Where did they come from…..and how were they made?? – Part I

Popular brand names are part of our everyday lives; their eye catching logos and witty slogans are everywhere, and unless you live on a desert island in the middle of the Bermuda triangle, it’s highly likely that a number of popular brands are competing amongst each other to win your love and affection right now.

We all have our favorite brands……the supermarket that we prefer to shop in, the junk food that we just can’t get enough of, and that brand of gadgets that we just love.

Big brands are experts at enticing us to spend our hard earned money with them, turning them into multi-billion pound international companies……but they all started somewhere, so how did they get their name and where did they come from??

Here are some of the brands we love the most, and where they came from:

Adidas – Adidas was founded in 1948 by Adolf ‘Adi’ Dassler following the split of the company he created with his brother Rudolf, Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler brothers shoe factory). Rudolf later created rival company Puma.

Apple – Founded in 1976, the world’s most valuable electronics company was named after co-founder Steve Jobs favorite fruit and the time he worked in an apple orchard.

Argos – Richard Tompkins came up with the idea while on holiday in Greece in the city of Argos. He had the idea that people could buy items from his company Green Shield Stamps, with cash instead of savings stamps.

Asda – Founded in 1949 in Leeds as Associated Dairies & Farm Stores Limited. After a merger with the Asquith chain of supermarkets in 1965, the company was renamed ASDA from the words Asquith and Dairies.

BMW – Founded in 1916, BMW stands for Bavarian Motor Works.

Canon – The world renown printer and camera manufacturer, was originally named Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory and then Kwanon, which was later changed to Canon. The name Kwanon was taken from the company’s first camera.

Coca-Cola – Invented in 1885 by Dr John Pemberton, a pharmacist in Atlanta. The drink was originally advertised as a non alcoholic cure for morphine and opium addictions. Pemberton had been wounded in the Battle of Columbus and became addicted to morphine, like many people at the time, and wanted to create an alternative.

Colgate – Formed in 1806, and named after the founder William Colgate, who was an English immigrant that set up a soap and candle factory in New York City.

Dixons – Founded in 1937 by Charles Kalms and Michael Mindel who opened their first photographic shop in Southend. They only had room for 6 letters on their store front and so picked Dixons from the phonebook!

Dominoes Pizza – In 1960 brothers Tom and James Monaghan purchased a small pizza shop called DomiNick’s in Michigan for $575. James later sold his share to Tom for a used Volkswagen Beetle. Tom then changed the business name to Dominoes’ Pizza and started his franchise.

Epson – Manufacturers of Epson ink cartridges, was founded in 1942 by Hisao Yamazaki in Nagano Japan who was a local clock shop owner. The name Epson was taken from ‘Son of Electric Printer.’

Fanta – During the buildup of world war II, it became hard for the Coca-Cola plant to obtain the ingredients needed, so a new drink was created from byproducts of cheese and jam and named after the German word for imagination (Fantasie).

FaceBook – Taken from the name of the book given to newly enrolled university students in America. The books contain pictured and names of all students to help them to get to know each other better.

Google – Started by 2 Stanford university students as a research project in 1996, and originally based in a friend’s garage, the pair wanted to create a search engine that looked at relationships between websites rather than just count the number of times search results appear. The name Google was taken after a misspelling of the word Googol (the number 1 followed by 100 zeros). The company is now worth billions.

So there you have it, part I of; ‘Where did they come from ….and how were they made??’ Check back soon for part II to discover which market stall traders later sold their company for £44.6 million, and the college student who built one of the world’s leading sports manufacturers, after selling sports shoes from the boot of his car!

Source: Wikipedia