We’re surrounded by brands all day, every day. Have you stopped what you’re doing to look at the brand and think ‘where did the idea for this come from?’
Year upon year there is a flurry of new brands emerging across the market or already existing brands that have a breakthrough and standout.
The brands we have come to know, love, sometimes hate and associate ourselves with everyday have become so familiar to us, but as many do they all have a hidden meaning behind their name.
Coca cola
This ‘miracle concoction’ that we all know is ‘best served chilled’ was named after it’s two main ingredients; Coca Leaves and Cola Nut. It was originally sold in pharmacies as a tonic to combat fatigue and headaches, but now you can can find in the fridge at your favourite supermarket.
eBay
Founder, Pierre Morad Omidyar wanted to to create a website that replicated an online marketplace, which back in 1995, he called ‘Auction Web’. The company’s name was ‘Echo Bay’, which was abbreviated to ‘eBay’ to become the domain Omidyar used for his site. ‘eBay AuctionWeb’ was originally just one part of Echo Bay’s website at ebay.com. In 1997, Omidyar changed AuctionWeb’s, and his company’s name to ‘eBay’, which is what people had been calling the site for a long time.
Have you ever told someone to just ‘Google it’? Everyone’s ‘go to’ search engine got its name from ‘goggol’ – the mathematical term for the number ‘1’ followed by 100 zeros.
IKEA
Ingvar Kamprad was just 17 when he founded the world’s largest furniture retailer. Ingvar took his initials (IK) and the first letter of the village and farm where he grew up, Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd (EA) and bought us IKEA.
Virgin
Sir Richard Branson wrote in his autobiography that the company’s name came from a brainstorming session, in which a colleague said that they were all virgins in this business – and there it was. This worldwide brand is known for owning one of the biggest airlines, media telecoms companies and gym chains.
Blackberry
Before iPhones, Blackberrys were everywhere. You could hear echos of ‘what’s your BBM?’. Did you ever get frustrated by the size of the keypad? Well here’s why each button was so small… the device was meant to represent the drupelets on the fruit.
Skype
It started as ‘Sky-peer-to-peer’, which then changed to ‘Skyper’ and eventually the ‘r’ was dropped to give us Skype.
Amazon
What do you do when you want to appear at the top of a search? Start your company with the letter ‘a’. What do you do if you want your company to become the biggest in its field? Call it after the world’s biggest river.
Vodafone
Who’s your mobile network provider? If it’s Vodafone, here’s how it came to be. VOice – DAta – FONE ( Data and Voice Telephone).
Apple
Here’s how the renowned brand got its name… in Steve Jobs’ biography he explains how he was on one of his fruitarian diets and had just come back from an apple farm, and thought the name sounded “fun, spirited and not intimidating.” Now we have iPhones, iPads and Macs – who’s grateful?
These breakthrough brands are at the top of their Industry’s game as they continue to bring us innovation. Their work inspires us to create and grow meaningful brand identities through beautiful and compelling content.
