Sometimes a name sticks. Otto Bärlocher joins the company in 1864. He owns the chemical plant for only a few years. But his family name remains, makes its mark and later even brings the bear into play, or rather into the corporate identity. It is not only the bear that changes its face over time. The umlaut "ä" also disappears because of digitalization and globalization. In the 21st century, remains and is here to stay - Baerlocher.
Brand history
The „Umlaut” and the bear. A short brand history
At the beginning of the 20th century, the "Chemische Werke Otto Bärlocher" also produces for the end consumer, for instance the "excellent Bärlocher ironing coals". We do not know exactly when the bear appears as an advertising figure. One thing is certain: In 1949, a brown bear mother and her cub adorn the "BÄRLO prewash". The name unexpectedly became a tradition-builder for product names in the additives business, which was developed later, among them BAEROLUB or BAEROPOL.
What is initially a rather arbitrary reference becomes a trademark, which is registered as a word-picture mark in Germany in 1962. Since the 1960s at the latest, the profile of a bear is subtitled with "BÄRLOCHER". In perception, the "Chemische Werke München Otto Bärlocher" or "CWM" gradually becomes more and more "Bärlocher", as the company is then officially called from 1989 onwards.
Advertisements from the 1980s and 1990s
The thing with the “Umlaut”
To show that "Bärlocher" is now an international family of locally rooted entities, each receives an individual emblem in the form of a hexagon with a national flag until the 1990s. But what to do with "the" umlaut, the "ä"? In Great Britain it is called "Barlocher UK", in Malaysia or the USA it is written "Baerlocher", in Germany, Italy and South America "Bärlocher". Then, in the 1990s, the era of the WWW dawns. But there is no "Ä" in the US ASCII code. In 1997, Baerlocher.com goes online. This is one of the reasons why "Bärlocher" is uniformly renamed "Baerlocher" in 1999. The name cannot be translated fully into Chinese, which is why in Chinese “Baerlocher” is called "The Bear Brand" (熊牌).
Baerlifting
Back to the bear, which is undergoing a rejuvenation after decades for the "K 2004". While local entrepreneurship is lived intensively at Baerlocher, the new, globally valid corporate design strengthens the common ground. Clear colors, a word-picture mark with a stylized “Umlaut” AE and the claim "We add character to plastics". Also new are the "Atomix", a playful design element abstractly reminiscent of molecules.
Historical logo, 1960s
Today’s design of the bear
Chinese: „The Bear Brand“
Becoming a polar bear
Then the change of coat. Long mistaken by many for a brown bear, from 2004 the Baerlocher bear increasingly becomes a polar bear. The white fur is reminiscent of purity, cleanliness and hygiene and thus associates with the highest quality standards in the chemical industry. At the same time, polar bears become a symbol worldwide relating to the climate crisis. Baerlocher is strongly committed in overcoming these challenges to humanity by enabling products and applications that are more efficient and help to save energy. By converting to CO2 -optimised products and production and building new CO2 -optimised plants such as in Dewas, India we continuously optimize our footprint.
Through the highest environmental standards, sustainable technologies, and new business fields in the recycling sector, Baerlocher supports the path of the plastics industry towards a circular economy. In any case, environmental protection has been a central corporate goal since the 1980s. So, the polar bear is a perfect match in two senses.
