Generally, mergers mean big changes at companies that buy businesses or are sold, including a key detail that demands lots of attention: the name change. Just ask TD Bank, formerly TD Banknorth, formerly Banknorth, and, once upon a time, Peoples Heritage Bank.
TD Bank, the name adopted after last year's merger between TD Banknorth and Commerce Bancorp of New Jersey, now must put the new name on hundreds of automatic teller machines, thousands of printed materials, and thousands more signs - not to mention TD Banknorth Garden.
Still to be replaced are also some 6,600 signs at 433 bank branches mostly in New England. Many cities and towns have laws that regulate the placement, design, and size of signs. The bank not only has to navigate a gantlet of planning boards, zoning boards, and historic commissions, but ultimately buy customized signs to meet requirements that vary by community.
In other words, says executive vice president Suzanne Poole, "We're doing what we can to stimulate the economy for sign companies."
