Eleven Curiosities About Marketing
Instantly recognizable, globally present, and famous not only for their products but also for the striking way they have advertised them over time. We are talking about 11 brands that have made marketing history, in part because of some very special backgrounds. Let’s discover them together to grasp their strategies for success!
1. Apple
In Apple’s advertisements, official website, and presentations, their product clocks are always stopped at 9:41. How come?
The tradition began in 2007, during the first launch of the iPhone. Forty minutes into the presentation, when everyone thought it was over, Steve Jobs pulled the rabbit out of the hat. The entrepreneur airs photos of the iPhone with the clock stopped at 9:41 a.m., so that the time would coincide with the actual time of the conference. Since that time, Apple has always kept the time of its devices stationary at 9:41 a.m., as a best practice for marketing and as a tribute to Jobs’ genius.
2. Adidas and Puma
Very few people know that the founders of the famous brands were two German brothers, born Adolf and Rudolf Dassler. In the 1920s they started their shoe project together until Rudolf, accused of being part of the SS, quarreled with his brother and separated from him.
Adolf Dassler, called Adi by everyone, decided to sever relations with Rudolf and found his own company,Adidas precisely, a name obtained by combining his nickname with his last name.
Instead, Rudolf founded Puma, which then remained, until a few years ago, in his family’s hands. Over the years, the two brothers invested a lot of money in huge advertising campaigns with the intent of destroying each other.
A practice still pursued today by many companies, which design
advertising campaigns and sponsorships
geared more toward outperforming the competition in visibility than toward sales per se. A marketing technique to replicate? We at MeRcomm suggest more functional solutions to conquer the market!
3. Coca Cola
Everyone knows, through historical advertising, the story of John Pemberton, who invented Coca Cola as a headache medicine. The product was immediately a huge success, partly because of its price. It was in fact sold as a take-away drink for only 5 cents a glass.
Pemberton, however, did not realize that he had created a veritable gold mine and, after a short time, sold his company shares.
What is curious about this? To date, “Coke” is the second most used word in the world, after the more common and unbranded “ok.”
4. Lacoste
Jean René Lacoste was a very famous Parisian tennis player of the 1920s. After a victory, he was rewarded with a crocodile-skin suitcase, in tribute to the nickname he earned on the tennis court.
Lacoste appreciated this appellation so much that he had a crocodile embroidered on all his T-shirts, giving birth to the Lacoste brand. A kind of brand identity ante litteram.
5. Fanta
The fifth marketing trivia will ask you for an imaginative effort, to imagine a Fanta that … doesn’t taste like orange soda!
When he came to power, Adolf Hitler banned the import of Coca Cola because of political and military alliances. Max Keith, Coca Cola’s main bottler, thus created Fanta in 1940 to keep intact the market share that the U.S. drink guaranteed him.
During the conflict, however, ingredients were scarce, especially oranges, and Fanta was obtained by processing cheese by-products.
The term “Fanta” comes from the German “Fantasie,” precisely because orange had nothing to do with it at all and you really had to make an
effort of imagination
to taste that kind of flavor. In 1955, in Naples, Snibeg first produced Fanta with oranges, and in 1960 Coca Cola bought the brand.
6. BMW
In the beginning, BMW produced aircraft engines. The logo of the well-known German brand still recalls its origin: the white part represents a propeller, the blue part the sky. We have already seen what is
the importance of a brand logo
. Not only as an aesthetic presentation, but as an element of recognition, assertion of historicity and construction of a unique and unmistakable identity.
7. Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton valued theexclusivity of its brand. A brand marketing strategy that still characterizes the company’s communication today. The story goes that, just to maintain the exclusivity of its products, Vuitton inaugurated the tradition of burning the seasonal remnants of unsold bags at the end of the season. When the need to make your brand unique outweighs the accounting need!
8. Samsung
Samsung was born from the translation of two Korean ideograms meaning “Three Stars” (Sam Sung). Byung-Chull Lee, the founder, chose the three as a symbol of power and perfection, and the star as a symbol of luck and ingenuity.
Samsung was originally started as a company exporting and selling dried Korean products. He only began to get involved in “mobile” in 1983, trying to create car phones.
9. Bacardi
Facundo Bacardi Masso, originally from Catalonia, moved to Cuba in 1862, where he opened his first distillery on Calle Matadero. The ceiling of the room was constantly colonized bylots of bats. That is why the flying mammal is still an integral part of the Bacardi logo today.
In this case, the brand logo tells less about the product itself and more about the story. Representing your company’s journey and evolution often really allows you to differentiate yourself from your competition. What we would call the power of storytelling.
10. Starbucks
Few people know that the name Starbucks originates from the famous novel “Moby Dick,” more specifically from the name of the first officer of the whaling ship who was named, indeed, Starbuck. This also explains the brand’s marine theme!
This curiosity about marketing also teaches us that when you want to design a
communication project
there are so many elements to consider. From graphic design to theme, from corporate communication to set-up. This is also why people turn to a communications agency: to develop a coherent, comprehensive project that leaves nothing to chance and returns a custom-built package to their company.
11. Adobe
We all know Adobe for the famous Reader, many will have heard of “Adobe Photoshop” for photo retouching, and professionals will surely also be familiar with “Adobe Illustrator” and “Adobe Indesign.”
Today Adobe Systems Incorporated is a U.S. software house best known for its digital video and graphics products.
John Warnock, co-founder of the company, lived in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a stream named Adobe Creek flowed near his home. Hence, the name we all know. When love for your homeland leads you to create one of the world giants in the digital industry!
