Ingram's August 2022

O’Reilly Auto Parts It had a long way to go in brand-build ing when Charlie O’Reilly amassed a team of 13 to start his auto-parts empire back in 1957. Today, it’s one of the most-recognized brands not just in Missouri, but across the na tion, with a team of nearly 78,000 and stores in nearly every U.S. state—more than 5,700 combined—and two dozen more in Mexico un der the ORMA brand. Consumers have been holding onto their vehicles longer since the pandemic-induced squeeze on global supply

chains began in 2020, and that’s been a good thing for companies selling replacement parts for vehicles. And we’re not just talking cars and trucks here; O’Reilly Auto has a vast range of retail and online products that allow professionals and do-it-yourselfers to service and repair boats and motorcycles, as well. Fueling the organizational growth, officials say, is a blend of broad product selection for patrons and a no-excuses commitment to customer service.

Panera Bread With nearly 2,200 retail locations across the nation, St. Louis-based Panera is a high ly recognized brand in the bakery-cafe link of restaurant chains. The brand stands for tasty, healthy, and natural food, having picked up numerous awards for those traits from vari ous publications. Those of you who still recall your Latin classes may recognize the name as standing for “bread basket”. The brand-devel opment gurus say it’s actually a combination of the Italian words for bread (pan) and time

(era). But there’s a lot more for Panera cus tomers than sandwiches—there are plenty of soups, salads, and dessert baked goods to go along with that ham on artisan rye. When it launched in 1987, it was billed as St. Louis Bread Co., and in 1993, it became part of the Au Bon Pain family in a $23 million acquisition. In its hometown, it still carries dual branding with its original name, and residents there are hungry enough to support nearly two dozen locations in the St. Louis region.

St. Louis Cardinals When you’ve got a winning brand that connects on a visceral level with your cus tomers, you tinker with it at your peril—and only around the edges, if at all. So when the St. Louis Cardinals rolled out a new logo in 2019 and stepped up its usage in 2020, the modifications were minor: The “STL” empha sis was never in doubt. The fans in Gateway City are famed for their loyalty to the club: BleacherReport.com, at one point, ranked St.

Louis as the No. 1 franchise with fans, ahead of the major population markets of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Why? Because the Cards consistently sell out games, even as the on-field performance fluctuates from year to year. A talk-bout stadium experi- ence doesn’t hurt, and management knows how to leverage the team’s status to make it No. 1 with fans, making it “a baseball city in the purest sense of the word,” the site declares.

University of Missouri The University of Missouri is a brand all its own, but it’s really the parent in a family of four, serving as the flagship campus for a statewide system that reaches from its home base in Columbia to embrace St. Louis, Kansas City, and Rolla. On campus and online, it offers an unmatched 260-degree programs, making it the focal point of higher education in Missou ri. More than 31,400 undergraduate students agree, according to enrollment figures from the fall of 2021. Studies calculate that Mizzou as a system yields a $3.9 billion impact on the

state of Missouri, in large part because more than 46,800 people (employees, faculty, ven dors, and suppliers) cash a paycheck, either directly or indirectly, as a result of the Colum bia campus’ economic gravity. In addition, they say, MU drives state and local tax revenues on food, gas, and lodging by a combined $117 million. One aspect of campus life that can’t be overlooked is the athletic program, which brings hundreds of thousands of ticket-holding fans to Columbia for football in the fall, basket ball in the winter, and other Division I sports.

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D e s t i n a t i o n M i s s o u r i . c o m

Missouri's Business Media

2022