These Brands Mean What?
The average home in America contains products from hundreds of different brands. Some of these are world-famous household names, while others may be up-and-coming or new to the market. As consumers, we generally know about a given brand’s reputation—yet we seldom give much thought to the origin of a brand we choose.
What if I told you that your favorite beverage was originally created as a drug? Or that one of the cars in your garage came from a company owned by the Nazi Party?
Sound outlandish? These are two examples that describe actual mainstream brands. All too many companies are purposely vague about their brand’s origin. After all, they have one goal: to market their products, get you to buy them, and then walk away with a profit. While selling is all well and good, at Actions Peak we believe the brand you wear should also represent you and your values.
Understanding Your Favorite Brands
Now, we realize it isn’t always easy to know who you’re buying from. It’s much easier to make a purchase and go about your day without researching the brand name. Nevertheless, what you find out in the process may surprise you.
Just as we wouldn’t invest in a company with a shady background, we shouldn’t support brands that don’t align with our morals or values. While company perspectives shift over the years, it’s still difficult to find companies that represent more than just making a buck.
At Actions Peak, we are focused on the success of our customers. We know that you are striving for more, reaching those goals, and racing towards your peak. This is the type of client we want to supply and support, and this relationship makes our brand stronger than those with a flimsy foundation.
This is why we are challenging you – the reader, the customer, and the investigator – to look into the meaning and origin of your favorite brands. Learn about why each brand started and what the founders wanted to create.
Check out your favorite companies’ mission statements. Research news stories and third-party perspectives. Does the company have a purpose that’s doesn’t involve maximizing its profit…and if so, do their actions reflect it? Do they give back to their customers? Do they help improve the world?
Surprising Brand Origins
The meaning and origin of a brand name can say a lot about its trajectory. Take a look at the famous brand names below, for instance. Were you aware of these origins, or do some of them catch you off guard?
We would never preach to you and tell you which brands to support. All we want to do is share the facts—we’ll leave your conclusions and decisions up to you.
- Fanta stems from the German word fantasie, which means imagination.
- Coca-Cola was invented by a doctor and a pharmacist as a patent medicine, originally containing cocaine.
- Samsung comes from two Korean words, “sam” and “sung”. Sam means three and sung means stars, translating to tristar.
- Volkswagen was created during the Third Reich and operated four concentration camps as well as eight forced-labor camps.
- Nivea comes from the Latin word Niveus, which means snow white and represents purity.
Choosing the Right Brands
You may be asking, “What do the brands I wear have to do with me?” Let us ask you this: does your choice of brands affect the quality of your personal products? Does it affect which options you are offered? Does it impact future costs or sacrifices you may have to make to compensate for faulty manufacturing?
Brands with flawed foundations will eventually find flaws in their products. You can’t create a lifelong, durable, and impactful company if you’re starting it with the integrity of a criminal. It’s also hard to create something truly helpful if the only goal is to get cash fast.
Actions Peak, of course, is a business too...and yes, we do sell products. However, this isn’t our end goal; it simply assists in fulfilling our true purposes. We are in the business of creating—creating goals, ambition, motivation, and persistence. We want to help our customers reach their highest peaks with support and passion, because we know that you deserve it.
Choosing the right brands for you comes down to your own personal perspectives and ideas. Only you know what you support, what you don’t, and what you want out of a company. Now it’s time to choose the brands that reflect you are.
Advancing with Actions Peak
No matter which brands out there resonate with you, we hope that you’ll turn to us if you are looking for support, drive, and passion. Actions Peak was created to give you the tools you need to set your goals, then crush those and set higher ones, ad infinitum. We are looking forward to joining our supporters as they race to the finish line, and beyond.
Check out our About Us page for more information.