Bunhill: I've just met a car called Marea

THE FIAT Marea, launched in January 1997, still figures prominently on advertising billboards and is doing very good business according to the Italian car giant - not just in Britain but all over the continent.

"Marea" is a Spanish word and harks back to the days when the company had a car subsidiary in Spain called Seat. Ten years ago Volkswagen took over the controls at Seat and since then Fiat seems to have mislaid its mastery of the local language.

The company was surprised when I told them what "marea" means - it seems that in the 14 months since the car was launched no one has mentioned it. However, it insists that the Marea is doing well in Spain and ranks second among all makes of car for customer satisfaction.

And I was surprised when the company told me this; I mean, would you buy a Ford Faulty or a Vauxhall Hopeless. But clearly, if the Spanish market is anything to go by, names just don't matter; "marea" means "sick".

AS TONY BLAIR strives to stress Britain's creative skills and soften our image, two of the country's most traditional clothing brands are showing that nothing succeeds like a bit of rough.

Two weeks ago I wrote about the resurgence of Ben Sherman, whose clothes were once worn by skinheads and skinheads only ("You lookin' at my shirt, mate?") but now adorn anyone who wants to assert their individuality by showing they can adopt any look they want. Now, hard on the heels of the post-modernist skinhead - shaved heads are de rigueur in fashionable society these days - comes news that another hard-wearing brand, Doctor Martens, is not only thriving but putting its boot into the mightiest name in street fashion, Nike.

A recent story in USA Today declared that the sales decline at Nike, which is to cost 1,600 jobs around the world, was just the start. The steady advance of "brown shoes" such as Doc Martens, it said, spelt death for "white shoes" like Nike.

This story was probably over-alarmist since there was a similar shift in the US market five years ago, and the "Just do it" brand hasn't done too badly since. Even the managing director of Doctor Marten, Frank Duffy, admits that his company "isn't in the same stratosphere as Nike".

Nevertheless, there is clearly something to be said for uncompromising marketing messages. Doctor Marten now has 45 per cent of its business in the US - which means it sells more than 4 million boots a year to Americans - while Ben Sherman parent Sherman Cooper's profits quadrupled to pounds 6.5m in the financial year to June 1997. And prominent in the marketing of both companies is the Union Jack.

Mr Duffy plays down any danger that people will associate Doctor Marten's products with violence by pointing out that they are aimed at the young generation, who don't remember the boot boys of the 1960s and 1970s. That said, when a company stresses its heritage, the history of the brand will not be lost on even its youngest and most cultural customers.

So look out for gangs of middle-class skinheads in Ben Shermans and Doc Martens as they fight furious street battles over the relative merits of Proust and Beckett, and beware the fierce-looking man with the shaved head who says: "See you outside after the opera."

FT-SE down the tube

NOWADAYS, if you want to keep abreast of the latest business news, you're best off going underground because Reuters, the on-line information service, has moved to maintain its high profile in the City by erecting a series of electronic hoardings at Bank tube station. The function of each board, known as the Information Trav-o-lator, is to flash up headlines every six seconds on the state of the markets as well as general news and sport items.

Quite how commuters will manage to get on the right train while trying to digest all this information is a deeply worrying thought, but the Trav-o-lators will at least divert them from the more depressing news they've become used to on the tube. While "NEXT TRAIN APPROACHING" is flashed up on boards with a triumphalism of Labour landslide proportions, few passengers have been heard to chat excitedly about "High Barnet 26 mins" or "Please check front of train for destination".

Perhaps Reuters could adapt its service to provide a comprehensive combination of market and travel information. "Stock markets to open two hours late as staff shortages strand City workers underground" would do. Or how about "Mind the gap - share prices plummet?"

TO REPORTS from the supermarkets that they're doing a roaring trade in ready-peeled fruit, I offer this comment from Bunhill the Younger when his early attempts to mimic received speech coincided with instructions on how to get the skin off his orange: "Pith off."