Here are few world famous brands and their hidden meaning.

The name Adidas is derived from that of its founder, Adolf Dassler. The company’s logo has changed over time, but it’s always included three stripes. The current configuration is three stripes at an angle which together form a triangle. It symbolises a mountain, which in turn represents the challenges which all athletes need to face and conquer.

Rob Jenoff the designer who created with the world-famous Apple company logo, has explained how he came up with the idea: he bought a whole bag of apples, placed them in a bowl, and spent time drawing them for a week, trying to break the image down into something simple. Taking a bite out of an apple was part of the experiment, and completely by coincidence he realised that ’bite’ sounded exactly the same as the computer term ’byte’. A byte is considered as a unit of memory size of computer. Wow!! What a coincidence, and creativity that is.

Amazon has been using its current logo for 18 years. The logo illustrates that company sells everything from A to Z. The arrow in the logo points from the “A” to the “Z”.  The arrow at the bottom also symbolizes a smile, portraying that their customers are happy after using their service. The logo shows that Amazon can get anything for you at your doorstep; all you need is to log on their website.

The white and blue checker boxes represent a white/silver propeller blade spinning against a clear blue sky which portrays a happy drive on bright day. BMW logo also symbolizes the Bavarian flag colors which represents their origin. Also, it’s often supposed that the central part of the BMW logo symbolizes the rotating blades of an airplane, which are in line with the company’s earlier history of aviation technology.

The iconic Coca-Cola logo has changed many times over the past 126 years in design; however, you may be surprised to know the brand’s world-famous font of script and wave have always looked exactly as they do now. In the world-famous logo of the Coca-Cola Company, in the space between the letters ’O’ and ’L’, one can clearly see the Danish flag. The company has nonetheless used this as part of its marketing campaigns in the Scandinavian country. Just for the sake of the history of this brand, when it was introduced in 1885, it was marketed as a health tonic to cure a range of ills, including headaches, low sex drive and addiction. Coke started out with coca which is the extract of cocaine as a key ingredient, along with the kola nut. Hence it was named as Coca-Cola.

The FedEx logo was designed in 1994 by Linden Leader & Landor Associates, at first appears simple and straightforward. However, if you look at the white space between the “E” and “X” you can see a right-facing arrow. This “hidden” arrow was intended to be a subliminal symbol for speed and accuracy. FedEx assures on time and safe and sound delivery of courier.

The logo of Hyundai appears as “H” the first letter of the brand name. But, the South Korean conglomerate Hyundai’s logo symbolises two people: a client and a representative of the company shaking hands. People shake hands in contentment.

The logo of the South Korean electronics company LG portrays a person’s face, which is the central body region of sense. According to the company, the logo represents its aspiration to maintain everyday human relations with its customers intact. It believes in nurturing relationships with its customers which is a crucial part of growing a successful business.

The Pepsi logo portrays the globe with twirling red, white, & blue color design in a sphere-like shape. It is considered one of the world’s most recognizable corporate trademarks. It’s hard to believe, but Pepsi paid over a million dollars to create this special logo with its secret meanings. The new special design hints at mysterious and secretive themes, such as the Earth’s magnetic field, Feng shui, Pythagoras, geodynamics, the theory of relativity, and the golden ratio. The designer has explained that this logo also makes reference to the Mona Lisa, the Parthenon, and even René Descartes. The red, white and blue colors have always represented the American flag.

In 1990, Toyota debuted the three overlapping Ellipses logo on American vehicles. The Toyota Ellipses symbolize the unification of the hearts of our customers and the heart of Toyota products. The background space represents Toyota’s technological advancement and the boundless opportunities ahead.

I am sure many people like me must have wondered what the logo of Wikipedia means. Each piece bears a glyph (a character or a sign) symbolizing the multilingualism of Wikipedia. As with the Latin letter ‘W’, these glyphs are in most cases the first glyph or glyphs of the name “Wikipedia” rendered in that language. The empty space at the top represents the incomplete nature of the mission of Wikipedia; there are more articles and languages yet to be added. I find this logo most interesting. There are currently 301 language editions of Wikipedia. It is owned by Wikimedia Foundation.

The consumer behavior analysts have noted through many studies that ‘Country of Origin’ has become a significant phenomenon in today’s marketing practices. The words ‘Made’ and ‘In’ conveys the strength of the product.  The label ‘made’ on the packing label of the product refers to the manufacturing aspect of the origin of a product. It is often related to legal certifications, the technologies involved ingredients and techniques as well as work ethics and safety standards. And, ‘In’ refers to the origin and the geographical dimension of origin such as the location of the manufacturing process and the source of ingredients. ‘Made In’ therefore suggests information and associations that are both tangible and intangible. The ‘Made in’ tag helps consumers to make rational and emotional decision both.

In its 2005 “Year of Ideas” issue, The New York Times Magazine listed nation branding among the year’s most notable ideas. The way a country is perceived can make a significant difference to the success of its trade, business, tourism efforts, as well as its diplomatic and cultural relations with other nations. Simon Anholt coined the term ‘nation branding’ in 1996 and since then he has been working with governments to help them plan the policies, strategies, investments and advance which lead their country towards an improved profile and reputation. America has become the largest and most powerful brand in the globe; it virtually shapes the world in almost all dimensions such as national governance, policies, exports, people, tourism, economic and social status etc. In the fast growing global village nation’s branding is considered as big as federal mega-projects. Steve Silver and Sam Hill, both marketing experts define nation branding as most complex (brand) positioning problem; how can we brand a nation? A nation is as big as a Meta brand inclusive of numerous mega brands. There are so many mega activities of in a nation such as political governance, commerce, education, human resource development, environment, foreign affairs, infrastructure, environment, tourism, culture and heritage and most importantly the national character. The study of national character refers to anthropological studies after World War II.

The Japanese are known as law abiding people; the Americans are known for their grit for freedom – freedom of speech, freedom to pursue their own interests, freedom from bullying, freedom of religion, freedom of movement within the country, freedom to associate with whomever they please. The Chinese are known for their orientalism; the French are known as arty.

The country of origin (COO) specifically matter to the customers because every country has its reputation and the association between the product and the country’s expertise matters while buying products. For example Italy is known for designs, North Caroline for furniture, France for fashion and wine, the USA for entertainment, India for spices, Germany is famous for cars. Today’s consumer understands legal and safety issues sharply. Consumers today look at the ‘made in’ label with many perspectives. The ‘made in’ dependent on a combination of many factors – from heritage, to design and physical manufacturing, skilled labour, infrastructure, market intermediaries etc. Hence manufacturers can leverage a lot on the country of origin as one of their competitive advantage. A company needs to be physically present in the country; the design and patents need to have emerged from talent in the country, or the brand needs to have factories or parts of the production process in the origin nation. In the past, when it was  enough to ‘borrow’ associations from a country for pure marketing purposes, today consumers not ready to accept country of origin as a choice driver unless it is bona fide.

Successful brands contribute to nation branding. Of the world’s 500 largest stock-market-listed companies measured by revenue in 2014, among the Fortune 500 companies 28 are headquartered in Germany. Well-known global brands include Mercedes Benz, BMW, SAP, Volkswagen, Audi, Siemens, Allianz, Adidas, Porsche and DHL. Thus, famous brands strengthen branding of a country. Similarly, brands across every category, like Apple, Cadillac, Clinique, Coca-Cola, Ford, Kellogg’s, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Ralph Lauren, Starbucks and M&M’s have made the USA a strong nation brand. These corporate have made Germany and America leading nation brands.

The concept of branding is viewed as ‘cultural diplomacy’ of nations. It is a somewhat new way of looking at a nation, but every nation is already a brand. Every nation is perceived in the minds of people living differently in nooks and corners of the world. Some countries are known for good things, some for bad, and others have mixed insights. Based on the different perceptions, nations in the world interact and do business with each other, either contributing to its development or encumbering it. For example Africa is associated with civil war, Iraq with suicide bombings, Pakistan for terror bombing, India for scam and Cuba with Fidel Castro’s dictatorship (though he is dead). On the other hand, countries such as the US, Canada, Germany or France, are perceived positively for decades for their sound political and economic development. Nation branding is based on the underlying hypothesis that every nation can make a good or bad brand depending on its efforts. The important thing to realize about branding a nation is that one of its ingredients is the escalating value of something that is found already within that nation.

Consumers in developing countries like India, China, and Brazil still tend to prefer brands that come from other countries. Global supply, manufacture and export of goods began to accelerate in response for lower prices and greater choice of goods. Companies became international or multinational and the rise of an affluent middle class in the USA, Europe, India, China and UAE demand more sophisticated marketing. Due to rise of consumerism, categories of goods and services became more sharply defined. And, most brands started crossing the borders of their origin. With all the great business strategies, advertising, marketing and intelligent supply chain strategies even today in the 21^st century for most of the brands, their place of origin and heritage continues to be a key part of their appeal and differentiation. Their name, identity, design and symbolism of logos or trademarks become synonymous with their country or place of origin.

We should realize the fact that Brand building in emerging markets is a difficult task. As the rapid growth in an emerging market gives millions of consumers new spending power, they eye for and are encouraged by their counterpart in developed countries to buy established brands. Marketing efforts in developing countries is very multifarious.

In 2003, when Mahindra & Mahindra launched a smartly designed sport-utility vehicle called the Scorpio, CNBC India, BBC World’s ‘Wheels’ program, and others chose the vehicle for the

‘Car of the Year’ awards in the SUV category. That was not a small achievement: The made-in-India automobile won top honors ahead of global best sellers such as the Mercedes-Benz-E-Class and Toyota Camry sedans. To M&M, which manufactures tractors in several countries as well as vehicles targeted at India’s semi-urban and rural markets, the awards signaled that it could finally take the world’s automakers head-on. Even as the Scorpio successfully battles multipurpose vehicles like Toyota’s Innova and GM’s Chevy Tavera at home, M&M has started marketing the SUV in South Africa, Spain and many other countries.

As a nation, Singapore’s stunning rise from third world to first world in a matter of 30 years was spearheaded by an intensive and rigorous closely-coordinated programme of nation branding. Today, brand Singapore attracts the investments, business, trade, tourism and talented human resources from all over the world which is helping it further to become more flourishing nation. This state is internationally known as a vibrant, safe, corruption-free place to do business. Name any of the great businesses of the world; everybody wants to be in Singapore! The vibrancy and liveliness of the nation in its culture and the fine art attracts more and more tourists. In global surveys of quality of life, Singapore regularly tops the charts.

Nation Branding is catching up rapidly: the brand must be accepted internally first, i.e domestically, meaning throughout the nation, by all stakeholders. Only then can it be effectively promoted internationally.

Core competence and competitive advantage

Core competency: Organizations with core competencies enjoy global leadership. It represents the organization’s will to harmonize their multiple resources and skills. It distinguishes the firm in a market place because of its products and service’s uniqueness and because they become difficult to imitate by others. In such an organization, all business strategies revolve around the core competency. Core competencies give a company one or more competitive advantages, in creating and delivering value to its customers in its chosen field. Organizations which believe in spending generously on research and development can and the ones which experiment and investigate the processes can develop core competency. Core competencies lead to the development of core products. Core products are not directly sold to end users; rather, they are used to build a larger number of end-user products. For example, let’s take the example of Honda’a expertise in engines. Honda was able to exploit its core competency to develop a variety of quality products from lawn mowers and snow blowers to trucks and automobiles. Honda can boast of its sharp and competitive engineer’s team who can be credited for its core competency. In another example, Microsoft has expertise in many IT based innovations where, for a variety of reasons, it is difficult for competitors to replicate or compete with Microsoft’s core competences in building software.

The term was popularized by Hamal and Prahalad, back in 1990 in the Harvard Business Review. Peter Drucker was one of the first to mention it in 1964 when he focused on ‘strength analysis’. A core competency comprises of reliable processes, synergy with customers & suppliers, a patent, an industrial design, know-how, unique product development, a brand/s, marketing strategy, business strategy, supply chain etc.

Core competencies are a pack of skills and technologies that are very difficult or impossible to copy or match; skilled employees, tacit knowledge, organizational endowment, collective values, supreme technology, and organizational ethics culture – these are some features which add to the core competency of an organization. The primary reason for 3M’s success is its people. 3M has always motivated its employees to innovate, think different and progress in their relative careers. This company has been blessed with generations of imaginative, industrious employees in all parts of its enterprise, all around the world.

Globally leading organizations are realizing that one of the components of core competency is people. A study was conducted on three hundred and fifty-eight Managers across the Johnson & Johnson Consumer & Personal Care Group (JJC&PC Group) globally to assess if there are specific leadership traits and competencies that distinguish high performers from average performers. The company did not stop only at conducting a study, it designed and organized educational and developmental programs for its employees across different ranks globally, to familiarize employees with the concepts of emotional, social and relational competency, and to share strategic leadership process. These sessions also served as the launch for the newly enhanced leadership models. As usual many other organizations have already replicated them.

Companies with core competencies identify their key business processes, manage them centrally, and invest in them heavily, looking for a long-term payback.

Sony’s  innovations have become part of mainstream culture, including: the first magnetic tape and tape recorder in 1950; the transistor radio in 1955; the world’s first all-transistor TV set in 1960; the world’s first color video cassette recorder in 1971; the Walkman personal stereo in 1979; the Compact Disc (CD) in 1982; the first 8mm camcorder in 1985; the Minidisc (MD) player in 1992; the PlayStation game system in 1995; Digital Mavica camera in 1997; Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) player in 1998; and the Network Walkman digital music player in 1999.
Today, Sony continues to fuel industry growth with the sales of innovative Sony products, as well as with the company’s convergence strategy. The company has never compromised on persistence in R&D.

Back home, a cigarette manufacturing company ITC has got into a wide range of diversifications such hotels, processed foods, biscuits and greeting cards. How does ITC manage this unrelated diversification? Unrelated diversification will succeed only if it is based on the core competency of the firm. ITC has leveraged beautifully on its core competency of distribution, brand building capability and its strength of quality outsourcing.

Core competencies take a long time to build and practice. Organizations which continue the practice with perseverance by adding accuracy and particular sets of skills succeed in building core competency. New sets of skills and newly acquired knowledge should be steadily spread in the organization to facilitate the processes.

Competitive advantage is a business strategy where companies find ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors to attract more business. Service-based industries, such as hospitality, banks, health care use competitive advantage strategies to gain an elevated position in the field. Usually competitive advantage is sought out of one or more functional advantages. Competitive advantages give a company an edge over its rivals and a capability to produce greater value for the firm and its shareholders. The more sustainable the competitive advantage, the more complex it is for competitors to offset the advantage.

There are two main types of competitive advantages: comparative advantage and differential advantage. Comparative advantage, or cost advantage, is a firm’s ability to produce a good or service at a lower cost than its competitors, which gives the firm the ability sell its goods or services at a lower price than its competitors or to generate a larger margin on sales. A differential advantage is created when a firm’s products or services differ from its competitors and are seen as better than a competitor’s products by customers. Today India can boast of comparatively younger, English speaking low cost labour as one of her competitive advantage. This factor has given boost to outsourcing business in India.

The sources of competitive advantage have their limited life. Therefore, businesses are engaged in a never ending search to find new angles of competitive advantages. It’s all about finding some way of differentiating products and services from the competitor’s offerings. The whole purpose of business strategy is to find new sources of competitive advantage. Wal-Mart’s success lies in their cost cutting. Wal-Mart’s most operational processes are carried out in China because of their labor costs are which are much lower than many countries in world.

Toyota is Japan’s biggest car company and the second largest in the world after General Motors.   The fundamental reason for Toyota’s success in the global marketplace is its competitive advantage which lies in its corporate philosophy, the set of rules and attitudes that govern the use of its resources. The Toyota philosophy is often called as the Toyota Production System. The system depends partly on human resources management policy that stimulates employee creativity and loyalty besides Toyota has also built a highly efficient network of suppliers and components manufacturers. Much of Toyota’s success in the world markets can be attributed directly to its competitive advantage of its policies in human resources management and supply-chain networks.

One of the competitive advantages Hindustan Unilever enjoys is its edge over competitors in procuring raw material at low cost.  The company in past faced slow volume sales in categories such as soaps, laundry and tea, where rivals managed to gain market share through aggressive price cuts. But, HUL managed the price correction soon after sourcing more suppliers who offered the raw material at more competitive prices.

Warren Buffet the most successful investor of all times has always given importance to businesses with durable competitive advantage. He always relies on an extensive research-and-analysis. Buffet says that the global economy is complex and volatile, the economy and the stock market do not move in sync with it. The market discount mechanism moves instantly to incorporate news into the share price and last but not the least the returns of long-term equities cannot be matched anywhere else.

By “competitive advantage” Buffet meant a unique product or service that a business either makes or provides. Even if the employees can walk away from the business but they cannot take the business’s “competitive advantage” with them. Some examples of businesses with competitive advantage Buffet considers – are business’s brand names, for instance, Bell, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Wal-Mart. He gives importance to a business’s regional monopoly. We have plenty of brand names in India which enjoy regional monopoly such as Ghadi Detergent, Sasa washing powder, Wagh Bakari Chai, Sapat Chai, and Wai Wai noodles. The regional brands can afford to lose their micro focus from their markets. They have such a grip on their markets that national or international products need to spend tremendous resources to fight their regional counterparts. Buffet believes that durable competitive advantage companies can pass on their saving to their shareholders, and their investors.

When we think of best deal we think of Wall mart. Owing to its size it has enormous bargaining power with suppliers and sells at heavily discounted prices. They are low cost buyer and seller- Here the margins are traded for volumes; the advantage is buying at the cheapest price and selling at lowest prices to induce customers to its stores all over the world.

According to Hamel and Pralhad, the process of developing core competencies starts with the strategic intent of being a leader in the market by leveraging the resources. This thought of being a leader in the market is called strategic intentand it points at identifying various opportunity gaps.