The names of the most successful companies are on everyone’s lips. We know the logos of famous brands, we can accurately recall their taglines. We don’t even begin to think that behind each of the brand there is a rich and very interesting story both of the company and of the people who were ones of the originators of the company.

In the meantime, each of these companies annually invests tangible budgets for development and support, so that well-known brands remained at the top of their popularity. It allows them to receive additional income or so-called added value.

This article presents the most popular brands that have been leading the world ranking for many years.

Amazon. The legend of online stores

The Amazon company appeared in 1994 thanks to the efforts of an American, Jeff Bezos. This man was one of the first ones who understood how successful e-commerce can be. There were no online stores at that time, and Amazon can be considered a pioneer in this area.

At the very beginning, Bezos decided to sell books through the Internet, since they did not require a warranty and trial testing. The idea was his wife’s who is a writer, and his father gave the money for the promotion of the company. Bezos didn’t have many funds, so the first office of the company was located in a garage, where he installed a couple of computers and made a warehouse for the goods.
As the name of the company Bezos chose the Amazon. He believed that the river dimensions and a large number of tributaries are very similar to the World Wide Web. Now his online store has already surpassed all the dimensions possible. There’s probably no such thing that wouldn’t be sold on the portal.
If you look at the most famous company logos, the Amazon logo is one of the most recognizable. It has the name of the company and an arrow. The arrow is similar to a smile. It tells us that the main goal is the customer’s pleasure. Plus, the arrow goes from the letter “A” to the letter “Z”, which again speaks of the widest assortment of the online store.
Jeff Bezos is now one of the richest people in the world. Forbes estimates his fortune at 100 billion dollars, and it continues to grow.

Samsung. The king of consumer electronics

The South Korean company Samsung today is the most famous and most popular manufacturer of household appliances and electronics. Almost every home has at least one thing created by this company. But few people know that at the dawn of the company existence, they didn’t even think about high technologies at Samsung, but were engaged in the production of rice flour. It was back in 1938. The founder of Samsung is Lee Byung-Chul, an entrepreneur. The name of the company is translated from Korean as «three stars», in honor of the three sons of the businessman.
The historical change occurred in 1969. Byung-Chul made an agreement with Japanese colleagues from Sanyo, and together they began to produce semiconductors. Then they started to produce black and white TVs, followed by washing machines and refrigerators, in the 80s — microwave ovens and first computers, and in the late 90s — digital TVs, DVD players, and telephones.

Now the Samsung product range is so huge that you can even find unpopular home appliances as sandwich makers and waffle irons. Production plants are open in more than 60 countries of the world, which allowed the company to provide jobs for more than half a million people. The organization continues to expand and conquer new markets, and it’s not by a chance that “Imagine» became the slogan of Samsung. The brand logo is a tilted ellipse, which symbolizes a constant movement in the global space, development, and improvement.

IKEA. Coziness and comfort for every home

«The Wonderful Everyday» is the slogan known to everyone. If we talk about the most famous top brands, then this Swedish giant has no competitors in the field of household goods.
This company appeared in 1943 when the 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad lent money from his father and decided to open his small shop. He came up with the name himself. It is an abbreviation, which includes the first letters of his name, surname, the name of the village where he was born, and his parents’ farm.
The time was not easy. It was the Second World War, even the most ordinary things were in scarce supply. That’s why the first thing Kamprad decided to sell was ball pens, which were not available in the country. Keenness of wit and good advertising helped him to get things rolling. He promised every customer a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll as a gift, and on the very first day of his shop, there was a stream of customers.
After the first success, Kamprad decided to expand the store’s range. In addition to other small things, he started to sell furniture, which at that time was also in limited supply. He put a stake on cheap models from small factories, and Kamprad came up with the idea that it was much more profitable to buy parts and assemble the furniture ourselves.
In 1958, the first IKEA brand store opened, and today there are several hundred of them all over the world. The company’s policy has remained the same. All things should be at an affordable price for customers. Even a logo that is included in the list of the best logos in the world hints at simplicity. It is the name of the brand in the colors of the Swedish flag.

Google. The most advanced search engine

The popularity of Google is so great that even the word “to google” became a part of the everyday vocabulary of many people.
It is one of the youngest and most successful portals, though it took off with great difficulty. In 1998, two Ph.D. students of Stanford University Sergey Brin and Larry Page decided to create a new search engine. The problem was that there were too many competitors, and young people, in fact, did not offer anything new. It is for this reason that for several years they could not find investors willing to invest in this project.
But in the end, they managed to collect the money. A real miracle happened. It is difficult to say exactly why, but American users fell in love with Google so much that the search engine was able to oust the more well-known brands as Yahoo! and Netscape. Since the beginning of the 2000s, the number of requests has grown to hundreds of thousands, at this moment it is measured in hundreds of millions. The creators of the portal Brin and Page turned into billionaires and became another example of the American dream.
By the way, “googol” was chosen as the name. This mathematical figure looks like a unit with one hundred zeros. Interestingly, in our universe, there is nothing that could be measured by such a large number. Therefore, “Google” is also a hint at infinity, which characterizes the Internet very well.The company has no slogan. In the beginning, there was a phrase “Everything will be found”, but then it turned out that their main competitors from Yandex had already used it. They had to drop it, and there were no new slogans since.

Nike. Sport as a religion

The tagline Just do it! and a check mark emblem is a part of Nike identity due to which Nike is recognized all over the world. It was founded by an American Phil Knight in 1964. He was not a businessman, he was just a runner. He spent a lot of money on sports shoes. At some point, the young man decided to produce his own sneakers to spend less, get the perfect shoes for his needs, and wanted to help the same boys from his neighborhood.
Everyone liked the new shoes very much, on the first year of sales Phil Knight earned 8 thousand dollars which was a lot for him. But the real glory came to the company thanks to a successful advertising campaign. Nike first decided to advertise shoes with the help of famous athletes. Most often basketball players wore the shoes, and fans, trying to imitate their idols, immediately ran to the store. Plus, Knight has always tried to introduce new technologies, in this regard, the company is one of the leading in the world. For example, it was Nike who owned the idea of creating a shock-absorbing cushion, which is now present in any sports shoes.
The constant competition also helped the company to develop. Throughout its history, it had to fight two giants — Adidas and Puma, which were also very well-known companies. Technologists have always tried to come up with something new to lure the customers. Advertisers had also no time to sit idle. As a result, Nike was the first to expand its product range. While others were selling only sneakers for professional sport, the company began to produce casual and children’s shoes, sports equipment and much more. As a result, products with a check mark have become one of the most popular in the world.
By the way, the name Nike comes from the name of the Greek goddess of victory, Nike. An emblem is her wings. At one time, a friend artist helped Phil Knight to create the emblem for just $30. Now, this brand is worth billions.

McDonald’s. The world’s top fast food

When one sees the yellow letter “M” on a red background, everyone understands anywhere in the world, here you can have a quick and inexpensive bite. Today, McDonald’s is the most popular fast food restaurant and no other global company in this field can compete with it.
But all this could not have happened if it were not for the participation of one person, an American businessman, Ray Kroc. No, he didn’t invent hamburgers and french fries, he didn’t establish this restaurant. It was founded by two other Americans, the McDonald brothers. They opened a small cafe, which served only 9 dishes, but the main thing was that the prices were two times lower than in other places, and the speed of customer service was phenomenal. The problem was that the brothers didn’t begin to think about expansion. They were quite satisfied with the small income that they received.
It was Ray Kroc who persuaded them to start developing a chain of restaurants throughout America, and then completely bought out the rights to McDonald’s. By the way, that contract cost him $ 2.7 million, and after that, he managed to earn more than 600 million, and the most popular brands have acquired quite a serious competitor.

The popularity of McDonald’s is based on several basic principles. First, the taste of the main dishes has not changed for several decades and the taste of food is the same in all McDonald’s restaurants in the world, which creates a habit. Secondly, the restaurant is still the most affordable. Thirdly, the work is built on the conveyor principle. You come, order, eat and make room for others.
The logo of the restaurant, a yellow letter “M” has not changed for a very long time. But the McDonald’s slogans had different versions. In the 70s, the slogan sounded like «You deserve a break today», in the 90s it was «Did Somebody Say McDonald’s?» But today’s tagline is recognized by many experts as the most successful and most euphonic. The phrase «I’m loving it» is repeated by all the customers of the restaurant. And by the way, there are 45 million people a day.

Microsoft. Computer in every home

Microsoft is a world-renowned software company. It was founded in 1975 by a then student Bill Gates and his friend Paul Allen. At the very beginning, they simply wrote a new programming language and then decided to sell their offspring. By the way, this step caused bewilderment among colleagues. The fact is that there were few computers at that time, and all the programmers shared their ideas for free with each other.
But Bill Gates decided to put a stake at commerce and was right. His operating systems for the IBM PC, first MS-DOS, and then Windows made a real revolution in the mid-80s and opened a new era of microelectronics. Gates became one of the richest people on the planet.
Now Microsoft is one of the top brands and is a real monopolist in its field, it has almost no competitors. It allows them to successfully introduce new know-how and develop without conducting aggressive advertising campaigns.
The brand name appeared as an abbreviation of Microcomputer Software. The logo is quite simple. During its existence, only the graphic style of writing changed, and the latest version has a multi-colored square. The tagline is Your potential. Our passion.

Coca-Cola. Soda that has conquered the world

Everyone knows the name “Coca-Cola”. For more than a century, this soft drink has become the most popular in the world. All the numerous claims that soda corrodes the stomach or contains narcotic substances, cannot move Coca-Cola from its high positions. More than 8 billion bottles and cans are sold daily.
It all began at the end of the XIX century. In 1886, chemist-pharmacist John Pemberton came up with a new medicine, which he called «a nerve syrup.» It included coca leaves and kola tree nuts. Hence the name. But the full composition of the current soda is kept in the strictest confidence and other similar brands are ready to do a lot to find out the recipe.
Initially, cola was sold only in pharmacies. Later, the syrup was mixed with soda and got the famous “pop”. When Prohibition was passed, a new drink was spread into masses. It immediately became mega popular. Moreover, Coca-Cola has always been considered an affordable drink. Everyone drinks it, teenagers and pensioners, workers and movie stars. A well-thought-out advertising campaign has allowed soda to be associated with major family holidays, such as Christmas. Not all slogans of well-known companies can compete with the simple, but so attractive «Always Coca-Cola!».

Apple. Apple fever

In the history of mankind, there were three famous apples. The one was eaten by Adam and Eve, the one that fell on Newton’s head and the one which was invented by Steve Jobs. Apple is arguably the most famous brand today. Millions of fans track the information about the release of a next new thing and then stand in huge lines to be the first ones to purchase a new gadget.
It all started in 1976, when Stefan Wozniak and Steve Jobs invented their first computer, «Apple 1».This particular computer has become the prototype of everything we use today.

When Steve Jobs decided to reorient himself to phones and tablets, the popularity of “Apple” soared to heaven. The slogan “Think different” precisely characterizes the company’s products. It is fundamentally different from its competitors — a different design, different functionality, different operating system, other values. If we talk about the best logos of the world, the «bitten apple» is one of the most famous.

Instead of a conclusion

Of course, this article doesn’t cover all the world famous brands. For example, you can recall the most famous car brands or fashion brands. But the above-listed companies are those companies that are at the top of the world rating year after year. But most importantly, they manage to adapt their positioning and advertising according to the market conditions and create trends!