H.W 4.0

1. Give at least five known local brands and the top ten international brands. Include a brief company overview for each brand.

5 Local Brands

1. Milo-  was developed in the 1930s during the depression as a direct response to the fact that children were not receiving enough nutrients from their daily diet. Thomas Mayne, a Nestlé Engineer, created the nutritious and delicious beverage using local milk knowledge and Swiss cocoa expertise. He named the drink MILO after the Greek mythical character Milo, who was known for his strength. MILO was launched in 1934 at the Sydney Royal Easter show in an area used to showcase new products to the public. This coincided with the opening of a local production plant for MILO located in Smithtown, in rural NSW, where it is still produced today.

2.Nescafe Coffee- History of Nescafe. The beginnings of Nescafe can be traced all the way back to 1930, when the Brazilian government, first approached Nestlé. The agency, Brazilian Coffee Institute seeks Nestle to preserve the huge coffee surpluses, by develop coffee that was soluble in hot water.
Coffee guru, Max Morgenthaler, and his team set out immediately to find a way of producing a quality cup of coffee that could be made simply by adding water, yet would retain the coffee’s natural flavor.

After seven long years of research in Nestle Swiss laboratories, they found the answer. The new product was named Nescafe – a combination of Nestlé and café. Nestle introduced Nescafe, the first commercially successful soluble coffee, in Switzerland, on April 1st, 1938. The company applied the technology at its Hayes factory, west London.

Instant coffee processing was not a new idea; it was invented by a Japanese chemist in 1901 and had been marketed and sold by other companies without success. Nestle revolutionized the way instant coffee was made. Nestle developed a new process for dehydrating the concentrated coffee which vastly improved the quality. In entailed spraying a fine mist of the solution into a heated tower where the droplets turned to powder almost instantly.

For the first half of the next decade, however, World War II hindered its success in Europe.
Nescafé was soon exported to France, Great Britain and the USA. Its popularity grew rapidly through the rest of the decade. It was so popular that the entire production of its US plant was reserved for military use.

By the 1950s, coffee had become the beverage of choice for teenagers, who were flocking to coffeehouses to hear the new rock ’n’ roll music.

Over the years the company has kept the emphasis on innovation, introducing pure soluble coffee (1952) solely using roast coffee beans, freeze dried soluble coffee (1965) and coffee granules (1967). In 1994 Nestle invented the full aroma process, which improved the quality of instant coffee. Such innovations have made sure that Nescafe has remained the world’s leading coffee. It is also the third most valuable brand in the entire drinks sector.
History of Nescafe

3.Oishi- Oishi Group Public Company Limited operates restaurants and bakeries. Primarily focusing on Japanese-style foods, the Company’s restaurant brand names include Oishi Japanese Buffet, Oishi Express, Sabushi, Oishi Ramen, Oishi Sushi Bar, OK Suki, IN&OUT the Baker Cafe, and Char for Tea. Additionally, it produces and market green tea drinks under Oishi Green Tea brand name.

4.Ajinomoto- Ajinomoto is the trade name for monosodium glutamate or MSG. Monosodium glutamate is made from the mixing of glutamate with water and salt. Glutamate is glutamic acid that is broken down through cooking, fermentation, or other processes. Glutamic acid is one of the non-essential amino acids making up protein molecules. Asian cooks had been tapping into the flavor enhancing properties of glutamate for many centuries before MSG was isolated. It is not clear whether it was the Japanese or the Chinese who first discovered that a broth made from certain types of seaweeds could enhance foods’ natural flavor.

Ajinomoto history can be traced back to the beginning of the 20th century. Research on seaweed started towards the end of the 19th century, with the production of iodine from seaweed at a facility in Hayama by Naka Suzuki. In 1907, Naka’s son, Saburosuke Suzuki II, established the S. Suzuki Pharmaceutical Co.

An important milestone in Ajinomoto history is that in 1907, Professor Ikeda, a chemist at the University of Tokyo, isolated glutamate from a broth of dried Konbu kelp. In July 1908, he got a patent for monosodium glutamate. Another important milestone in Ajinomoto history is that two months later, Mr. Suzuki approached Dr. Ikeda and became part owner of the patent.

The additive was given the Ajinomoto trade name and production started at S. Suzuki Pharmaceutical Co.’s Zushi factory in December 1908. S. Suzuki Pharmaceutical Co. was renamed S. Suzuki and Co. in 1912. The bigger Kawasaki plant was completed in 1914. The company ventured into New York, its first overseas market, in 1917.

The company got its current name, Ajinomoto Co., Inc., in 1946. The company started advertising Ajinomoto on TV in 1954. Other important milestones in the Ajinomoto history are the establishment of subsidiaries all over the world, including India, Nigeria, China, Peru, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, and Brazil.

5.Pepsodent- Pepsodent was a popular brand of toothpaste back in the mid-20th century. It was probably introduced in the earlier parts of the 20th century as a dentrifice in powder form, but eventually took on the recent-day paste form. Pepsodent was owned by the company Unilever, a British and Dutch company that sells an assortment of consumer products throughout the world, and was advertised through commercials and ads to be able to fight tooth decay and whiten teeth. Its most popular slogan was the catchy phrase, “you’ll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent”, as evident in the youtube video below. Pepsodent was well-known for its minty flavor derived from sassafras, and was claimed to contain the key ingredients.

10 International Brands

1. Louis Vuitton – Established in 1854, Louis Vuitton designed and introduced flat-bottom luggage trunks made with trianon canvas. It soon became the favorite of Empress Eugenie and the brand took off as the luggage choice for the wealthy. In 1867, the company won a bronze medal at the World Exposition in Paris and its influence spread beyond France. In 1885, Louis Vuitton opened its first overseas store in London. Following the death of his father in 1892, George Vuitton began a campaign to build the company into a worldwide corporation. In 1893, it entered the U.S market and, in 1896, the company launched its signature Monogram Canvas and secured worldwide patents for it. It has since become the classic symbol of the Louis Vuitton brand.

 2.Gucci- Born in 1881, craftsman’s son Guccio Gucci founded the House of Gucci as a saddlery shop in Florence in 1906. Guccio’s first talent was his craftsmanship in leather goods. He started out selling leather bags to horsemen in the 1920’s and progressed to luxury luggage as his clients graduated from equine transportation to horseless carriages. In 1938 Guccio Gucci opened their first retail shop on the Via Condotti in Rome.In 1947 the immediately recognizable Gucci icon, the leather bag with bamboo handle, is created. During the 1950’s the trademark red striped webbing is introduced, taken from its original form place on a saddle girth. This became an emblem much as the leather moccasin with leather bit.

Guccio Gucci created many of his classics early during the 1950’s; products such as luggage, ties, shoes, and the famous handbags sporting the bamboo handle. After his death in 1953, his family was able to take the enormously successful company to new heights by opening stores in Paris, Beverly Hills, London, Palm Beach, and Tokyo. The 1960’s brought increased fame to the Gucci Empire. Such Hollywood stars as Grace Kelly, Peter Sellers and Audrey Hepburn made the name Gucci synonymous with “chic”. Jackie Kennedy helped by being photographed with the Gucci shoulder bag, which subsequently became known as the “Jackie O”. The company adopts the “GG” logo.

But with the fame and recognition of the brand name came some turmoil. While Gucci goods were considered a status symbol of the times, management and inner family seemed to disagree. Brother Maurizio Gucci took an apparently ailing business over from his founding brother, who in turn sold it to an Arab concern in the 80’s.

In the 1990’s, Tom Ford, Gucci’s newest executive head, has brought Gucci back to the center of chic, and now commands a varied line of products including leather fashions, perfumes, colognes, cosmetics, shoes (including the moccasin with the distinctive Gucci snaffle-bit), the “Flora” foulard created for Grace Kelly by Rodolfo Gucci, suitcases, watches, jewelry, silk scarves, sports articles, belt clasps (the one with the Guccio Gucci initials, was introduced 1964), ties, and eyeglasses.

3.Nintendo-  having been founded in 1889, is the oldest video-game company in the world. Originally the company produced card-games but from the 1960s onward it ventured into numerous different business ventures before finally landing in the lucrative video-game industry, which is where it would eventually leave its mark.

Nintendo’s first foray into gaming was as the Japanese importer of the Magnavox Odyssey, the very first commercially sold video-game console. However, the Odyssey never reached the popularity and fame of Atari‘s Pong game which would be copied by numerous companies in the 1970s. Even, eventually, by Nintendo who released the TV Colour Game in 1977, making it technically the company’s first console.

However, it was in the arcades where Nintendo would eventually make its biggest impression. The 1979 arcade title “RadarScope” was a huge success in Japan but failed upon its release in the US. The game would be dramatically redesigned and re-released as the oddly titled arcade hit game “Donkey Kong” in 1980. Designed by a then unknown Shigeru Miyamoto, the game introduced Mario to the world who would go on to become the company’s mascot. With more arcade hits including the sequels to Donkey Kong and the 1984 hit “Mario Bros.” Nintendo became Japan’s leading arcade game developer.

Additionally Nintendo had success in the early hand-held gaming market with its Game & Watch line of LCD-portable games, which included portable versions of its hit arcade titles.

4.Starbuks- Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 50 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, and over 700 in the United Kingdom. Starbucks sells drip brewed coffee, espresso-based hot drinks, other hot and cold drinks, coffee beans, salads, hot and cold sandwiches and panini, pastries, snacks, and items such as mugs and tumblers. Through the Starbucks Entertainment division and Hear Music brand, the company also markets books, music, and film. Many of the company’s products are seasonal or specific to the locality of the store. Starbucks-brand ice cream and coffee are also offered at grocery stores.The first Starbucks was opened in Seattle, Washington, on March 30, 1971 by three partners: English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker. The three were inspired by entrepreneur Alfred Peet (whom they knew personally) to sell high-quality coffee beans and equipment. The name is taken from Moby-Dick; after Pequod was rejected by one of the co-founders, the company was named for the first mate on thePequod, Starbuck. From 1971–1975, the first Starbucks was at 2000 Western Avenue; it then was relocated to 1912 Pike Place, where it remains to this day. During their first year of operation, they purchased green coffee beans from Peet’s, then began buying directly from growers.

Entrepreneur Howard Schultz joined the company in 1982 as Director of Retail Operations and Marketing, and after a trip to Milan, Italy, advised that the company should sell coffee and espresso drinks as well as beans. Seattle had become home to a thriving countercultural coffeehouse scene since the opening of the Last Exit on Brooklyn in 1967, the owners rejected this idea, believing that getting into the beverage business would distract the company from its primary focus. To them, coffee was something to be prepared in the home, but they did give away free samples of pre-made drinks. Certain that there was money to be made selling pre-made drinks, Schultz started the Il Giornalecoffee bar chain in April 1986.From Starbucks’ founding in later forms in Seattle as a local coffee bean roaster and retailer, the company has expanded rapidly. In the 1990s, Starbucks was opening a new store every workday, a pace that continued into the 2000s. The first store outside the United States or Canada opened in the mid-1990s, and overseas stores now constitute almost one third of Starbucks’ stores. The company planned to open a net of 900 new stores outside of the United States in 2009but has announced 900 store closures in the United States since 2008.

5.Apple- Ask anyone to name an innovative company and odds-on they will mention Apple. It has had a reputation for leading-edge products since college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak first founded the company. Apple memorably unveiled the Macintosh in 1984 and proceeded to build a hard-core following of customers who appreciated good design and were willing to pay premium prices while overlooking any interoperability issues with Windows – a factor that Apple has subsequently addressed with its OS-X operating system. Amongst a wealth of innovations introduced over the years, the radical, all-in-one design of the iMac was one turning point, bringing colour and light to the drab world of computing. The same lateral thinking and attention to detail has been applied to products such as the original iPod in 2001, the PowerBook in 2003, Mac Mini in 2005 and, in 2007, the iPhone.

6.IBM-International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), incorporated on June 16, 1911, is an information technology (IT) company. IBM operates in five segments: Global Technology Services (GTS), Global Business Services (GBS), Software, Systems and Technology and Global Financing. GTS primarily provides IT infrastructure services and business process services. GBS provides professional services and application management services. Software consists primarily of middleware and operating systems software. Systems and Technology provides clients with business solutions requiring advanced computing power and storage capabilities. Global Financing invests in financing assets, leverages with debt and manages the associated risks. In May 2014, the Company acquired Silverpop, a privately held software company based in Atlanta, Ga. In May 2014, International Business Machines Corp acquired Cognea, a Redwood-based articial intelligence company. In June 2014, Pure Storage Inc acquired over 100 storage and related technology patents from IBM.

7.Sony- is one of the world’s most widely known electronics companies. Founded in Japan, the company has grown from humble roots to a multinational giant. From the tape player to the Walkman to OLED TV, Sony’s tradition of innovation has made it a profitable company for more than 60 years. Kazuo Hirai, who joined the company in 1984 and worked his way up through its media and consumer electronics divisions, became its president and CEO in 2012.

8.canon-he company’s first camera was called the “Kwanon.” Its first ad campaign associated it with the I-Class submarine and the 92-Type airplane, both of which the Japanese government was promoting as proof of Japan’s technical superiority. Eventually, the company decided to change the company’s product namefrom “Kwanon” to “Canon,” which meant “precision” in Latin.In 1945, part of the company’s manufacturing facilities were destroyed in Allied bombings-and the company ceased operations briefly after the end of the war. When Allied forces occupied the country, however, the company president noticed that they were interested in Japanese cameras. He decided there was plenty of opportunity for the company to succeed, and he decided to reopen the company and invite back its former workers.

Canon began with cameras and eventually expanded into personal copying machines, color copy machines, and then inkjet and laser printers. One of Canon’s important printer innovations was the bubble-jet printer. According to company legend, a technician accidentally touched the tip of a hot solder gun to a needle filled with ink. The heat caused the ink to spray out of the needle. This led to the development of the first bubble-jet printers in 1981. Canon also played an integral role in developing laser printertechnology and liquid crystal displays.

Canon is a groundbreaking company, responsible for driving innovation in camera and printer technology throughout the 20th century. With its long history of invention and its reputation in the market, chances are it will continue to be influential in the 21st.

9.Microsoft-Microsoft’s ambitions are anything but small. The world’s #1 software company develops and sells a variety of products used by consumers and businesses. Its core products are the ubiquitous Windows PC operating system and the Office business productivity application suite that are sold in part through PC makers such as Acer, Lenovo, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Toshiba, who pre-install the software on devices. Microsoft also sells directly online and through resellers. Other products include enterprise applications (Microsoft Dynamics), server and storage software, video game consoles (Xbox), and digital music players (Zune). It also makes mobile phone software. Microsoft is acquiring Nokia’s handset business.

10. Intel– Intel Corporation, incorporated in 1968, designs and manufactures integrated digital technology platforms. A platform consists of a microprocessor and chipset. The Company sells these platforms primarily to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), original design manufacturers (ODMs), and industrial and communications equipment manufacturers in the computing and communications industries. The Company’s platforms are used in a range of applications, such as personal computers (PCs) (including Ultrabook systems), data centers, tablets, smartphones, automobiles, automated factory systems and medical devices. The Company also develops and sells software and services primarily focused on security and technology integration. In February 2013, it acquired ProFUSION-Comercio e Prestacao de Servicos em Tecnologia da Informacao Ltda. In May 2013, Intel Corp acquired Aepona Ltd. Effective July 16, 2013, Intel Corp acquired Omek Interactive Ltd. Effective August 15, 2013, Intel Corp acquired Fujitsu Semiconductor Wireless Products Inc, from Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Ltd. In February 2014, M/A-COM Technology Solutions Holdings Inc announced that its subsidiary Mindspeed Technologies Inc completed the sale of assets of its wireless infrastructure business unit to Intel Corporation.

Reference/s: http://www.milo.co.nz/about/ http://historyofbusiness.blogspot.com/2008/09/history-of-nescafe.html http://ajinomotoworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/the-history-of-ajinomoto/ http://www.intelligentdental.com/2011/09/22/the-history-of-pepsodent-toothpaste/ http://knowledge.insead.edu/business-finance/marketing/a-brief-history-of-louis-vuitton-and-hermes-572 http://www.fragrancex.com/products/_bid_gucci-am-cid_perfume-am-lid_g__brand_history.html http://thehande.wordpress.com/a-brief-history-of-nintendo/ http://gangmoedin.blogspot.com/2011/04/brief-history-of-starbucks-coffee.html http://www.ehow.com/about_5176244_sony-corporation-history-background.html http://petewarrior.articlealley.com/a-brief-history-of-canon-725812.html

Synthesis:  Every new customer goes through a decision process. And the first decision is “Where do I buy?” The answer to that question is determined by the strength of the brands in consideration. Whether or not you get a chance at the business is determined by the strength of your brand. Lets define Brand, brand is the “name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s product distinct from those of other sellers. Branding goes way beyond just a logo or graphic element. When you think about your brand, you really want to think about your entire customer experience…everything from your logo, your website, your social media experiences, the way you answer the phone, to the way your customers experience your staff. When you look at this broad definition of branding, it can be a bit overwhelming to think about what is involved in your brand.  In short, your brand is the way your customer perceives you.  It is critical to be aware of your brand experience and have a plan to create the brand experience that you want to have… a good brand doesn’t just happen… it is a well thought out and strategic plan.