The history of the emergence of famous brands. Tricks of famous brands


Myths and legends have long become a condition for the brand's success in the market. A product that cannot be told a story is not a brand. Well-known brands are shrouded in myths and legends, half of which are real facts from the history of their creation, and half are the fruit of the imagination of marketers. Western companies even have a special term "storytelling".

IKEA

When the first IKEA stores opened in the United States and were already recognized in Europe, furniture sales fell short of expectations. After some research, it turned out that while Americans liked the simplicity of the design, they wanted furniture to match the larger dimensions of their homes. All that had to be done was to increase the size of the furniture.

Western Union

Western Union owned almost all of the telegraph office in the United States. At the very beginning of his commercial activity, Alexander Bell, who at that time had many debts, turned to WU, offering to buy out the patent for the phone for only $ 100,000, but the company refused to spend money, considering the phone a "toy" product. When the understanding of all the possibilities of telephone communication came, the leaders of WU decided not to contact Bell and create their own system. However, Bell, who started his own telephone company, sued WU and won the case. So Western Union lost its telephone business, which reduced the demand for its main service - telegraph communication.

Pampers

Victor Mills, a leading chemist and technologist at Procter & Gamble, who helped his daughter care for the children, had to repeatedly pull out wet diapers from under his grandchildren, wash and dry them. Of course, he did not like the process and wanted to somehow make his life easier. Then the idea of ​​a disposable "diaper" came to mind - a foldable pad with a high absorbency, which was planned to be placed in a specially shaped panties. After experimenting several times with different materials, Mills developed a new product for P & G, which was released under the Pampers trademark, which became a household name.

Chupa-chups

The Chupa-Chups brand was founded in Spain in 1958 of the last century as part of the Granja Asturias company. Enrique Bernat was the first to create a lollipop (originally made of wood) that could be sucked without getting your hands and clothes dirty. The design of the brand's logo to the owner of the company, Enrique Bernat, "by acquaintance" was drawn by the famous fellow countryman Salvador Dali. It was he who, in 1969, invented the shape of the flower for the Chupa Chups logo, which, with minor modifications, has happily survived to this day. He also suggested placing the logo not on the side, but on top of the candy.

Land rover

The Land Rover brand emblem has essentially remained intact for six decades. It is said that the design of the logo was inspired by a jar of sardines. It was allegedly forgotten in the drawings by one of the engineers. The oil print from the can was copied and proposed as a silhouette for the emblem of the new car.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola was invented by pharmacist John Pemberton, consisted of coca leaves and cola nuts, patented as a drug for nervous disorders, and sold in pharmacies. Cocaine at that time was not a prohibited substance, and nothing was known about its health risks, so it was often added for pleasure and tone to drinks instead of alcohol - Coca-Cola was not an innovation in this. When cocaine was banned, Coca-Cola was partly blamed for its popularization. Cocaine was excluded from the drink, but the positioning of the product did not change and the popularity grew exponentially.

Lacoste

The captain of the French tennis team promised a crocodile suitcase to Rene Lacoste if he wins the Davis Cup. Because of this controversy, which, incidentally, won Rene, the American press nicknamed the tennis player "alligator". In France, the nickname Lacoste was changed to "crocodile" and stuck with him because of his stubborn and tenacious behavior on the court. Robert George, a friend of Lacoste, drew a crocodile for him, which was later embroidered on the short-sleeved shirt the athlete wore.

Swarovski

Daniel Swarovski created the world's first electric grinding machine for cutting crystal and precious stones, which allowed him to streamline the process of creating rhinestones. Rhinestones were named after Georges Frederic Strass, a famous fraudulent jeweler of the 18th century, who passed off faceted crystal shards as diamonds. Thanks to Swarovski's flair and taste, the imitation has risen on a par with the original, and the name has become a world famous brand.

Apple

According to one of the legends, Apple owes its logo, bitten by an apple, to the genius mathematician, the progenitor of the modern computer, who made a huge contribution to computer science and suffered for his non-traditional sexual orientation, Alan Turing.

Turing was a homosexual, which was illegal in the UK at the time, and homosexuality was considered mental illness... In 1952, Turing was charged with sodomy and convicted. He was offered a choice of two sentences - either imprisonment or suppression of libido with injections of the female hormone estrogen, which was essentially chemical castration. The scientist chose the latter.

Growing breasts and decreased libido were one of the effects. In addition, as a result of the conviction, he lost his job and the right to work in the field of cryptography. For a whole year, the scientist lived in seclusion, and then committed suicide, poisoned by cyanide potassium. Turing injected a solution of cyanide into the apple, which he bitten and died. The apple was found on the night table next to the dead body.

Nestle

The original logo for Nestlé, founded in the 1860s, looked like this: a nest with three chicks and their mother. As a trademark for his first products, Henri Nestlé used the family coat of arms. At that time, parents and three children were considered a traditional family. Later, closer to the middle of the 20th century, traditions changed. The logo has also changed. Now in the nest, traditionally for Europe, there are only 2 chicks.

Ariel

Further, joint research by P&G and Levi Strauss Jeans showed that casual employees are more creative and perform much more efficiently than those who wear suits. And what did they do? P&G internally introduces the right to wear casual wear on Friday. The news received huge coverage in the press through the efforts of both companies, and many corporations followed suit. The laundry detergent market grew by 20%.

Pirelli

In 2002, Pirelli broke with more than forty years of tradition and released its famous calendar of women dressed rather than naked. On the cover of the publication was a photo of a girl in an autumn coat, and the seventeen-year-old niece of the then President of the United States, George W. Bush, was chosen as a model. Lauren Bush, the granddaughter of the 41st US President (Bush Sr.), was just happy and shared her emotions with reporters: “I talked to my grandparents, and they were happy. And when I said that I would be in clothes in the photo, they were even more delighted. "

Absolut

Uncle Ben's

The prototype for Uncle Ben is Frank Brown, the head waiter of one of the pre-war Chicago restaurants frequented by Mars executives. The image of Uncle Ben is tied to American folklore. One of the old stories tells of a black farmer who was famous throughout the country for his excellent quality and taste of rice.

Michelin

At the beginning of the twentieth century, especially in the twenties, every large factory or small workshop acquired its own brand name. These were heroes of mythology, and images of animals (Peugeot lion and Lacoste crocodile), and symbols created from the company's products, such as Bibendum. Bibendum was created by the cartoonist O'Galop in 1898, who brought the idea of ​​André Michelin to life. The myth says that at the bicycle tire show, all the models were stacked on top of each other. The resulting stack was shaped very much like a fat man. For more than 100 years, Bibendum has undergone significant changes, but it has remained a character of the Michelin concern.

Mazda

Zoom-zoom is an imitation of the sound of a fast moving object. " Zoom- zoom"Say the English-speaking boys playing cars. And this is how Mazda creates the image of a brand with a sporty character, capable of bringing the buyer into a truly childish delight with its drive. By the way, when talking about Ferrari they use the expression “Vroom-vroooom”, and Mini Cooper makes “Beep-beep”.

Heinz

Red bull

The energy drink Red Bull was born in 1982, when Dietrich Mateschitz, during a business trip to East Asia, became interested in the widespread energy drinks... He acquired licensing rights for the well-known Thai brand Krating Daeng (translated from Thai as "red bull") and for the use of the recipe from Taisho Pharmaceuticals (Japan. When the drink was introduced to the wide market (Europe, USA), Coca-Cola , and Pepsi, and Molson, and Labatt, and Anheuser-Busch. The concept was similar for all - they toned and stimulated, and the energetic Jolt Cola also contained, among other things, a dose of caffeine that was doubled compared to Red Bull.

Then Dietrich Mateschitz took a risky step: he artificially raised the price twice compared to competitors, reduced the volume of containers in the shape of a battery, and began to place cans in stores not in the beverage departments, but in any other (note, when in the next once you go to the store - Red Bull cans, along with the rest of the energy drinks, can be found almost in the sausage department, including in the alcoholic one).

In addition, Red Bull Crates were distributed free of charge to students on university campuses. At student revels, Red Bull went off with a bang, because by chance and happy coincidence of circumstances, it was quickly discovered that he was perfectly suited to vodka. This is how a new and very popular Vodka Red Bull cocktail was born.

Hewlett-Packard

HP founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whose name would appear first. As you can imagine, Bill won.

Adidas and puma

It is known that the Adidas company got its name in honor of one of the founders, Adolf Dasler. And Puma was created by his brother Rudolf Dasler. There is a legend that the father of the Dasler brothers worked all his life as a baker. Adolf and Rudolf Dasler together opened a workshop for tailor-made sports shoes. Adolph had the qualities of a designer, Rudolph - a marketer.

After the Second World War and the death of their father, the brothers had a serious quarrel and divided the no longer small company "Dassler" (about 60 people) in half. This happened in the German town of Herzogenaurach, which was also divided by the brothers' quarrel into two parts. The workers of these factories went only to their taverns, drank different beer, their children attended different schools. The companies maintained their own soccer teams.

And until now, an employee of one company will be immediately fired if he is seen wearing shoes or clothing produced by a competitor.

Each well-known brand has its own logo by which it is recognized. Usually this logo is small and simple, but some of them are elaborate and mysterious. The history of the emergence of such specific logos of several of the world's most influential fashion houses - in this article.

Lacoste

An old and respected brand. Their logo - a tiny green alligator - is known to everyone who loves fashion. In 1927, during the Davis Cup, the American press dubbed Lacoste the "alligator" because of a dispute over which the winner of the tournament got a suitcase made of alligator skin. In France, Lacoste's nickname was changed to "crocodile" and stuck with him because of his stubborn and tenacious behavior on the court, where Lacoste never forgave his opponents' mistakes.
Robert George, a friend of Lacoste, drew a crocodile for him, which was later embroidered on the blazer in which the athlete performed, and then established itself as a logo for all things the company produces.

Fendi

In 1925, the brand emerged as the name of a married couple who opened their first store. And only in 1952, the Fendi family decided to invite a professional designer, German Karl Lagerfeld, who laid the foundation for the brand, making it the way we see it now. The designer also developed a memorable logo that is still used today. The double letter "F", apparently, symbolizes the Fendi spouses.

Chanel

The famous Chanel logo was first shown to the fashion world in 1925 on a bottle of Chanel # 5. There are several versions about the origin of the picture. One story says that two crossed horseshoes are a symbol of success and good fortune. However, most fashion historians are inclined to believe that the emblem is the initials of Coco Chanel, the founder of the French design house.

Calvin klein

November 19, 1942 is the date of birth of the famous designer. Having started his atelier with the release of men's outerwear, Klein gradually moved on to design clothes for women. In the 1970s, the designer adapted the classic men's suit for women's fashion. In 1970, he introduced the PeaCoat, a double-breasted short coat with wide lapels.

This model became not only a hit of the season, but also defined the fashion of women's outerwear for almost a decade. Company logo - CK is easy to remember and gives a connection with the brand. The dark emblem is used for Haute couture clothing, the gray emblem is for regular garments, while the white emblem is for sportswear.

Hermes

Erme is a French design corporation that is directly associated with impeccable taste and first-class style. Designer Erme's logo depicts
a horse with a cart, which is very symbolic for the brand - the history of the company began in 1837, when Thierry Hermes founded a private company for the production of horse harnesses. Hermes is the name of the founder.

The next five generations of this family constantly expanded production, creating a real Hermes empire. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Hermes production was supplemented by leather goods and luggage bags. At the same time, a unique technology for processing leather products with a special “saddle” stitch was applied. This is how the Hermes style was born.

Burberry prorsum

The company's success began with the invention of a waterproof material - gabardine - and its use in raincoats and long waterproof coats for soldiers. In 1901, Burberry already had a large order for these clothes. He marked the order with his new emblem - an equestrian rider in armor and a spear in his hand was registered as a trademark of the brand. The knight's costume was a copy of the original.

The Latin word "Prorsum", used in heraldry as a motto meaning "Forward", reflects the company's desire for progressive innovation, and the spear is a symbol of the protection of tradition.

Versace

Versace's logo is symbolically associated with Greek mythology. The head of Medusa Gorgon, as conceived by the couturier, symbolizes the fact that he turns viewers to stone with his collections. The designer's logo was invented in 1978 by Gianni Versace himself, who was obsessed with classic themes. So, jellyfish was the best option for him, since it was she who he considered "the embodiment of fatal attraction."

All ingenious is simple. Collected in this material short stories origin of names worldwide famous brands once again confirm this law of life.

Adidas


The founder of Adidas was named Adolf Dassler, or Adi for short. His first company was called even more unpretentious - Dassler, but by agreement with the co-founder of Dassler, brother Rudolph, with whom they had a hard fight 60 years ago, none of them had the right to use this name anymore.

Adobe systems


In 1982, 40-year-old Xerox programmers John Warnock and Charles Geschke quit and formed a software company. They named it Adobe, after the stream that ran behind Warnock's house.

Apple


Apple is founder Steve Jobs' favorite fruit. After three months of futile attempts to find a name for the new business, he delivered an ultimatum to his partners: "I will name Apple if you don’t offer the best by 5 o'clock." Apple Macintosh is the name of an apple variety sold in the United States.

Audi


Audi translates from Latin as "listen!" This is the Latin version of the surname of the founder of the company - August Horch

Bmw


BMW stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke. English version - Bavarian Motor Works.

Canon


In 1930, in Japan, Goro Yoshida and his half-brother Saburo Uchida created a company with an unspoken name, Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory in Japan. Four years later, developments led to the creation of their first camera, which they named Kwanon, after the thousand-handed Buddhist deity of mercy.
The company registered a lot of words to protect its trademark, which were similar in sound to Kwanon. One of them - already known to us Canon - eventually replaced the original name due to disagreements with religious leaders. Canon translates from English as "Canon", and from French - "Cannon".

Casio


In honor of the company founder Kashio Tadao.

Cisco


Acronym for San Francisco.

Coca-Cola


The main ingredients of Coca-Cola, when the drink was opened, were as follows: three parts of coca leaves (the drug cocaine was obtained from the same leaves) to one part of the nuts of the tropical cola tree.

Compaq


From Comp and paq (small integrated part).

Corel


In honor of the founder of the company, Michael Cowpland (Dr. Michael Cowpland). Stands for COwpland REsearch Laboratory.

Daewoo


The founder of the company, Kim Woo Chong, called the company modestly, "Big Universe", which is how it is translated from Korean.

FIAT


The company was founded in 1899. Fiat is short for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino. In addition, this abbreviation can be translated from Latin as an independent word that is often used in church everyday life - "let it be."

Fuji


Everything is very simple here, in honor of the tallest and most famous mountain Japan, Fuji.

Google


This is the second name of the most famous search engine in the world, the first was BackRub. But it was soon replaced by Google. This is a slightly altered word "googol", meaning the last of the numbers that have at least some meaning - one with a hundred zeros.

Hallmark


One of the most famous companies in the world in the industry of congratulations (postcards, etc.). Hallmark means the hallmark that English guild masters have placed on their products since the 14th century, as evidence that the guild is a guarantee of quality.

Honda


The founder's name is Soichiro Honda.

Hotmail


Founder Jack Smith came up with the idea of ​​accessing email via the web from anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with a business plan for the service, he went through all the words ending in "mail" and eventually settled on hotmail, as the name was HTML (markup language).

HP (Hewlett-Packard)


Founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whose name would appear first. As you can imagine, Bill won.

Hyundai


The Korean word for "present" (tense).

IBM


IBM was founded in 1924 and stands for International Business Machines.

IKEA


Ingvar Kamprad (founding father) lmtaryd (home farm) A gunnaryd (home village in Småland, Sweden, where young Ingvar Kamprad was born and started his pen mailing business).

Intel


Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name the company Moore Noyce, but by that time there was already a chain of hotels with that name. So they decided to stick with INTegrated ELectronics.

Kodak


K is the favorite letter of George Eastman, the founder of the company. He looked for words beginning and ending with this wonderful letter. Moreover, in all alphabets "K" is spelled in the same way. In the end, Kodak was chosen, supposedly this is the sound the camera makes when shooting.

Lego


Derived from two Danish words: leg ("play") and got ("good"). And in translation from Latin lego means “I read”, “I connect”.

Lg


Initially, these were two separate organizations: the cosmetics company Lucky Chemical Industrial (since 1947) and the GoldStar radio-electronic plant (since 1958). After the merger, the company received the name Lucky Goldstar, and in 1995 changed it to LG Electronics, simply shortening the name to an abbreviation.

Microsoft


MICROcomputer SOFTware. It was originally written as Micro-Soft. Then the dash was removed.

Mitsubishi


Invented by the founder of the company Yataro Iwasaki in 1870. translated from Japanese mitsu - three, and hishi - diamond. The letter "b" turned out to be the sixth not because of an error, but due to the fact that the Japanese usually pronounce the "h" in the middle of the word as "b". As for the logo, then, contrary to the prevailing opinion, it is he who is primary, and not the name. And it looks like this because the trefoil was the family coat of arms of the founder of the company.

Motorola


Founder Paul Galvin came up with the name when his company started making car radios. Many audio component manufacturers at the time ended with "ola", the fashion was so weird.

NEC


Abbreviation for Nippon Electric Company, Ltd, abbreviated in 1983.

Nike


In 1978, Blue Ribbon Sports was officially renamed Nike, Inc. It is believed that the name is taken from the name of the goddess of victory Nika.

Nikon


Originally Nippon Kogaku means "Japanese optics".

Nintendo


Composite of three Japanese characters "Nin-ten-do", which can be translated as "Heaven blesses hard work." It's so hard to play.

Nissan


Formerly known as Nippon Sangio, which means Japanese Industry.

Nokia


In 1865, Knut Fredrik Idestam founded a pulp and paper mill in southwestern Finland. The company began to bear the name Nokia after it moved to the banks of the Nokianvirta River in the city, in fact, Nokia. The very word "Nokia" in Finnish means a dark, very furry animal, something like an ermine.

Pepsi


First manufactured in 1890s in New Bern, North Carolina by pharmacist Caleb Bradham. On August 28, 1898, Brad's Drink was renamed Pepsi-Cola. The Pepsi-Cola trademark was registered on June 16, 1903. According to one of the versions, Caleb Bradham derived the name “Pepsi” from the word pepsin (a digestive enzyme that helps to break down protein). According to another version, Caleb Bradham borrowed the name "Pep Kola" from one of the local competitors, slightly corrected it and named his drink Pepsi-Cola.
According to another version, Caleb and his visitors simply liked the sound of this word, since it reflected the fact that the carbonated drink gave a certain vigor and energy (pep - pep, energy, liveliness).

Philips


The company is named after its founder, Friedrich Philips and his son Gerard, who founded it in 1891 in Eindhoven to manufacture light bulbs. They have not refused to bring light to the people up to now, but they have replenished their assortment with a couple of hundred more items.

Puma


This company was owned by the brother of the founder of Adidas, Rudolf Dassler. After the historical scandal in the Dassler company, the brothers dispersed to different sides rivers and each founded their own enterprise. Initially, Puma was called Ruda, in honor of, as you understand, Rudolph himself, but the name had to be changed in favor of euphony and memorability, leaving the base - four letters, the same vowels, a similar first consonant.

Samsung


Translated from Korean, "samsung" means "three stars."

Sanyo


In Chinese "Three oceans".

Sharp


The origins of the etymology lie in the 10s of the last century, when the Tokyo resident Tokuji Hayakawa began the production of a branded product - an ever-sharp mechanical pencil that does not require sharpening. Sharp is "sharp" in English.

Siemens


Founded in 1847 by Werner von Siemens.

Sony


The original name of the company in Japanese was "Tokyo Tsushin Koge Kabushiki Kaisa" and translated into English as "Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company". The founders of the company, Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuki, spent a long time looking for the right word for short name and stumbled upon the Latin word sonus (sound). In the 1950s, the American word sonny was popular in Japan, which is consonant with the word sonus and the word sunny. What could be better? But the word sonny, written in hieroglyphs, meant “unprofitable”. Then Akio Morita came up with the idea of ​​deleting one letter "n" and named the company "Sony".

Subaru


By the name of the constellation Pleiades, which in Greek was also called the "Seven Sisters". And that's just the "Seven Sisters" in Japanese "Subaru". Literally into Russian, brnedname is translated as “to unite into one whole”. The constellation of the Pleiades is displayed on the company logo.

Swatch


Acronym for Swiss Watch

Toshiba


It got its name from the abbreviation in 1978 of the former name Tokyo Shibaura Elektric Co., Ltd, obtained from the merger of Tokyo Denki, which was engaged in household electrical appliances, and Shibaura Seisaku-sho, which produced heavy electrical equipment.

Toyota


Named after the founder Sakichi Toyoda. Subsequently changed to a more euphonious Toyota. In Japanese, it consisted of 8 letters (a lucky number in Eastern culture).

Viagra


The first part of the word, "vi-", is taken from the words virility (potency), vitality ( vitality), vigor (energy). And the ending "-agra" means "catch", "grab."

Xerox


Comes from the Greek "Xer", which, contrary to the guesses of especially witty comrades, is translated as "dry". The fact is that at the time of writing the name for the future copying giant (late 40s), there was only wet copying, and the author wanted to emphasize the use of dry powder dye in the technology. In English-speaking countries, the brand name does not sound "Xerox", but "Zirox".

Yahoo


The word was coined by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels. That was the name of one disgusting tribe that Gulliver had to face on his travels. Founders of "Yahoo!" Jerry Yang and David Filo chose this name because they called themselves yahoo. Besides, it’s such a cry of joy.

3M


A mathematical notation for the three-fourths of the acronym for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company.

What will happen if the names of famous companies are translated into Russian: literally, creatively, with humor, or all together.



































































































What shapes do you see? It's just your imagination ...


























English graphic designer Graham Smith created original series Brand Reversioning, in which it replaced form style one brand to the corporate identity of another, often competing with it.























Facts about the origin of the names of famous world brands


Adobe- named after the Adobe Creek, which ran behind the home of company founder John Warnock.

Adidas- in honor of one of the founders of Adi Dasler.

Apple- favorite fruit of the founder of the company Steve Jobs (Steve Jobs). After three months of futile attempts to find a name for the new business, he gave his partner an ultimatum: "I will name Apple if you don’t offer the best by 5 o'clock." Apples Macintosh is the name of an apple variety sold in the United States.

Canon- in honor of Kwanon, the Buddhist god of mercy. Changed to Canon to avoid religious protests.

Casio- in honor of the founder of the company Kashio Tadao.

Cisco- abbreviated as San Francisco.

Compaq- from Comp and paq (small integrated part).

Corel- in honor of the founder of the company Michael Copeland (Dr. Michael Cowpland). Stands for COwpland REsearch Laboratory.

Daewoo- the founder of the company, Kim Woo Chong, called the company modestly, "Big Universe", that is how it is translated from Korean.

Fuji- in honor of the highest mountain in Japan, Fuji.

Google- the name comes from the word Googol, meaning one followed by 100 zeros. And Google was written on a check that the founders of this project (among whom, by the way, a former Russian - Sergey Brin) received from the first investor. After that, they named the search engine that way.

HP(Hewlett-Packard) - Founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whose name would come first. As you can imagine, Bill won.

Hitachi- in Japanese, dawn.

Honda- the name of the founder of Soichiro Honda.

Honeywell- the name of the founder, Mark Honeywell.

Hotmail- Founder Jack Smith came up with the idea of ​​accessing e-mail via the web from anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with a business plan for the service, he went through all the words ending in "mail" and eventually settled on hotmail, as the name was HTML (markup language).

Hyundai- in Korean "present" (tense).

IBM- International Business Machines.

Intel- Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name the company Moore Noyce, but by that time there was already a chain of hotels with that name. So they decided to stick with INTegrated ELectronics.

Kawasaki- in honor of the founder of Shozo Kawasaki.

Kodak- K is the favorite letter of George Eastman, the founder of the company. He looked for words beginning and ending with this wonderful letter. Moreover, in all alphabets "K" is spelled in the same way. In the end, Kodak was chosen, supposedly this is the sound the camera makes when shooting.

Konica- Formerly known as Konishiroku Kogaku.

Lg- the first letters of the two Korean brands Lucky and Goldstar.

Lotus- Mitch Kapor, founder of the company, practiced meditation. Hence the name (lotus pose).

Microsoft- MICROcomputer SOFTware. It was originally written as Micro-Soft. Then the dash was removed.

Mitsubishi- invented by the founder of the company Yataro Iwasaki in 1870. In Japanese it means "Three Diamonds". The name is also displayed in the company logo.

Motorola- Founder Paul Galvin came up with the name when his company started making car radios. Many manufacturers of audio components at the time ended in "ola".

Mozilla Foundation Is the successor to the Netscape Navigator browser. When Marc Andreesen, the founder of Netscape, created a browser to replace Mosaic, the company called it Mozilla (Mosaic-Killer, Godzilla).

Nabisco- originally "The NAtional BISCuit COmpany", changed to Nabisco in 1971.

Nikon- originally Nippon Kogaku, means "Japanese optics".

Nintendo- Composite of 3 Japanese characters "Nin-ten-do", which can be translated as "heaven bless hard work."

Nissan- formerly known as Nichon Sangio, which means "Japanese industry".

Nokia- began as a woodworking plant, expanded to the production of rubber products in the Finnish city of Nokia.

Novell- the name was invented by the wife of co-founder George Canova. She mistakenly thought Novell was French for new.

Oracle- Company founders Larry Ellison and Bob Oats worked on a consulting project for the CIA, codenamed Oracle. Subsequently, the project was closed, but the name remained.

Sanyo- in Chinese "Three oceans".

SAP- "Systems, Applications, Productss in Data Processing" was founded by 4 former IBM employees who worked in the Systems / Applications / Projects group.

SCO- from the Santa Cruz Operation.

Siemens- founded in 1847 by Werner von Siemens.

Sony- from the Latin "Sonus" (sound) and "sonny" (slang youngster).

Subaru- by the name of the constellation. It is also displayed on the company logo.

SUN- founded by 4 university friends, short for Stanford University Network.

Suzuki- named after the founder Michio Suzuki.

Toshiba- was founded following the merger of FMCG Tokyo Denki (Tokyo Electric Co) and Shibaura Seisaku-sho (Shibaura Engineering Works).

Toyota- named after the founder Sakichi Toyoda. Later it was changed to a more noble Toyota. In Japanese, it consisted of 8 letters (the lucky number in Japan).

Xerox- The inventor, Chestor Carlson, wanted to include the word "dry" in the title (since at that time there was only wet copying). "Xer" - dry in Greek.

Yahoo- the word was coined by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels. That was the name of a repulsive, disgusting person. Founders of "Yahoo!" Jerry Yang and David Filo chose this name because they called themselves yahoo's. However, now the name stands for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.

3M- Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
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  • 32% of Muscovites are convinced that vegetarianism is some kind of religion, about the same that it is a fashionable diet. The rest are divided into people who consider vegetarians to be mentally ill, and those who consider themselves to be them.
  • The term "flying saucer" also originated from Kenneth Arnold. He compared the nature of the movement of the objects he saw with a saucer thrown on the surface of the water.
  • The moon was worshiped as a deity in many ancient cultures. The Greeks and Romans even had three moon goddesses: Artemis (Diana) embodied the new Moon, Selena - the Moon in full phase, and Hecate personified the other side of this celestial body.
  • There are about 1500 volcanoes on Earth, which can be activated at any moment. Magma streams can remain underground for hundreds of years and then burst abruptly to the surface.
  • Now horoscopes not only predict the future for different periods of time, but also give rather detailed characteristics to individual types of people or are made to order for one person.
  • People who are in a difficult situation are coloring the cells in a checkerboard pattern, perhaps they are trying to develop a strategy to get out of it.
  • In the 9th century, an Arab traveler who visited China was shocked. "The Chinese do not care about cleanliness at all," he wrote. "They do not use water, they only wipe themselves off with paper."
  • In 2001, an Englishman filled 600 balloons with helium and rose more than 3 thousand meters. There, the balls burst, and he had to use a fallback, that is, a parachute. If you also want to rise into the air, remember that one balloon can lift about three grams.
  • Grapes were cultivated 5-7 thousand years ago in Central and Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, Syria, Mesopotamia and Egypt. Various methods of making and filtering wines have been known.
  • The first diamonds were discovered in India over 3000 BC. NS. Some of the large diamonds found in India are notorious. The Koh-i-Nur diamond is especially famous in this respect.
  • The longest marriage was noted with Lazarus Rose and Molly Weber from the USA. They married in 1743. After 86 years life together their marriage broke up for a reason beyond their control - in 1829, the husband died.
  • In some countries, there is generally complete freedom in choosing names. In Brazil, parents sometimes label their children with numbers in French. Competitions for unusual names are held annually in the country.
  • All New Year's Eve in Korea is supposed to be awake. An old belief says: "If you sleep on New Year's Eve, your eyebrows will turn gray." The girls are guessing: they take turns jumping up from the board placed on the log - whoever jumps higher will get married faster.
  • Modern sport stimulates scientific research. The high achievements of an athlete depend not only on physical fitness, but also on how he is equipped. An athlete may not know how much know-how has been invested in his victory.
  • Most goods in this country cannot be sold on Sundays, with the exception of carrots, and women in foggy Albion are also prohibited from eating chocolate on public transport.
  • The joyful anticipation of the New Year is always associated with gifts. The palm in choosing the most expensive New Year's surprises belongs to wealthy Russians.
  • In the UK, where tradition is most prized, the queen's short speech is an indispensable feature of Christmas, which she gives right after Christmas dinner.
  • The tradition of decorating spruce on New Year's Eve came to us from Germany. In the 16th century, on the eve of Christmas and New Year, the guilds of German cities began to install a "Christmas tree" in the squares.
  • On the first day of the New Year, the Roman emperor Caligula went out to the square in front of the palace and accepted offerings from his subjects, while recording who and what gave them.
  • Sharon Stone does not turn on the TV if she is alone in the room. It seems to her that he could explode at any moment.
  • Kisses, in addition to pleasure, also bring a lot of benefits to lovers. Experts from a wide variety of fields confirm the beneficial effects of a gentle and passionate kiss on the body.
  • There are about 20,000 types of beer in the world, and it is brewed in 180 ways: from ales, light, strong beer to bitter and frozen beer.
  • Moles, it turns out, can tell a lot about a person. It was not for nothing that in the old days, ladies specially pasted flies in order to hint to the gentlemen about those character traits that were not even in sight.
  • One of the first mentions of astrological weather forecasting is contained in the book of Claudius Ptolemy "Tetrabiblos".
  • Some US laws are quite unusual.
  • True, the Rooster - the owner of 2017 - is not suitable for flight. But in the New Year, any miracles happen!
  • The dog will bring sweet bones to those who deserve it - hardworking, sympathetic, fair people.
  • Clay
    Clay can be eaten. In Italy at the beginning of the last century there was a dish called "alipa", which consisted of clay and wheat.
  • Funny laws
    In Joliet, Illinois, a woman can be arrested for trying on more than six dresses at a time in a store.
  • According to law
    In Indiana, you cannot open cans with firearms. Residents of the state are prohibited from going to the theater or cinema, or riding the tram for four hours after eating garlic.
  • Interesting laws
    In Russia, all color printers must be registered with the police in connection with the spread of counterfeit money.
  • Ignorance of the law ...
    Posting a postage stamp upside down on the envelope with the portrait of the British monarch is an act of treason.
  • Elections
    In the state of New Mexico, there is a law: if two candidates for a certain post receive the same number of votes, the result is determined by some game.
  • New Year - the beginning of the year
    The beginning of the year in France until 755 was considered December 25, then March 1, in the XII century - the day of Easter, and from 1564 by decree of King Charles IX - January 1. In Germany, they began to celebrate the New Year on January 1 from XV! century, and in England - from the XVIII century.
  • New Year
    In Ireland, on the evening of New Year's Eve, the doors of houses are thrown wide open. Anyone who wishes can enter any house and become a welcome guest there, he will be seated in a place of honor and fed.
  • Such a different New Year.
    Colombians make dolls depicting the old year. They are carried on sticks, funny "wills" are read. Then they throw the dolls away from themselves, and at midnight the charges and gunpowder hidden in the dolls begin to explode.
  • New Year traditions
    In Spain, at midnight, at each stroke of the clock, you have to have time to eat one grape, each of which symbolizes one of the coming months. If you manage to eat them all, this guarantees the fulfillment of your cherished desire.
  • Easter
    Australian Easter is a four-day holiday that starts on Good Friday and ends on Monday. The symbol of Easter is not the Easter bunny, but the local animal Bilby. This is due to the fact that rabbits are a real disaster for farmers.
  • Pancake week.
    The tradition of celebrating Maslenitsa appeared in Russia back in pagan times and is associated with parting with winter and meeting spring. It was believed that whoever refused to celebrate would live in trouble.
  • March 8
    The Feast of Women existed in ancient Rome. On this day, free women received gifts from their husbands, and slaves were given a day off.
  • AND interesting facts about cinema
    The oldest actress to appear on screen is Jeanne Louise Kalman. At 114, she played herself in the Canadian film Vincent and Me. After this film debut, she lived for another 8 years.
  • Space
    Neutron stars have a very thin crust and a liquid core. The weight of one spoonful of the substance of which their nuclei are composed is equal to 150 million tons.
  • Planets
    Astronauts sleep less well. 16 sunrises per day are the main cause of their circadian rhythm disturbance. The most difficult thing for those who have been in orbit for a long time is to adapt again to life on Earth: to the fact that when you let go of objects, they still fall.
  • Cyclones
    Cyclones are huge atmospheric vortices that can range in diameter from several hundred to several thousand kilometers. In the center, the cyclone has a reduced pressure and moves counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern.
  • Solar eclipse
    Scientists have calculated that in 600 million years the Moon will move away from the Earth so that it will not be enough to "close" the Sun, so solar eclipses will stop.
  • Tornado
    Air in tornadoes and tornadoes usually moves counterclockwise, but sometimes also clockwise. In this case, in some areas the air rises in a spiral, and in others it falls, as a result of which a closed column is formed.
  • Snow
    The largest snowflake was recorded on January 28, 1887 during a snowfall at Fort Keough (Montana, USA). It had a diameter of about 38 cm. Usually, snowflakes are about 5 mm in diameter.
  • Rain
    About one in a hundred million people are allergic to rain. Any exposure to water on the skin causes redness, swelling, and such people can die from exposure to rain.
  • Rivers and lakes
    Rivers annually carry away 16 billion tons of solid materials - stones, debris and other substances to the seas and oceans. If all this is loaded into boxcars, then you can make up a train that will wrap the globe around the equator three times.
  • Hurricanes
    However, not all hurricanes are honored to bear their own name, but only those in which the funnel rotates counterclockwise, and the wind speed inside the hurricane is at least 63 kilometers per hour.
  • Deserts
    The Sahara is the leader in the number of observed mirages, there is even a map of the Sahara with marks of places where mirages are observed more than 100 thousand times a year.
  • Museums
    About 2000 works are kept in the largest non-state Museum of Contemporary Art in Russia Erarta. The museum has been open to the public for exactly one year.
  • Books
    The heaviest book in the world weighs 50 kg and tells the story of the development of rugby in New Zealand. And the smallest is the edition of the fairy tale "Old King Cole". Its size is one square millimeter... It was published in 1985 with a circulation of 85 copies.
  • Watch
    The very first clocks on Earth are sundials. A timeline was drawn around the stick stuck in the ground, along which the shadow moved. Later, such clocks were made of wood or stone and installed on the walls of public buildings.
  • Car wipers
    Initially, cleaning tape was made of rather tough rubber, but in the 21st century, rubber, silicone, or a mixture of similar materials began to be used to make it.
  • Art
    In show business, the term "Golden Disc" means that a million dollar copies of the disc have been sold, and "Platinum Disc" means that a million copies of the disc have been sold.
  • Dancing
    The cha-cha-cha dance is called the "dance of the coquette" because it is characterized primarily by expressive movements of the hips.
  • Music
    Spiders, if you play the violin in front of them, crawl out of their hiding places. Although, of course, not in order to listen to music: the cobweb vibrates from the sounds of the violin, so the spider thinks that prey has been caught in the net.
  • Carnivals
    Nowadays, the Venice Carnival lasts 10 days. Each year, a new carnival theme is chosen, according to which the costumes are sewn. Theater troupes perform on the squares and streets of the city, fancy dress contests, ceremonial processions and festive shows are held.
  • Airships
    Jean Baptiste Marie Charles Meunier is considered to be the inventor of the airship. The Meunier airship was to be made in the form of an ellipsoid. Controllability was to be carried out using three propellers, manually rotated by the efforts of 80 people.
  • Radio
    Radio communication was first successfully used during the rescue operation of passengers of the steamer "Masens" (Mathens), which crashed on March 3, 1899.
  • Flags
    The US flag changes every time new states are accepted into the state - new stars are added. The last time the flag was changed was in the late 1950s, when state status was granted to Hawaii and Alaska.
  • Helicopters
    In the manuscript of Leonardo da Vinci, there is a drawing of a machine with a screw on a vertical axis, set in motion by the muscular force of a person flying on it. It is believed that this was the prototype of the helicopter.
  • Computer games
    The most expensive game to develop is called ShenMue. It was created for the Sega Dreamcast and cost the developers $ 20 million.
  • Sport
    The sport appeared already in ancient times and was very popular in Ancient China and Egypt, but it was especially diverse in Ancient Greece, where competitions in wrestling, running, throwing discs and chariot battles were held.
  • Soap
    The Celts and ancient Romans used soap in the form of hair pomade and as a cure for skin conditions.
  • Cars
    The three-pointed star in the Mercedes-Benz logo, developed in 1909, symbolizes the brand's success on land, in water and in the air. This is due to the fact that the owner of the brand, the Daimler company, produced in addition to cars, marine and aircraft engines.
  • Forks
    The first fork appeared at the end of the 11th century and even has an exact date and place of birth. This happened in 1072 in Constantinople, in the imperial palace. It was made in one copy of gold, and its handle is inlaid with mother-of-pearl on ivory.
  • Matches
    The world's first match appeared in 1826 thanks to the English chemist and pharmacist John Walker. He mixed the chemicals with a stick, and a dried drop formed at the end. To remove it, Walker struck the floor with a stick, and suddenly a fire broke out.
  • Schools
    The word "school" comes from the ancient Greek "skole", which means "leisure" in translation. In ancient times, philosophers and their followers met somewhere on the seashore and discussed sports, world order, and other topics suitable for demagoguery.
  • Aircraft
    One plane lands in the world every 3 seconds. Air transport is the safest form of transport. According to statistics, car accidents happen 62 times more often than plane crashes.
  • The photo
    The term photography appeared in 1839, and two astronomers - the Englishman William Herschel and the German Johann von Medler - used it simultaneously and independently of each other.
  • "Formula 1"
    In 1975, Italian Lella Lombardi managed to score points in one of the Grand Prix. Not a single woman was able to repeat this success.
  • Transport
    In 1640, public transport was divided into 3 classes: the richest class traveled in a carriage, the middle class traveled on the back bench, and the poor sat right on the roof.
  • Cities
    The capital of Peru, Lima, is located by the ocean, but at the same time it is located in an arid desert. The city knows almost no rain. His houses do not have drainpipes, and the annual rainfall in Lima is only 37 mm.
  • About silver
    In the family of Count G.G. Orlov, one of the favorites of Catherine II, a service was in use, consisting of 3275 silver items, the manufacture of which took more than 2 tons of silver.
  • Umbrella
    The invention of the umbrella dates back to the 11th century BC. Some scientists consider China to be the homeland of this habitual thing in everyday life, others - Egypt. In both countries, the umbrella was the privilege of kings and nobles.
  • Do you know?
    The sound "f" first entered the Russian language along with the borrowed words of the Greek language: Fedor, Thomas, Philip, lantern and others.
  • Is it a joke ..?
    Many securities can not only be sold, given, stored, but also thrown away!
  • The greats said ...
    “We must study at school, but much more must be learned upon leaving school, and this second teaching is immeasurably more important than the first in its consequences, in its influence on a person and on society” (D. Rockefeller).
  • Can you hear well?
    Not all animals have ears on the head. For example, in grasshoppers, the organ of hearing is on the front legs under the "knees", and in night moths - under the wings.
  • Do you understand me?
    In America, when they meet, they ask: "How are you?" (they usually answer: "Good"), and in Malaysia it is customary to ask: "Where are you going?" But since this is not a question, but a greeting, they usually answer: "Just take a walk."
  • Nanotechnology - to life!
    Nanotechnology makes it possible to create material that will speed up the transmission of data on the Internet a hundred times. It is a polymer glued to a set of carbon buckyball molecules (spherical structures made up of several dozen carbon atoms).
  • Puzzles.
    Japan is the historical homeland of many inventions - in recent times became one of the world leaders in the production of mechanical puzzles, as well as in the number of inventors of these puzzles.
  • Miscellaneous about games
    In the charter of an Australian golf club, it is written that if the ball hits the kangaroo, then it is necessary to continue playing as if nothing happened.
  • Short stories
    Mark Twain is the author of the shortest article in the newspaper. The article was titled "Football Match" and consisted of just a few words: "It was raining and the match did not take place."
  • About everything in the world
    In the US state of Alabama, it is forbidden to wear mustache uniforms that can cause laughter in the church.
  • Believe it or not, ...
    American Airlines saved $ 40,000 by removing just one olive from their first-class salads.
  • Did you know that ...?
    Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, through training, achieved that he learned another foreign language in 6-8 weeks.
  • Because of the length of the neck, the giraffe has the highest blood pressure of any animal known to us. It is approximately three times higher than the blood pressure of a healthy person.
  • Words and idioms
    In Indonesia, the so-called "styrax tree" grows, from the resin of which in 1833 the German chemist E. Micherlich isolated a new substance and called it ... gasoline. Now this substance is called benzene.
  • You probably didn't know that ...
    The number of simultaneously memorized digits for most people lies between 5 and 9. Therefore, most telephone numbers, without city or country codes, contain no more than 7 digits.
  • Even the most notorious pessimists believe that a meeting with aliens on our Earth is, in principle, possible.
  • Historical facts
    The inventor of rubber, Charles Goodyear, was so in love with his brainchild that he dressed only in all rubber - a coat, hat, raincoat and boots.
  • Why do we say that?
    Colloquial "shabby look" means "everyday, unadorned". Shabby, that is, made from shabby (motley). Zatrapez - the name of the cheap coarse fabric from which work clothes, mattresses were sewn, came from the surname of the merchant Zatrapeznikov, to whom Peter I transferred the pestryadin factory.
  • Let there be light!
    The very first candles were made from reeds, dipped in melted bacon. They were also used as a clock, calculating how quickly a candle burns out in an hour: people put appropriate marks on it.
  • The world's largest private collection of meteorites belongs to the American Robert Haag - it contains two tons of celestial stones. Haag began collecting meteorites when he was 12 years old.
  • Everything You Didn't Know About Books
    Every police officer in the Mexican capital is required to read at least one book a month. Anyone who disobeys orders is at risk of promotion problems.
  • Origin of words
    Plombier owes its name to the French city of Plombier, where this type of ice cream was first made.
  • The Mulhouse Automobile Museum (France) is the most prestigious in the world. The collection contains more than 500 cars of 102 brands, all periods of French production are demonstrated, from 1878 to the present day.
  • Kings Can Do Anything
    First wedding ring with a diamond was presented in 1477 by the Austrian Archduke Maximilian to his bride Mary of Burgundy. He ordered his jeweler for a ring set with diamonds in the shape of the letter "M".
  • Not far from Luxor there are two huge statues - the "colossi of Memnon". Sphinxes, which now adorn the embankment of the Neva near the Academy of Arts, “lived” next to them for many years.
  • These eccentric writers ...
    Cooper loved to chew honey cakes while working on the work. Byron was inspired by the smell of truffles, which always filled his pockets. Théophile Gaultier preferred the smell of smoking candles. And Charles Baudelaire loved perfume.
  • The monetary unit of Greece, the drachma, has depreciated almost completely during the Second World War; this was the reason for the monetary reform, as a result of which 1 new drachma became equal to 50 billion old drachmas.
  • Inventions and patents
    During the war with Caesar, the Gauls transmitted information about the advancement of his army with the help of screamers placed in a chain. Information, the transmission of which took the messengers a month, they "shouted" over the day.
  • Pirates and islands
    According to legend, on Cocos Island, located in the eastern Pacific Ocean, famous pirates William Dampier, Benito Bonito and others unloaded the plundered gold.
  • A kaleidoscope of facts
    At a passenger plane speed of 1000 km / h, the plane's length becomes one atom shorter than its actual length.
  • The numbers inside us
    500 eggs - a girl is born with such a "set". So a woman could potentially be the mother of 500 children.
  • Andorra has a small army, in which all fit men must serve, but they do not receive monetary rewards or uniforms. The Andorran army is notable for the fact that it consists exclusively of officers and has not fought since the beginning of the 13th century.
  • Famous fortresses
    The Benacantil rock (height 166 m) towering over the Spanish city of Alicante is crowned with the medieval castle of Santa Barbara. Carthaginian generals in the III century. BC NS. built a fortress on this place
  • Origin of scientific terms
    The word "algebra" comes from the second word of the composition "Kitab al-jabr almukabala", published by Muhammad al Khorezmi at the beginning of the 9th century. The great mathematician meant by this word "connection of parts of the equation."
  • All about bees
    In the air, bees achieve amazing results. An airplane, for example, lifts less than its own weight. And some types of bees can fly with a load several times greater than the weight of the bee itself.
  • All about reptiles
    The longest reliably measured reptile is the reticulated python (10 m). It is considered to be the largest reptiles of the anacondas. But among them, not a single specimen longer than 9 meters has yet been found.
  • All about spiders
    Almost all spiders live on land. These are nocturnal animals, only a few of them are active during the day. Along with mobile, running spiders that do not build permanent nests and shelters, there are sedentary ones that live on snares or in burrows and dens.
  • These funny animals
    The hummingbird is not only the smallest member of the feathered family, but also the only bird that can fly backwards.
  • About a human
    A fresh human fingerprint is made up of water, fats, proteins and salts produced by the skin. It weighs about one millionth of a gram.
  • What you didn't know about yourself
    There are about 5 million hairs on the surface of our body. The scalp contains up to 40 chemical elements. Copper and zinc predominate among people engaged in mental work.
  • Crystal
    The Indian Maharajah, on the offer of the British government to give him what he wanted, asked to be delivered to his palace the trading hall of the crystal store on Rue Paradise in Paris, which was done.
  • Calligraphy
    In some Arab countries, the ability to write in a calligraphic way is an indicator of a person's education and spiritual perfection. This is not surprising, because any example of medieval Arabic calligraphy is a work of an artist, mathematician and sophisticated stylist all rolled into one.
  • About bees and honey
    The bee's closest relative, the furry bumblebee, is a real paradox. After researching its aerodynamic qualities and body weight, American scientists came to the conclusion that it could not fly, but still flies.
  • For food lovers
    Today there are about 1000 types of cheese in the world. The oldest cheese recipe that has come down to us is two thousand years old, and its homeland is Persia.
  • Plants and music
    In America, one of the flower growers regularly broadcast classical music concerts for his wards - flowers. Plants not only bloomed more abundantly than their "unvoiced" counterparts, but also differed in richness of color and did not fall off longer.
  • Something about football
    The national team of Botswana has not won a single international match in its twenty-eight years of existence. The team has replaced more than fifty head coaches, four of whom were former Soviet athletes.
  • Difficult insects
    In the mouth of a garden snail, there can be up to 14 thousand teeth. They grow in rows on the surface of a ribbon-like tongue called a grater. Acting like a file, mollusks peel off and eat plant tissues.
  • You didn't know this about yourself
    Numerous measurements have shown that a man swallows an average of 21 milliliters of liquid in one gulp, while a woman swallows 14 milliliters.
  • Music life
    If the French horn - a wind musical instrument - is unrolled in the opposite direction, it will stretch for the length of the whole bus. And the usual, without any bells and whistles, bassoon with the same manipulation has a length of about 3 meters.
  • The best of the best
    British residents Percy Arrowsmis and his wife Florence, who are 105 and 100 years old, respectively, hit the Guinness Book of Records because they celebrated their eightieth wedding anniversary on June 1, 2005.
  • The first aeronauts
    The first model of a hot air balloon was demonstrated by Joseph Montgolfier and was a silk bag that rose to the ceiling of furnished rooms in Avignon (France) in November 1782.
  • Fencing
    Fencing as a spectacular art became widespread in Ancient Greece - there were special schools where they taught to fight with swords, spears, daggers, rapiers.
  • Poets and Writers
    Hesiod (late 8th century BC - 1st half of the 7th century BC), author of the poems "Works and Days" and "Theogony", is the first historically reliable poet not only of Ancient Greece, but also all over Europe.
  • Sports achivments
    In the United States, only two days a year there are no games in any of the professional American sports leagues - this is the day before and the day after the all-star baseball match.
  • Nobel Prize
    The youngest of the Nobel Prize winners in physics - William Laurence Bragg - received the prize at age 25 (1915), together with his father, William Henry Bragg, for his major contribution to the study of crystal structure using X-rays.
  • Steam locomotive and steamboat
    When in 1873 A.N. Lodygin turned to the mayor of St. Petersburg with a proposal to replace gas lamps with brighter and cheaper lamps invented by him, the answer was short and categorical: "To refuse as unnecessary."
  • Christmas traditions
    The tradition of decorating a tree goes back to myths. Ancient people believed that the souls of ancestors were hidden in the lower branches, and the top of the tree touched the stars. It was believed that with the birth of a person, a new star is lit up in the sky, and with death, it goes out. Hence the custom to decorate the top of the tree with a star.
  • Amazing numbers
    The year 1961 is the most recent of those, the record of which is read in the same way both in normal form and in inverted form. The next such year will be 6009.
  • Cars: stars, emblems and safety
    According to Israeli doctors, an indicator of the risk of an accident is music in the car. Drivers who prefer quiet, slow tracks are half as likely to break the rules and put themselves and others in danger less than those who like something loud and dynamic.
  • Bernard Shaw often found stories for his plays ... in markets and other busy places, where he specially went with a notebook.
  • How did the dancing begin
    Medieval ladies and gentlemen danced ballroom dances separately - strict moral norms allowed only occasionally touching each other with their fingertips.
  • Taxes in the old days and today
    In the summer of 1996, the authorities of the Chinese city of Tianjin introduced a "tax on sin", according to which cohabitation without a marriage certificate cost violators 1,000 yuan.
  • Clock and time
    A clock with two hour hands "runs" on ferries between Finland and Sweden. One hour hand (the flag of Finland is depicted on it) shows Finnish time, and the other, respectively, Swedish.
  • From the history of football
    In 1888 the first professional championship was held in England. And in 1914, King George V personally attended the FA Cup final for the first time in the history of football.
  • The oldest pocket watch (portable chronometer) was made from iron around 1504 by Peter Henlein in Nuremberg, Germany.
  • Snow and ice
    The height of icebergs above the water surface reaches 70 m in the Arctic and 100 m in the Antarctic. The life expectancy of these ice mountains in the Arctic is up to 4 years, in the Antarctic - up to 10 years or more.
  • All about chairs
    The chair has long been the privilege of the powers that be. In Russia before Peter the Great, everyone, with the exception of the tsar, sat on benches. In Western Europe, during receptions, only important persons could sit on chairs, the rest stood respectfully.
  • Vikings
    The Vikings are not at all a nationality and far from all the inhabitants of Ancient Scandinavia, but only sea robbers who left their homeland, who embraced not only all of Europe, but also North America with conquest campaigns and trade routes!
  • Formidable volcanoes
    From northwest Sumatra to Halmahera Island inclusively, over a distance of about 5000 km, there are up to 400 volcanoes, including about 80 active ones. There are especially many volcanoes on the Java island (over 100 volcanoes).
  • Funny monuments
    In the center of Berdyansk there is a monument to a plumber, it depicts a tired man climbing out of a sewer manhole.
  • Animation
    For the first time, the drawing moved and came to life in the laboratory of the Belgian physicist J. Plateau in 1832. It was a drawn little man who ran, waving his arms vigorously.
  • Something from astronomy
    The unique globe was built by Archimedes: with the help of complex mechanical devices, it was even possible to reproduce the movement of the stars.
  • Heat and cold
    On the island of Fernandudi Noronha off the coast of Brazil for a fifty-year period from 1911 to 1966. the lowest temperature was +18.6 ° С, and the highest was +32 ° С.
  • Amazing buildings
    The building of the Butyrsky prison castle is an architectural monument built by the famous Moscow architect M. Kazakov. The name comes from the village of Butyrkino. "Butyrki" means the outskirts, a village on the outskirts. Today it is the center of Moscow.
  • From the history of chess
    Alexander Alekhine, the fourth world chess champion, had a living mascot - his beloved Siamese cat Chese (in English "chess"), which sat in the hall on his wife's lap during matches.
  • All around the water
    The Dead Sea is located at the lowest point on the globe - 395 m below sea level and is also the saltiest.
  • Famous statues
    The Statue of Liberty by the sculptor Bartholdi was donated by France to the United States and was first executed in Paris. She was taken to New York by steamer in 214 wooden boxes and restored on Liberty Island.
  • Women's holidays
    In accordance with the decree of the President of the Russian Federation of January 30, 1998, Mother's Day is celebrated annually on the last Sunday of November in the Russian Federation.
  • The power of the gaze
    Since ancient times, contemplation of the sun (indirectly and not at noon) and the moon have been recommended to improve vision, which was much more effective on the eyes than simply observing the horizon.
  • Keys and locks
    One of the oldest surviving keys is the 6th century key. BC NS. from the Temple of Artemis in Arcadia, about 50 cm long, which is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, USA.
  • From the life of great composers
    Gioacchino Rossini at the age of 18 in a few days wrote one of his first operas - "A Promissory Note for Marriage." The opera was a resounding success, and at the age of 19, young Rossini could already support his parents.
  • Ruble and dollar
    Eight million "green" banknotes, issued annually, could encircle the globe at the equator more than 30 times. The weight of one banknote, regardless of its denomination, is approximately 1 gram.
  • Kigelia, a sausage tree from Africa, has very original fruits, they look like large (up to 60 cm long) liver sausages hanging from branches on long legs.
  • From the life of great writers
    Alan Alexander Milne, author of the tale of the teddy bear Winnie the Pooh and his friends, never read stories about Pooh to his son, Christopher Robin, preferring to raise Christopher on the works of his favorite writer Pelam Woodhouse.
  • From the life of the constellations
    They tried to rename the constellation Orion in honor of Napoleon, but astronomers did not support this proposal. The names of European monarchs - George II and George III, Charles II and Louis XIV - did not make it to heaven.
  • Musical instruments
    The saxophone is one of the woodwind instruments, although it is made of metal - silver or a special alloy. This instrument got its name from the name of the inventor - Sax (Sax) and the Greek word phone - sound.
  • Heat and cold
    The air of the deserts is unusually dry, so clouds in the desert are a rare occurrence, and rain falls even less often. And when that happens, you can see it raining, stand under it and stay completely dry.
  • Football awards
    In 1928, by order of FIFA, the Parisian jeweler A. Lefler made the Golden Goddess Prize - an 1800-gram gold statuette of the goddess of victory Nike.
  • About milk
    In Nicaragua, there is a tree called the "wooden cow". If you make an incision in its bark, a white liquid is released that tastes very much like milk.
  • How the newspaper began
    For the first time, the words "to be continued ..." were published by the editors of the "Revue de Paris" magazine. And the circulation of the magazine has doubled!
  • From the life of great artists
    Towards the end of his life, when Henri Matisse could no longer paint, he began to make cutouts from colored paper and glue them on canvas. Now teachers primary schools children all over the world are forced to do the same.
  • Coca Cola
    The active ingredient in Coca-Cola is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. In four days, it can dissolve human nails.
  • The circus
    The "man-core" was not fired from a cannon with gunpowder, but was pushed out by a powerful catapult. Flash, smoke and shot sound were added using a fireworks system.
  • Cartoons
    In 2005 and 2002, Scrooge McDuck was ranked sixth and fourth, respectively, in the list of fifteen richest fictional characters (according to Forbes magazine). In 2007, he topped this list.
  • Chocolate
    According to scientists, chocolate is very beneficial to health. The flavonoids included in its composition increase immunity.
  • Golf
    The median salary of a professional golfer is $ 80,000 a year, and the prize pool for a good championship is in the tens of millions of dollars.
  • For World Football Day
    The longest football match was played on 1-3 August 1981 by the Irish teams of the Callinafersey Football Club in Kerry. The winner was revealed only after ... 65 hours and 1 minute.
  • Collectors and collections
    The collection of playing cards of the Russian Lieutenant General D.P. Ivkov includes more than 2 thousand decks. It is currently kept in the State Hermitage Museum.
  • From the history of cinema
    The Lumière brothers did not believe in the future of cinema. Moreover, they were sure that the movie would never go beyond showing scenes from life, and believed that interest in it would quickly wither away.
  • From the history of the fire department
    One of the first professional fire brigades was created under Peter I. During his reign, the first fire station was created under the Admiralty.
  • About mushrooms
    Unusual names of mushrooms in Russian are striking in their expressiveness: Judas ear, trumpet of the dead, reindeer fiddle, talker, rustling, ram mushroom and even swollen rubber mushroom.
  • Porcelain cup
    Attempts to organize the production of porcelain or faience in Russia began even under Peter I. On the instructions of the emperor, the Russian agent Yuri Kologrivy tried to find out the secret of porcelain production in Meissen, but failed.
  • our planet
    Death Valley, the driest and hottest place on earth, is home to over 15 species of birds, 40 species of mammals, 44 species of reptiles, 12 species of amphibians, 13 species of fish and 545 species of plants.
  • Military secrets
    One Siamese king, retreating, ordered to fire the enemy from cannons not with cannonballs, but with silver coins, which disorganized the enemy and won the battle.

The industrial revolution gave impetus to the development of scientific and technological progress. The transition from a traditional society to an industrial one was accompanied by the improvement of technologies, the appearance of new products on the world market, and an increase in the range of existing ones. Then there was a need to delimit products from one segment. The information society dictated its own laws, the keen eye of the consumer was looking for something new, unique and special. Producers whose products met the expectations of the masses gained worldwide recognition, falling in love with more than one generation. However, few people know that the stories of famous brands are primarily the stories of ordinary people., who did not at all strive for fame, rather, on the contrary, suffered from crisis and poverty.

Hugo Boss: clothing for soldiers of the Third Reich

Today, the Hugo Boss company produces luxury clothing under the separate Hugo and Boss brands, perfumes, as well as sunglasses and watches. Recently, Hugo Boss together with by Samsung released a mobile phone.

It all began back in 1923, when the tailor Hugo Ferdinand Boss founded a textile company in the small German town of Metzingen. The family business was run by several people - the close circle of the Boss. A small shop soon opened. The tailor's clients were mainly police officers and workers. But things go badly, and in 1930, Hugo Boss announces the closure of the business.

However, the enterprising tailor did not have to sit around. Having entered the lava of the National Socialist Party of Germany in 1931, he again opened his own business, this time on a large scale - a clothing factory. Gradually, the enterprise is growing, so the owner is forced to use prisoners of war from different European countries as a labor force: France, Poland, Austria, etc. It was a period of success and recognition, the Boss's clients were Wehrmacht officers, high-ranking officials of Nazi Germany and even Hitler's close associates.

After the end of World War II, the tailor was accused of collaborating with the Nazis, fined and deprived of the opportunity to vote. Apparently never recovering from the blow, Hugo Boss dies in 1948.

After that, the factory passed into the hands of his son-in-law, Eugen Holi. Clothes for handymen and postmen are being released again. In 1953, the company launched the first men's suit. It was this event that heralded the new future of Hugo Boss as a luxury clothing brand.

In 1967, the founder’s grandchildren, Jochen and Uwe Holi, became the head of the company. For the first time, they are promoting the brand, which makes it famous and recognized all over the world.

In the 70s of the twentieth century, the company turns into a fashion house, which brings together famous fashion designers and designers.

The release of a perfume line, a collection of clothes for children, a demonstration of a mobile phone under our own trademark - this is how we know the Hugo Boss brand today: luxurious, sophisticated and unique.

Tefal and Teflon: they found each other

The history of the Tefal brand, one of the most famous world brands, begins in 1954 and is associated with the great discovery of the French engineer and fisherman Marc Gregoire. As he pondered how to fix the sticking problem of a telescopic spinning rod, he discovered that polytetrafluoroethylene or Teflon can be applied to aluminum surfaces. The case was applied in practice, and the problem with sliding system fishing gear is gone forever.

At first, Gregoire's discovery was used in areas far from the manufacture of kitchen appliances, mainly in the design of aerospace technology.

The first Teflon-coated pan was made by the Gregoire family. The couple realized that aluminum, to which nothing sticks, is salvation for hundreds of thousands of women. After a successful test of the miracle frying pan by the discoverer's wife began long period obtaining a patent.

In 1956, Tefal was founded. The newly minted manufacturer received an ingenious name, a combination of two words - TEFlon and Aluminum. The pans quickly gained the trust of both housewives and experienced chefs. More than a million pans were sold in 1958, and about three a year later.

In the 60s, the Tefal brand, recognized in Europe, began to conquer the overseas market. In America, they were delighted with the new product, about a million pans were sold a month.

Business thrived, with non-stick frying pan businesses set up all over the world. Then Marc Gregoire decided to transfer the furrows of management to experienced managers, and he himself took up what he loved - invention. And as always, he achieved an excellent result. Soon, Tefal expanded its product range - the production of household appliances was added to the production of various kitchen appliances.

Nike is a brand recognizable by a tick

The legend of the brand began in 1964, when American student Phil Knight was faced with the problem of choosing athletic shoes. He was a runner who needed comfortable shoes for training. Then on sale there were only branded Adidas sneakers, which only the world champion in running could afford, and ordinary sports shoes for $ 5, after wearing which the legs hurt.

Phil Knight studied economics at Stanford University, the idea to create his own brand came to him at one of the marketing seminars. Each student was engaged in his own project. As homework it was necessary to think over a business development strategy and marketing plan. So the first steps were taken in the development of a global brand.

Phil believed in his idea to the end. Therefore, when it came time to decide how to produce affordable and high-quality shoes, he was not at a loss, because he had already matured a plan. The student travels to Japan and contracts with a local company to supply sneakers overseas.

At first, Blue Ribbon Sports (it was called that way) did not even have its own store. Phil drove around the country in a van, selling shoes on the street.

One day he met a man named Jeff Johnson. Since then, everything has changed. The seasoned athlete turned out to be an excellent marketer who launched a brand promotion campaign.

In 1965, the founders of the company came up with a new name for it - Nike. Johnson allegedly dreamed of the winged goddess of victory, Nick.

The ingeniously simple swoosh logo appeared in 1971. It was invented by Carolyn Davidson, a student at Portland University, for only $ 30. Later, Phil Knight would reform and reward her with a diamond figurine and even give her part of the company's shares.

The famous checkmark has the name "Swoosh", translated from English "flying with a whistle". She symbolizes the wing of the goddess who brings victory.

Indeed, Nike has defeated many of its competitors, but its main achievement is the trust of a huge number of people with different corners planets.

Popular brands that have long been recognized all over the world, as a rule, were created by ordinary people. Often the stories of famous brands are an amazing series of coincidences that combine into an incredible sequence of events, giving birth to legends before the eyes of generations.

If you are planning to launch your own product on the market, the specialists of the KOLORO company will help you create, come up with a fascinating history of its development.

Today LifeGlobe will acquaint you with the most interesting examples of how the future popularity of a nascent company can depend on a lucky coincidence, luck, or even a spelling mistake. We present to your attention the history of the emergence of 20 leading world brands of our time

At all times it was known that its future success depends on the catchy, memorable name of the company. Recently, when creating any large company or for the purpose of rebranding an existing but unpopular one, the practice of "brainstorming" is most often used - when all employees gather in one room and "throw" their ideas of names on a common table. This is an interesting and correct approach, but sometimes no "brainstorming" can be compared with the will of chance, pushing on completely unexpected ideas or making you make a mistake that will cause the brand to become megapopular in the future ...


Of course, the last words were a reference to the most famous case of this kind - a typo when registering the domain of the most extensive and popular search engine today, Google. Initially, Page and Brin's search engine was called BackRab, but at some point they decided that something needed to be changed - in 1997, a brainstorming session was held among students at the Stanford University dormitory, the purpose of which was to find a name that fit would be a search engine capable of processing colossal amounts of information. After a few inconclusive hours, Page himself came up with the idea - the word googol, which meant one followed by a hundred zeros, but the student who was entrusted with registering the domain name made a typo, which resulted in the google.com domain


In order not to go far, let's remember how Facebook was created - the largest on this moment social network in the world. As you know, the first trick of Mark Zuckerberg was to steal photos and data of Harvard students, and post them on his website Facemash with the ability to vote for a particular photo. But the leadership of the university did not appreciate the resourcefulness of the student and Mark was expelled. After a while, the idea of ​​another project, much more ambitious and this time completely legal, came to Zuckerberg's bright mind. One day Mark was sorting through old things and accidentally stumbled upon his school photo album "The Photo Address Book". He remembered that no one had ever liked this name, since was long and it took a long time to pronounce it, so everyone called the album simply "Facebook" - this is how the future social network got a name that today is not known except in the most backward countries of the world or some indigenous tribes of South America =)


Another social resource popular with us - VKontakte - got its name due to the fact that Pavel Durov, who created it, listened to the radio station "Echo of Moscow", where the phrase "In full contact with information" was often repeated on the air. Without hesitation, Pavel removed unnecessary words and registered a domain name, which has recently been shortened to just two letters VK. Well, I didn't bother with the logo at all - I used the example of Facebook =)


The name of the Russian search resource Yandex is actually an abbreviation, and different in Russian and English - "Language INDEX" in Russian and "Yet Another iNDEX" in English. It is not known exactly who came up with this idea, but according to the official version it was one of the developers of the search engine


Domain name for the foreign search engine Yahoo! was invented, without knowing it, by the Irish writer Jonathan Swift, who called this annoying tribe of natives in "The Adventures of Gulliver". It’s also a cheer that is widespread in America, which is why the founders of Yahoo! Jerry Yang and David Philo have chosen just such a name for the domain of the future search resource - in their understanding "Yahoo!" means the joy of the user that he found the necessary information

The creator of the Hotmail trademark, which is now part of Microsoft, is Sabir Bhatia, who at one time went through a bunch of names ending in "mail" and, in the end, settled on the name Hotmail - due to the fact that it is encrypted in addition abbreviation for HTML. The very idea of ​​creating mailboxes that can be accessed from any corner of the planet, which has the Internet, belongs to Jack Smith. Hotmail is on the verge of shutting down today with a more user-friendly Outlook.com. In 2013, Hotmail will cease to exist forever, and its users will be automatically transferred to the new mail service.


In order not to stray far from the Internet and IT-technologies, let us recall one of the leading manufacturers of prestigious new consumer electronics - Apple, whose brand in May 2011 was recognized as the most expensive brand in the world. The history of the name is quite comical - one fine day, after three months of fruitless attempts to come up with a name for the company, Steve Jobs threatened his partners that if by 5 pm they did not offer him a normal option, he would name the company after his favorite fruit - an apple! Not offered ...


The name of another major electronics manufacturer was decided by a coin - William Hewlett and David Packard tossed it when they were deciding whose name would appear first in the name of their joint venture, the first office of which was Hewlett's garage. It is logical to assume that since the company is called Hewlett / Packard, then the coin turned out to be lucky for the owner of the garage =)


Japanese Sony also went through a long search - the creators of "Tokyo tsushin koge kabushiki kaisa" ("Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company") Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuki wanted to find a shorter and more concise name, but could not think of anything. And then the Latin language came to their aid, and specifically - the word sonus, which is translated as "sound". It was the 1950s, and in Japan the American word sonny, consonant with it, was widespread, but written in Japanese hieroglyphs it meant "unprofitable". The problem was solved with the simplicity inherent in the Japanese - they deleted the extra N from the name and registered the SONY brand


Another Japanese giant specializing in the production of digital equipment for home and office - Canon - originally, when created in the 30s of the last century, bore the intricate name Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory in Japan. But with the creation of the first camera, named for some reason in honor of the Buddhist goddess of mercy Kwanon, brothers Goro and Saburo Yoshida decided to rename the company and at the same time take several consonant names, including Canon, "just in case." Such foresight helped them in the future to avoid problems with religious structures, which did not like that the name of the great goddess bears "some kind of incomprehensible contraption" - as a result, the Yoshida brothers settled on the name Canon, because it turned out that, in addition to the sweetness, it also translates from of English language as "canon", and in French means "cannon" - since that time, more and more "photo cannons" have been produced =)


The name of the South Korean industrial concern Samsung in translation means "Three Stars". The reason for this name of the company is not known for certain, but many associate it with the three sons of its founder


The name of the American company Kodak was born thanks to the love of its founder George Eastman for the letter "K" - he was looking for short words that would begin and end with this letter. He was also attracted to her by the fact that in all the most popular alphabets of the world, the letter "K" is spelled the same way. As a result, the word "Kodak" was born in Eastman's head - just such a sound, in his opinion, was produced by a camera with 100-frame film invented by him in 1888.


Copier creator Chester Carlson wanted to highlight the fact that before his invention, the dry-powder copier, there were only wet copy technologies. Therefore, Chester sat down at dictionaries and found the word "xer" in the Greek language, literally translated as "dry", and on the basis of it he came up with a name for his device - "xerox"

In order not to go far, remember that in another American state a company was born whose products we consumed in liters in the 90s - we are talking about Pepsi-Cola, which the pharmacist Caleb Bradham invented at the end of the nineteenth century. There are several versions of where this name came from. More commonly, Caleb named the drink after pepsin, a digestive enzyme that helps our stomachs break down protein. According to another version, Bradham simply took the name of the company of one of his local competitors - Pep Cola - and "edited" it a little. The last opinion that can be paid attention to is based on the assumption that people liked that the black drink gave them vigor and strength (from the English pep - energy, vigor) - hence the name


Already in this, XXI century, Pepsi-Cola has thoroughly supplanted another no less black and no less harmful drink - Coca-Cola. Pharmacist John Stith Pemberton did not think about the name for a long time - he named according to the main ingredients of his recipe, created on May 8, 1886, - three parts of coca leaves (which are so popular in Colombia ...) for one part of tropical cola nuts. You can learn more about other ingredients from the article What is included in everyone's favorite Coca-Cola. According to another version, the name for the drink was invented by a local farmer who sold it to a pharmacist for $ 250. The Coca-Cola logo was written in calligraphic letters by Pemberton's accountant Frank Robinson - a gifted accountant, judging by the fact that the logo has not changed since then)

An interesting story is also connected with the name of the German industrial concerns Adidas and Puma. Once upon a time, in the 1920s, two brothers, Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, founded a common shoe making company. They called it simply - Dassler (full name - "Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory"). In 1948, after the death of their father, the brothers had a violent quarrel and decided to continue to go their own way. As a consequence, they agreed that no one would use the name Dassler anymore. Adolf named his newly formed company Addas, which was later replaced by the more euphonious Adidas (from the abbreviated name of Adolf - Adi Dassler), and his brother Rudolph founded the Ruda factory, later renamed into a similar word Puma. On this, the joint story of the Dassler brothers finally ended.



Mitsubishi, a Tokyo-based engineering company, was founded in the early 1870s with the trefoil logo, the family coat of arms of the founder, Yataro Iwasaki. As a consequence of the coat of arms, the name "Three Diamonds" was invented ("mitsu" - "three", "hishi" - "diamond", according to another version of the translation - "water nut"). Why then doesn't it sound like Mitsuhishi? The answer lies in the phenomenon of Japanese morphonology, or Randaku, as a result of which the voiceless initial consonants of the root often become voiced when reading if a prefix or other root is in front of the root of the word. This is why the letter "h" in the middle of Mitsuhishi is pronounced "b"


The history of the name of the South Korean financial and industrial group Daewoo is not as interesting as the translation of the name itself, which few people know about, is unusual. The founder of the company, Kim Woo Chong, called it simply and modestly - "Big Universe". Indeed, much more modest)


The name of the German auto giant Audi is no less interesting. The word itself is borrowed from Latin and translates as "Listen!", But the main interesting feature is that Audi is the Latin version of the surname of the founder of the company August Horch. The fact is that they did not really think about the name for the first car produced at the newly formed plant - they just called it Horch, but when they began to come up with a name for the next model, the son of one of his partners came to the aid of August, who offered the Latin version of the leader's surname ... Since then, the history of one of the most successful automotive companies in the world begins, which today is part of the Volkswagen Group.


As you can see, some companies were named on a whim, others took weeks and months to find a suitable name, but they nevertheless became successful in their economic niches - mainly due to the correctly chosen name. interesting idea and well-coordinated work of their teams

  • TEFAL
    Tefal has long believed that the main motivation for buying Teflon-coated pans is that they do not require a single gram of oil to cook in these pans. However, later it turned out that the main incentive to buy them was the fact that pans with such a coating are very easy to clean, because food does not stick to their surface. The content of the advertising campaign has been changed, which significantly increased its effectiveness.
  • SNICKERS
    In Russia, the first Snickers chocolate bars appeared in 1992 and were positioned as a snack replacing a full meal. For a long time, the former Soviet consumer could not get used to eating instead of soup for lunch, and bought Snickers as a "sweet for tea". After the BBDO Moscow agency took over the creative service of the brand, Snickers was repositioned for teenagers who, for the most part, love everything sweet and do not like it.
  • Alka-Seltzer
    After in the 1960s, Alka-Seltzer advertisements began to throw not one, as before, but two tablets into a glass of water, sales of the drug doubled. Tinker & Partners came up with a clever advertising move.
    There is a similar story about the ingenious marketer who first came up with specifying in the instructions for use of the shampoo that it should be applied to the hair and washed off twice, which led to a double increase in sales.
  • Pepsi
    Pepsi in Russia was first advertised by Nikita Khrushchev. In 1959, at the American National Exhibition in Moscow, in Sokolniki, the then vice-president Richard Nixon, skillfully playing the role of the host, offered Nikita Khrushchev a drink to sample. The photograph of the Soviet leader holding a glass with the Pepsi logo in his hands did not leave the pages of newspapers and advertising magazines for a long time. That momentous moment in the history of the brand is considered the "Birthday" of Pepsi in Russia.
  • Timberland
    From Timberland History. Timberland was having a hard time in the early 1980s. It produced quality pumps that were priced lower than industry leader Topsiders. It seemed a good product and the low price should have worked for them, but things were not going well. Then Timberland made a very simple decision: they raised their prices, so that they were much higher than the prices offered by Topsiders. Sales have skyrocketed. That confirms the reliability of the statement of David Ogilvy "The higher the price, the more desirable the product becomes in the eyes of the buyer."
  • Parliament
    At one time, the tobacco brand Parliament went the same way. Initially, its prices were below the main competitor Marlboro, and sales were quite modest as they faced a lot of low-price competitors in which the feature of their exclusive filter was not appreciated by anyone. Then the brand left the market for a year and came out again at a price higher than Marlboro, immediately falling into the “premium” niche, where a filter that was just different from all the others came at the right time.
  • Woolworth
    The founder of Woolworth, the largest chain of stores and the inventor of grocery labels and supermarkets, found the right insight to make millions while fainting with fear. A shy and stuttering young man from the village at the age of 21, he got a job as a sales assistant in a small shop. At that time, the price of goods in stores, placed on the counter behind the seller, was not indicated. The seller "by eye" determined the buyer's solvency and named his price. Then the buyer either bargained or left. Poor Frank did not know how at all and was very afraid to invite buyers, praise the goods, and bargain. He was so afraid that one day he even fainted while working. As a punishment, the owner of the store punished him by leaving him to trade alone for the whole day, threatening that if the proceeds were less than the usual daily, he would fire him.
    Before the opening of the store, Frank attached a piece of paper with the lowest possible price to all goods (a prototype of the modern price tag). All the stale goods dumped in the warehouse, he laid out on a huge table, attaching a sign to it with the inscription "All for five cents." He set the table near the window so that both the goods and the plate could be seen from the street. And shaking with fear, he began to wait for buyers, hiding behind the counter.
    All the goods were sold out in a few hours, and the revenue per day was exactly the same as the week's. Buyers, holding the product in their hands and seeing the price written on it, gave money without bargaining.
    Frank left the owner, borrowed money and opened his own store. In 1919, Woolworth's empire consisted of a thousand stores, and Frank's personal fortune was approximately 65 million.
  • "Guinness Book of Records"
    The famous and best-selling (after the Bible) "Guinness Book of Records" is nothing more than a publicity stunt invented by the managing director of the Guinness brewery company Sir Hugh Beaver. In 1954, at a Wexford dinner for hunters, Hugh Beaver got into an argument with one of the guests who flies faster - the plover or the partridge. It was then that Beaver dawned on everything the globe during such small gatherings, real disputes about the "most" unfold. He decided that it was worth creating a book that would contain officially confirmed records in all sorts of areas.
    It took a year research work, and on August 27, 1955, the first 198-page book was ready. The success was overwhelming: even before Christmas, it became a bestseller in the UK, bringing in a good income for the beer brand.
  • Dewar's
    In London at the end of the 19th century, brandy, rum and gin were very popular. Therefore, it was not easy to promote. Sly Thomas Dewar, one of the founders of the family brand, chose an unexpected strategy. He hired dummy buyers who visited various pubs, demanding to pour them Dewar's whiskey. Naturally, that was not on sale, and they left. After several such visits, Dewar himself appeared in the bar and offered to conclude a contract for the supply of whiskey.
    In 1892, Thomas Dewar went on a trip around the world. In two years, he visited 26 countries, and 32 agents began to work for the company, and several Dewar's export companies appeared. During this time, the company's turnover has grown 10 times. And Tommy Dewar wrote his famous book A Walk Around the World.
  • Camel
    One of the first teaser ads in America was tested by the Camel tobacco brand in 1913. Deciding that the camel is not only a memorable vivid picture, but also an excellent reason for advertising innovations, specialists of the RJR tobacco company, a few days before the first batch of cigarettes went on sale, published mysterious ads in newspapers in almost ninety American cities. "Camels" - read the first of them. A few later, the message “Camels are coming” appeared, and then - “Tomorrow there will be more camels in the city than in Asia and Africa combined”! The next morning, the frightened and intrigued Americans finally learned the whole truth. “Camel Cigarettes Are Here!” Read the final announcement.
  • IKEA
    When the first IKEA stores opened in the United States and were already recognized in Europe, furniture sales fell short of expectations. After some research, it turned out that while Americans liked the simplicity of the design, they wanted furniture to match the larger dimensions of their homes. All that had to be done was to increase the size of the furniture.
  • Procter & Gamble
    Victor Mills, a leading chemist and technologist at Procter & Gamble, who helped his daughter look after the children, had to repeatedly pull out wet diapers from under his grandchildren, wash and dry them. Of course, he did not like the process and wanted to somehow make his life easier. Then the idea of ​​a disposable "diaper" came to mind - a foldable pad with a high absorbency, which was planned to be placed in a specially shaped panties. After experimenting several times with different materials, Mills developed a new product for P & G, which was released under the Pampers trademark, which became a household name.
  • Chupa chups
    Usually, all children, after they eat caramel, get sticky hands, and they, without hesitation, wipe them on their clothes. A lollipop (originally made of wood), which could be sucked, as if on a fork and without getting dirty clothes, was invented in 1958 by Enrique Bernat. The USP of the product was that it could be sucked without getting your clothes and hands dirty. At the same time, the first slogan of Chupa Chups appeared - “It’s round and long-lasting” (~ It is round and long). The innovative stick was appreciated by consumers all over the world, who have been sucking fruit candy for 54 years.
  • Nestlé
    The original logo for Nestlé, founded in the 1860s, looked like this: a nest with three chicks and their mother. As a trademark for his first products, Henri Nestlé used the family coat of arms. At that time, parents and three children were considered a traditional family. Later, closer to the middle of the 20th century, traditions changed. The logo has also changed. Now in the nest, traditionally for Europe, there are only 2 chicks.
  • Marlboro
    For the first time, the Marlboro brand appeared in 1924 and was positioned as the first ladies' cigarettes. A purely feminine slogan was chosen: "Mild as May" - "Delicate like May". Hollywood star Mae West was invited as the face of the brand. The packaging was also aimed at the ladies' audience: a filter with a red strip solved a double task: to hide an inaccurate lipstick mark and to protect women's white teeth from yellowing. But no matter how hard the advertising specialists tried, the product was not very attractive to women: cigarettes spoiled breath, turned yellow and a painful dry cough arose. Therefore, in order to survive in the market two decades later, the brand had to change its gender.
    In order to change the perception of filter cigarettes as a product "for girls", Philip Morris brought in one of the best American advertising specialists - Leo Burnett, who came up with the image of the "Prairie Cowboy". The cowboy - the embodiment of the American spirit - touched consumers to the quick. The posters reminded of the real heroes of America - brutal guys conquering the wild steppes. They conquered everyone - men and women, blacks and Latinos. Sales of Marlboro in just one year have grown so much that they began to occupy the fourth position in the ranking of sales of all tobacco products.
    In addition, Malrboros began to be produced in the "Flip-top" package that later became the standard - a hard cardboard box with a hinged lid. Such packaging had both purely practical (cigarettes did not wrinkle) and colossal marketing significance - now the smoker had to demonstrate the pack to others every time he was going to smoke, because it was inconvenient to open the flip-top in his pocket.
  • De beers
    It is known that a consumer buys not a product, but a solution to his problem. So the South African diamond company De Beers offered men a solution to all their problems with the opposite sex, building on this insight the most ingenious advertising campaign.
    In 1948, Harry Oppenheimer, head of De Beers, traveled to meet with representatives of the advertising agency N. W. Ayers. He went there with the firm intention to change people's ideas about diamonds: it is necessary to make sure that this stone ceases to be a trinket of the moneybags, but becomes an everyday commodity, without which ordinary people could not do. Advertising posters depicting spectacular actresses with rings on fingers and earrings in their ears have been replaced by black and white posters with images of diamonds and the words “Relieves headaches since 1888”, “Think about it. Divorce is more expensive "," No, your wife did not pay for this advertisement (But she told us which newspapers you read) "and so on. This is how De Beers proved that it is possible to sell luxury to women through their men.
  • Red bull
    When the drink was brought to the wide market (Europe, USA), the main competitors were Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Molson, Labatt, and Anheuser-Busch. The concept was the same for everyone - they toned and stimulated, and the energetic Jolt Cola contained, among other things, a double dose of caffeine compared to Red Bull.
    Then Dietrich Mateschitz took a risky step: he artificially raised the price twice compared to competitors, reduced the volume of containers in the shape of a battery, and began to place cans in stores not in the drinks departments, but in any other (note, when in the next once you go to the store - Red Bull cans, along with the rest of the energy drinks, can be found almost in the sausage department, including in the alcoholic one).
    In addition, Red Bull Crates were distributed free of charge to students on university campuses. At student revels, Red Bull went off with a bang, because by chance and a happy coincidence, it was quickly discovered that it fits perfectly with vodka, and so the new and very popular Vodka Red Bull cocktail was born.
  • ARIEL
    Rumor has it that the so-called casual fridays, when you can move away from the strict dress code adopted in large companies and change the formal suit for casual clothes, was invented by P & G for advertising purposes. In the 80s of the 20th century, the world's largest company P&G was the leader in the washing powder market in the United States. But, despite the high advertising activity, the market share did not want to grow in any way. Then the company conducted research and evaluated the clothing care market. As a percentage, it turned out that powder is used in 65% of cases, and dry cleaning - in 35%. The company went on to find that 70% of consumers of laundry detergent are self-employed and wear suits 5 out of 7 days a week, which they send to dry cleaning.
    Further, joint research by P&G and Levi Strauss Jeans showed that casual employees are more creative and perform much more efficiently than those who wear suits. And what did they do? P&G internally introduces the right to wear casual wear on Friday. The news received huge coverage in the press through the efforts of both companies, and many corporations followed suit. The laundry detergent market grew by 20%.