11 Brands whose names have great stories

The creativity and simplicity of globally successful brands are what have made them the most recognizable and memorable. Without complications, they communicate to the audience exactly what they want to convey. However, the origins of some of them are more interesting than they seem.

O awesome.club brings you a series of curious facts about the names of some of the most popular brands in the world.

Pepsi, like many other carbonated beverages, was first marketed as a remedy for indigestion. Pharmacist Caleb Bradham prepared the soda in his pharmacy with a mixture of sugar, caramel, water, lemon oil, kola nut and nutmeg. The original name was “Brad’s Drink” or “Brad’s drink”, which was sold with the slogan: “Stimulating, invigorating, aiding digestion”.

With the popularity that the drink began to have, Bradham decided to change its name to something more attractive, inspired by the word dyspepsiathe medical term for indigestion, and in kola nut which was part of the recipe. The product ended up being called “Pepsi-Cola” and now this century-old drink is a brand that has grown endlessly in the hands of great artists and celebrities.

The biggest search engine on the planet developed an impressive brand that spread like a communications giant and even led to the creation of the verb “googlar”. It is undeniable that the Google it currently has one of the largest data centers with Internet information in the world.

Its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, already had the potential that their company would have in mind from the beginning at Stanford University, since the original plan was to call it “googol”, inspired by the number gugol, which is equal to 10 raised to 100a huge number, but not infinite.

Accidentally, Larry Page misspelled the name: instead of “googol”, he wrote “google” and the page and the company were registered with this “error”, which, in reality, only served to distinguish it from the others and grow to what it is nowadays.

Entrepreneur Ray Kroc was the mastermind behind the expansion of the McDonald’s chain, but the original name comes from the surnames of the inventors of the “fast food” concept: Maurice “Mac” and Richard “Dick” McDonald. Since the 1940s, they had been running a successful restaurant, but as soon as World War II ended, they decided to implement a new system to reduce wait times for orders.

The first McDonalds opened in 1948, with a limited menu and standardized processes that allowed the brothers to speed up food preparation and sell it at a very competitive price. Their success also led them to renovate the restaurant’s architecture, creating the first prototype of the famous golden arches.

When the McDonald brothers bought several milkshake mixers from Ray Kroc at a time when the market was in decline, the salesman was impressed with the efficiency of the restaurant and came up with the idea of ​​creating franchises throughout the United States. He became his agent and, in the 1960s, he bought 100% of the company.

The famous golden arches that identify it have mutated over time, but are one of the most recognizable logos on the planet, for their simplicity and vibrant colors.

In 1965, the University team of the Florida Gators it had very poor performance in the field and a host of heat-related illnesses. The doctors, at the technician’s request, went to work to find out what was the matter.

Researchers found that players lost electrolytes and carbohydrates when they played and didn’t regain them, so they developed a drink that would balance those needs and called it Gator-Aid. The product proved to be a hit with the Gators and its popularity spread throughout the sporting world.

When it came time to produce it commercially, the name was changed to Gatorade, and its success has only increased over the years. Today the brand has expanded into something much bigger than a colorful drink.

According to the founder of the prestigious watch brand, Hans Wilsdorf, he had already tried everything to give his new product a suitable name. He wanted something that was short and could be said in any language easily, as well as looking good on the watch face.

After combining all the letters of the alphabet in a thousand ways and coming up with a hundred potential names, none of them seemed strong enough. But a ride on a horse-drawn tram would change the fate of his newly founded company, as a “genius”, as Wilsdorf called it, whispered the word “Rolex” in his ear.

Founded in 1943, when its creator was just 17 years old, IKEA has gone from selling all kinds of objects to being a reference for Swedish ingenuity around the world, with its collapsible furniture that makes it easy to pack and transport.

However, those who don’t master Swedish have always wondered what the word IKEA means in that language. The answer? They are combined initials: those of the founder’s name, Ingvar Kampradwith those of the farm where he grew up, Elmtarydand the city in southern Sweden where he was located: agunnaryd🇧🇷

Unlike the company, and as a curious fact, the name of each product has Swedish origin (the vast majority) and the categories can be found in the IKEA Dictionary.

this ice cream premium came a long way to satisfy the palates of the American public, or so we’ve been led to believe. In fact, its creator, Reuben Mattus, was a Jewish immigrant from Poland who lived in the United States and, together with his wife, created this important brand of ice cream whose name sounds Scandinavian, but is a completely invented word.

Calling their ice creams that way fulfilled a double function. Mattus wanted to pay tribute to Denmark, the country that defended the Jewish people during World War II, so he used the Danish spelling to name his brand. In addition, he wanted to give it an exotic touch, as it was an ice cream of the highest quality, so he was sure that this name would give it a more distinctive profile.

When tycoon Amancio Ortega wanted to name his clothing business, he initially thought of calling it “Zorba,” like the 1964 film, Zorba the Greek, as he was a great admirer of Anthony Quinn’s film. He even made the mold to put the letters on the sign of his store in La Coruña, Spain.

However, shortly before opening in 1975, he noticed that his spot was very close to a bar called… “Zorba”. As it was very confusing to have two establishments with the same name in such a small radius, Ortega took the molds and decided to add an “a”, taking out the letters “o” and “b”, thus creating one of the most recognized Spanish brands in the world .

This business, which started in Jeff Bezos’ garage in 1994, hasn’t always had the name that distinguishes it today. What originally was selling books online was supposed to magically be called “Cadabra”, but the brand’s first lawyer, Todd Tarbert, convinced Bezos that the word sounded a lot like “corpse” in English.

It was time to move on to another option, and Bezos also considered using Relentless (relentless) and indeed the web domain exists and today it redirects the user to Amazon.com.

Lastly, the name amazon was the most appropriate, as “the largest bookstore in the world” would be, from then on, named after the largest river in the world, the Amazon. It would not just be an online bookstore, but a technological process that would simplify electronic shopping and change history forever. It looked like this in the 90s (see the logo with the river):

THE verizon is a telecommunications giant in the United States and its name is a metaphor for its origins, as the company emerged from a merger between Bell Atlantic and GTE in 2000. Likewise, it is a mixture of veritasa Latin word meaning “truth”, and horizonwhich means “horizon”.

The history of this successful café is closely related to the sea, both in its origin (Seattle, the city where the first store was opened, is a port city) and in its famous logo, the two-tailed mermaid. Its well-known name also comes from the ocean, specifically, from one found in English literature.

The founders of Starbucks came from academia: Jerry Baldwin and Zev Siegel were professors of English and history, and Gordon Bowker was a writer. It is therefore not surprising that the brand has adopted a literary word.

Among the possible names were “Redhook” and the almost winner “Cargo House”, but everything changed with a search for words that started with “st”, because in the advertising world they were said to be powerful. Someone got hold of an old map showing a small mining town called “Starbo”.

Writer Bowker soon associated him with Starbuck, the first officer of the whaling ship Pequod in the novel. moby dick🇧🇷 They added an “s” to the name, and over 40 years later, this ship is still sailing the waters of commercial success.

Did you know the origins of these famous brands? What other interesting story could make this list? Leave your comments and share these curiosities with your friends.