks getting used up faster than in other states. I saw so many bad trucks from Texas that I usuallt shied away from them no matter how good they looked on the surface.
posted by buggzzee23 at 8:17 PM on January 12, 2007

I left Texas about 7 years ago. I'm wondering if any McDonalds still offer the Texas Homestyle Burger? It had, among other things, mustard and black pepper.

Anecdote: at LAX a few years ago I went to Burger King and ordered it "my way". The guy asked me if I was from Texas. I wondered how he knew. He said, "the Texans always get mustard". This was very revealing to me. I had thought mustard was universal. Out here in the PNW they use mayo and ketchup instead. Gross.

I remember on a trip to New Mexico a few years ago being asked at Burger King and Pizza Hut: "you want [green] peppers on that?"
posted by neuron at 8:23 PM on January 12, 2007

In St. Louis, I've noticed restaurants will have a "St. Louis style" burger or whatever, but when you go to the same chain in chicago, they have the exact same thing branded "Chicago Style." I always thought it was funny. The only things "St. Louis Style" in reality are ribs and pizza.
posted by muddylemon at 8:25 PM on January 12, 2007

"California" is used in marketing (here in California, at least) to connote a number of things, from light creative/vegetarian cuisine, or just cuisine code for "has Avocado", to beachy coolness, or in the case of the Cal King bed, longer than a Standard King. I think I can also recall some car commercial that spoke directly to that: "You're California, you think different, you want a car you can put a surfboard in" type of dreck.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 8:30 PM on January 12, 2007

Oh, and I've noticed that same "Hey you cooler than the national average consumer Californians, come try our new sushi bisque" tone in Grocery store chain ads too. Sorry I can't be more specific.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 8:32 PM on January 12, 2007

In Fairbanks, I haven't seen a lot of national brands Alaskanizing their product, though McDonald's is selling a McKinley Mac up here (a Big Mac with two Quarter-Pounder patties). There do seem to be a lot more local/state brands of everything than elsewhere--if any of these are rebranded items from the lower 48, they're completely rebranded.
posted by Cricket at 9:07 PM on January 12, 2007

We were just talking about the concert t-shirts back in the day that were specifically printed for Texas.

Sammy Hagar was the master of this. In addition to the regular tour shirt, there'd be the one with only the Texas dates listed on the back and a large caption such as "TEXAS IS BEST. FUCK THE REST." This sort of thing really endeared him to the locals, of course. It became pretty standard procedure for many of the hard rock acts at that time. I never saw any "FUCK YOU, WE'RE FROM MICHIGAN" shirts or anything like that, though.
posted by First Post at 9:09 PM on January 12, 2007

I remember some Ford or Chevy ads from the mid 90s in MN that referenced "the heartland" while trying to sell us pickup trucks. I believe they sold a "Heartland Edition" pickup truck, in fact. Not much other MN/midwest-specific branding, though, other than that done by the boutique operations whose raison d'etre was providing products with said branding.
posted by epugachev at 9:14 PM on January 12, 2007

I'm not sure how it is in Texas public schools now, but when I was in the seventh grade all students were made to take a year long "Texas History" class. Not a unit, not a semester, but a whole year of Alamo this and Santa Ana that (mostly grossly inflated half-truths, by the way). The second line in the state anthem "Texas, Our Texas" is...."all hail the mighty state". It's clever marketing playing on childhood imprinting. The fact that Texas was on paper a separate nation for a decade or so is an underlying factor, obviously.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:14 PM on January 12, 2007

While "Texas" seems to straddle both things Texan and things marketers want to appear "expansive" and vaguely western-ish, other states do come in at a more product-specific level. It's been a while since I shopped at my (then) local Portland, Ore. Safeway, but I bet it wouldn't have been hard to see Vermont (syrup, general hippy/crunchy), Florida (fruit, anything orange in color), and any number of Midwestern Cities/States Known for Hearty Cured or Smoked Meats invoked to sell a myriad of products.
posted by jalexei at 9:16 PM on January 12, 2007

It's not quite as pervasive as Texas stuff is in Texas, but nearly every restaurant -- including chains like the Burger King down the street -- has at least one item with red or (usually) green chili. In fact, the official state question is, "Red or green?"

Green chili on pizza is pretty awesome.
posted by dirigibleman at 9:30 PM on January 12, 2007

Um, this would be in New Mexico.
posted by dirigibleman at 9:34 PM on January 12, 2007

never get a cheese burger in rhode island!
posted by brandz at 9:38 PM on January 12, 2007

I have a unique perspective on this ... my family lives in CA, I moved from OR to TX about a year ago.

Once you get out of Austin, the Texas Pride thing is ... well, there's no other way to describe it but real. Like, they're serious about it. Like, if you don't fly the Texas State Flag at the same height as the US flag (one of the rights that Texas reserved for itself, and only itself, when it joined the Union...), you'll get bitched at by just about everyone. It's eerie.

But it's also cool to see a group of people take that kind of pride in something as emphermal as a -state-.

What's not cool is to see it taken advantage of by marketers to make more useless crap.

The reason that you should run far, far away from any car or truck that came from Texas is that ... damn, this state is big. If you're from 'round these here parts, you've got family all over the place. And you spend your weekends driving. And driving. And driving. And driving. And people out here in the sticks actually use their trucks and SUVs as .. well, trucks and SUVs, not glorified suburban kid-toters. There's things here that 90% of trucks never see -- dirt roads that haven't been regraded in twenty years, potholes that would swallow a luxury sedan, cattleguards every mile, ... you name it. They tow boats and horses and haul city slickers' cars out of ditches and go muddin' and haul brush and pull stumps...
posted by SpecialK at 10:00 PM on January 12, 2007

When I was in Hawaii in 1988, all the McDonald's had a special logo modification, a stylized outrigger element added to the golden arches. Still true?

And when I was first traveling abroad in the late 1970s, I was amused by frequently encountering "Maryland" Fried Chicken on menues in England (but I realize that's a different phenomenon, not what's being discussed here).
posted by Rash at 10:14 PM on January 12, 2007

Here's a completely tangential but perhaps interesting bit of trivia. In Indonesia, Kentucky Fried Chicken is very popular. So is ripping off business models and product lines wholesale. The funny part about this, is that since local businessmen like to copy the international ones, there are all sorts of chains resembling KFC, only they're "Texas Fried Chicken", "California Fried Chicken", and so on. The Indonesians don't make the connection--only see that a US state name is in front of yummy fried chicken.

Apologies for the derail.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:21 PM on January 12, 2007

Well, people in the states do like to associate overconsumption with an affected and compensatory type of masculinity often linked with Texas. Or hadn't you noticed?

Actually, one does occasionally get the reverse as well, when brands like Ben and Jerry's or Tom's of Maine or Martha Stewart Inc. capitalize on the smallness of scale in the Northeast, which is sort of interesting.
posted by washburn at 10:41 PM on January 12, 2007

"Where else can I drive for 10-12 hours and still not be out of the state".

Fun fact: Texarkana to El Paso is shorter than Key West to Pensacola.
posted by oaf at 11:01 PM on January 12, 2007

Hawaii in 1988, all the McDonald's had a special logo modification, a stylized outrigger element added to the golden arches.

Canadian McDonalds' have a maple leaf added to the logo at the junction of the arches, like a bullet wound between the eyes.
posted by kindall at 11:12 PM on January 12, 2007

I'm not sure how it is in Texas public schools now, but when I was in the seventh grade all students were made to take a year long "Texas History" class. Not a unit, not a semester, but a whole year ....

We had the same thing in Georgia (and from the amount of history that most Californians seem to know about their state, I'm guessing CA has something similar), so that's not just a Texas thing.
posted by occhiblu at 12:21 AM on January 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Continuing Burhanistan's derail, the 'Tennessee Frid Chicken' or 'Kansas Fried Chicken' you see in Indonesia is purely to link the KFC brand association without infringing copyright. We have millions of such 'Some Southern State Fried Chicken' restaurants here in London, and I assume most Londoners can tell the difference.

Queensland in Australia is an interesting corollary to Texas - Queensland-branded items are a lot more common than any other state. I believe it's due to the fact that Queensland was politically and socially isolated from the rest of the country for a long time, not to mention geographically. Texas is no different to Qld in that respect. And 10-12 hours driving in the same state? Pshaw. Try 30.
posted by goo at 2:55 AM on January 13, 2007

In 2001 I was in Austria and they were just about to change to the Euro so McDonalds was selling fries shaped like the Euro symbol. In every country, fast food menus change to appeal to their customer base. They do that in America as well only not quite as much... just when they know something in particular might work to sell more food in that region.
posted by miss lynnster at 3:19 AM on January 13, 2007

Nothing really about the size (though I do remember one apartment complex in Tulsa, Oklahoma advertising "Texas size balconies"), but the "facts" that Texas is the only state that can secede from the union or that Texas is the only state that can fly its flag at the same height as the national flag are Texas sized piles of bullshit:

Secede legend (see the bottom of the page)
Flag myth
posted by The Bishop of Turkey at 12:59 PM on January 13, 2007

We actually have Texas whopper's in RHODE ISLAND.
posted by sindas at 5:09 AM on January 18, 2007