Names, Initials, and Symbols

Companies promote themselves twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

Most of us don't think about the subtle messages we see on just about everything that catches our eye during the course of our daily routines. But if you stop and think about it for just an moment, you will understand what promotion and advertising is all about.

Names, symbols, faces, colors, words, initials, sounds, music, and logos make up recognizable company brands.

Some of the most famous companies that were named after their founders are:

• Ford Motors after Henry Ford
• Hewlett Packard after Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard
• Black and Decker after S. Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker
• Wal-Mart after Sam Walton
• Johnson and Johnson after James W. Johnson and Edward M. Johnson
• Bose after Amar Bose
• Wells Fargo after Henry Wells and William G. Fargo
• Procter and Gamble after William Procter and James Gamble.

If you see the logo, you know the company without seeing the company name. Some of the most recognizable symbols are:

• The swoosh for Nike
• The three pointed star for Mercedes Benz
• The apple for Apple, Inc.
• The golden arches for McDonalds
• The rooster on Kelloggs Corn Flakes
• The red clam shell for Shell Oil
• The ram's head for Dodge Ram Trucks
• The W for Westinghouse

Some of the most recognizable company initials are:

• CNN for Cable News Network
• HP for Hewlett Packard
• NASA for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• GM for General Motors
• IBM for International Business Machine
• NFL for the National Football League
• KFC for Kentucky Fried Chicken
• NBA for the National Basketball Association

Other recognizable brands include KFC's the Colonel and the Quaker Oats Quaker. Everyone knows the Jolly Green Giant and Jack In The Box.

If you look into the sky and see a purple airplane with orange strips on it's tail, you know that it's a FedEx cargo plane. You can also recognize the red and white bulleye target as the Target store symbol.

You may not see the brand name unless you look under a product or inside it. But they are there. They are on manhole covers, under bridges, on city streets, on building materials inside the walls of your home, on toilet fixtures in public restrooms, underneath the furniture in your living room, and on just about everything that is made.

You may not even be aware that companies are advertising to you, but where ever you are right now, you can be sure that there are probably several items within your sight that have a brand on it. If you look closely, you will see the company name or logo and realize that you've been looking at it all the time and didn't know realize it.

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