Brand Grab: How Yosemite Gave Up Its Name
Shortly after midnight on March 1 2016, Yosemite National Park was quiet. Tucked in the park’s backcountry, tent campers snored in their sleeping bags. Nocturnal animals emerged from the conifer forests to hunt. But the silence was broken as workers drove from landmark to landmark, tearing down old signs and riveting new ones in place. Gone was the sign for the Badger Pass Ski Area, now known as the Yosemite Ski & Snowboard Area. The placard in front of the former Wawona Hotel now read “Big Trees Lodge.” Devoted fans of the park awoke the next morning to find that much of the park had been renamed.
This renaming was the result of a legal snafu. Delaware North, Yosemite’s longtime hospitality contractor, owned the trademark rights to the attractions under their management, having bought them from the previous park vendor. The list of names under their purview includes the Wawona and Ahwahnee hotels, as well as the name of the park itself. That’s right: Yosemite doesn’t own its own name*.
When Delaware North (ironically headquartered in Buffalo, NY) lost their contract to rivals Aramark, they pulled out of the park and took their trademarks with them. Instead of requiring Aramark to pay the $44 million in licensing fees to retain the old names, Yosemite opted to coin new ones.
The backlash has been swift and severe. Yosemite is among the nation’s most beloved parks, and generations of hikers, backpackers, and daytrippers are reacting in anger. At the center of the uproar is the idea that a private company can own the name of a national feature that is (in theory, at least) commonly owned by Americans. Bearing that in mind, let’s look at lessons we can learn from this:
- 1. Control Your Brand
It’s unclear how Delaware North was able to trademark “Yosemite National Park.” The park accuses their former contractor of using “underhanded and very sneaky” tactics to acquire the mark, while Delaware North simply maintains that their actions never broke the law. The ramifications, however, are clear as day: “Yosemite” t-shirts are being pulled from the park’s gift shops. The National Park Service should have kept a close watch on Yosemite’s intellectual property, especially while working with a vendor that holds trademarks like “Space Shuttle Atlantis.”
- 2. Name with Confidence
“Big Trees Lodge” isn’t going to make anyone turn the minivan around, but it’s not very enticing, either. Yosemite had an opportunity to rename (and therefore rebrand) many of their amenities, and the results are less than inspiring. What about naming lodges for famous sport climbers? How about a consultation with indigenous people? Even a nod to Abraham Lincoln, who created the park in 1864, would yield a name with a story behind it. Granted, going through a forced renaming process on a tight deadline in the middle of a legal dispute is tough, so we can cut the park some slack here.
- 3. Don’t Lose Sight of the Big Picture
Delaware North has an impressive collection of trademarks. But now it has an image problem, too. Slapping trademark claims on national parks isn’t a good look, and we won’t be surprised if big institutions shy away from doing business with them in the future. In grabbing up sub-brands, Delaware North is damaging the ur-brand.
- * “Ahwahnee,” meaning “gaping mouth,” is the indigenous name for the region. “Yosemite” means “the killers,” and was used by the surrounding Miwok tribes to refer to the tribe who lived in the modern-day park. In a rare move, European colonists named the land for the the people they had displaced in settling it.
