This is Wyoming, Act Accordingly™

Local business owner has concerns his registered phrase is in jeopardy

When Danny Burau, Saratoga resident and owner/founder of Firewater Public House opened back in 2017, he had set ideas on branding his new restaurant. A logo was created and he started making different t-shirts with his brand. Then he started thinking of little quips to go on the t-shirts, pins and hats he was creating.

Firewater enjoyed instant success and customers started buying his retail merchandise. 

Then Burau hit a homerun with a phrase which customers liked immediately.

"This is Wyoming, act accordingly."

The phrase came about when Burau and his brother-in-law Trey Mullen were sitting around together one evening.

"We were talking about something and I said, 'This is Wyomng' and Trey said 'Act accordingly,'," Burau said. "I said to him, that is a great saying."

The Firewater owner at first put a sticker above the door as you left his restaurant. Then he followed with stickers. 

It was still 2018 when he was promoting this saying and a friend told him he was going to steal the phrase and then sell it back to Burau.

"I realized this tagline had this universal and kind of emotional appeal to people,"  Burau said. "It was a conversational starter, because people wanted to know what it meant. It did upset some folk because they thought it implied negative stereotypes of Wyoming which is never what it meant to us. When we moved to Wyoming, we loved it here, and to us the phrase was saying to us, 'remember why you are in Wyoming; what brought you here and help improve it'."

Burau said the phrase had a particular reason for existing and it spawned t-shirts, hats and basically a retail shop in downtown Saratoga called County 6 Clothing Company.

"The trademark of 'This is Wyoming, act accordingly' is still owned by Firewater, but County 6 Clothing is the main distribution point of t-shirts, hoodies and hats," Burau said. "We have sold several thousand of these t-shirts. Every day, we sell something with the trademark 'This is Wyoming, act accordingly'."

Burau also sells the merchandise which has the phrase online.

"I just sent out a hoodie, coffee mug and some stickers the other day," Burau said. "That was over a $50 order all based on this phrase."

Burau said the phrase is a big part and is displayed in his window.

Now Burau is worried his registered trademarked phrase is going to lose its impact, as Wyoming Congressional candidate Harriet Hagerman is using an almost identical tagline in one of her commercials. 

She ends one of her spots saying, "As we so often say here, you are in Wyoming, act accordingly."

Burau was alerted to this ad by friends in Cheyenne asking if he had allowed the Hagerman campaign to use his phrase since it was registered.

He had not.

It is not a word for word, but the idea of his, 'This is Wyoming, act accordingly' cannot be disputed is a lynchpin of the campaign ad.

When the Sun reached out last week to find out how the Hagerman campaign got the idea for the phrase, there had been no reply by press time.

Burau said there are some serious consequences to the brand phrase he has created now that the ad is going all over the state.

He had planned on getting a booth at Frontier Days this year and displaying merchandise bearing his trademarked phrase. He said he was going to keep it simple and do just shirts and hats.

He missed the deadline, so he is planning to do it next year.

"If I start now, I can really get ahead of this and order a fair amount of shirts and hats custom made for Frontier Days 2023. I wanted to take this chance and do something big with this," Burau said. "I believe I can make a good amount of money on this phrase, which in the end is what you want to do when you are creating a tagline or any branding component. In the end you want to protect it so you can benefit from it. That is the nature of capitalism."

Burau is worried that all efforts of the past years have been compromised.  

"My fear now, is everyone is going to think Hagerman's campaign came up with the phrase and it is going to look like I am imitating her when that is not the case at all," Burau said. "I have spent at least four years building this registered, trademarked phrase and because this campaign took it over without asking, she is making it political, when this has never been my intention. Her campaign is hurting a small town Wyoming businessman. I had really expected to see a great return on this product and I can't help feeling it has now been damaged since it has gone political.

He points out because the words come at the wrapup of the ad, the line could be considered in more and different campaign ads. He said the timing of using the words as the punctuating sentence at the end of the ad, means the campaign recognizes the value of the words. He said putting them at the end makes the impactful to the public. The campaign also appears to see the brand value in using this phrase and also the opportunity to continue using it.

"If that happens as the campaign blankets the state with these words, who is going to know it was my words, that I trademarked and had plans for," Burau said. "My reach isn't as large as hers right now, so at Frontier Days next year, who is going to believe I am not trying to make a fast buck on words I worked, branded and registered. It is really disappointing."

Burau understands brand building going back to when he interned at an advertising agency during his years at Colorado University and then Hasbro as a brand designer. Burau said he has worked for small companies and large ones.

"I worked for Marvel licensed properties and the protection that they maintain over their brands is very strong," Burau said. "One time a member of my team did not hyphenate Spider-Man and a high level from Marvel that we were working with, wrote the team and told us we would not be writing the word that way. The word was protected. It was one of the first times I saw how important protecting a brand is by how intense this guy was. It hit home to me, because that brand Spider-Man has the second most recognizable animated character after Mickey Mouse. There is a reason for that. It is because they protect it."

These lessons he learned he brought with his young family when they moved to Saratoga and established Firewater. He knew branding would be key with his business.

"I made a career prior to owning a restaurant and retail store, building, establishing and maintaining brands for clients," Burau said "The company I worked for before I founded Firewater, paid a significant amount of attention to maintaining and protecting brands. So I would never use someone else's stuff if I felt it was something ownable. And I would check into it."

The registered phrase "This is Wyoming, act accordingly" has been contracted to be used by Bond's Brewing to put on their shirts Burau said. Cody Craft Brewing is another company he mentioned wanting to use the phrase on their shirts.

"There is a real estate company that has contacted me to do shirts for them, so they can the have phrase on their shirts," Burau said. "They recognized it was registered and contacted me because this is a brand that I have been building for five years."

Burau reiterates his disappointment that the Hagerman campaign did this.

"I don't want this phrase to turn political," Burau said. "I started building this brand to help my business and do something that made people understand this is Wyoming and we should love and nurture the beauty we have here. As people who love Wyoming we should take care of our lands, rivers, mountains, and wildlife. These words were not meant to be used in a political campaign when I trademarked them."

Burau is not disappointed because it is the Hagerman campaign taking his words and using them for a political message. He would be disappointed if any candidate from any party did this.

"I am not trying to leverage this phrase in any way to be political," Burau said. "This is a piece of intellectual property and there has been a strategy and major effort to build this brand. It is disappointing you spend years doing something, get it registered and do everything right and then watch it in a political ad." 

 Burau said his concerns are pure business and his future plans for the brand he created is in jeopardy.

"When I started Firewater, I worked hard to brand it in as many ways that I could and knew how," Burau said. "Look at how powerful that brand name is now. More than the food in the restaurant itself. The food is one component of the brand for Firewater."

He points out strong brands are represented by strong visual language. 

"Think Nike, Starbucks, Apple. You know immediately upon seeing something of theirs what it represents," Burau said. "That is what my brands need to be. A lot of components go into them. With Firewater, the food means something. The font on the menu means something, The music we play means something. The quality of our service means something. The feel of the place when you walk in means something. So do this phrase, 'This is Wyoming, act accordingly.' That is why I protected it because it has emotional value, to anyone who saw it, from guests at my restaurant to people in and outside the state."

Burau said he has had many conversations with people over the years about what the phrase meant.

"All that interaction and talking builds branding and that is valuable," Burau said. "Branding is about building an emotional tie with the consumer. This phrase provides emotional connection."

Burau said he had fun with the phrase when he first started making pins and stickers, but he said it started to resonate so strongly, he used it on his shirts and hats, which previously had only had the Firewater logo.

"This phrase gives Wyoming its own brand and citizens of Wyoming are probably the most passionate of any citizens I have ever met about their state," Burau said. "To be able to tap into that emotion and give a nod to the state. If you can touch that passion for their state and also you have an inside message, that is a brand phrase that is powerful."

Burau said he is not sure what to do.

"I don't want to wade into politics to make a statement about it all, but I feel this phrase I created deserves to be protected after all the work I have done promoting it over the years," Burau said. "I don't want to see it dragged down in political conversation or misconstrued that I have taken this phrase from a politician, whoever that politician may be. I just want to see it maintained for the fun, powerful brand building element that it has become. As a small business owner who created this phrase and trademarked it, I think I have this right."

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 03/27/2024 21:52