What are some little-known facts about the business world?
- Coca-Cola and it’s red and white ribbon logo are recognized by an amazing 94% of the world’s population. However, the brand had a problem with it’s name when it launched in China in 1979. The kanji characters chosen infamously translated into “bite the wax tadpole” and “female horse fastened with wax”. The company finally decided on a logo where the characters translated roughly as “delicious happiness”.
- pepsi didn’t have an easy time with Chinese translation, either. They had a huge marketing blunder with their “come alive with the Pepsi generation” slogan several years back. In Chinese it translated as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave”.
- If you think what you say to Siri on your iPhone is private, think again. Everything you say to it is sent to Apple where it is analyzed and stored for at least 2 years. Apple insists that all information stored is kept private and is only used to improve customer experience.
- All employees at Amazon spend two days a year working on the customer service phone desk, including CEO Jeff Bezos. This is done so all employees can understand the customer service process the company emphasizes.
- If you’ve ever sung the song “Happy Birthday” prior to 2016, you owed a royalty fee to music publisher Warner/Chappell. The company owned the copyright to the song until that date when it settled a lawsuit brought against it that placed the song in the public domain. A memorandum on the deal said it was “truly, an historic result.”
- When the McDonald brothers opened their first restaraunt in 1940, there were only 9 items on the menu: hamburger, cheeseburger, fries, shakes, rootbeer, hot coffee, an orange drink and a cola. Today, Bloomberg says that the average McDonalds has over 145 items on its menu board.
- Walmart is more than just a retail giant. Over 90% of the U.S. population is within 15 minutes of one of its stores. It accounts for 25% of the total business for the Clorox Company. More people work at Walmart than live in Houston, TX. If it were a country, it would have the 28th largest economy in the world.
- Grocery store chains Aldi and Trader Joe’s are “related”. In 1946, brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht took over a small store run by their mother in Essen, Germany known as Aldi, which is short for “Albrecht Diskont”. After a huge expansion the brothers split the company with each taking half. Karl took Aldi Sud (South) and Theo took Aldi Nord (North). Aldi Sud operates stores in the U.S. under the ALDI name. Aldi Nord operates in the U.S. under the Trader Joe’s name. ALDI was mostly located in the eastern half of the country and Trader Joe’s in the Western half until the early 2000’s. If you’ve ever wondered why you don’t see many ALDI stores close by a Trader Joe’s it’s due to a family agreement, but that is beginning to change as the chains spread.
