Walmart, Google, Starbucks, Apple – these are some of the world’s most successful businesses. But behind all the success are certain fun facts that not even their most die-hard fans would know.
Here are some fun facts that will pique your interest.
1. Starbucks
Starbucks doesn’t want us to feel lonely while sipping on our cuppa. The roundtables at their outlets have a purpose to fulfill – to make us feel at home even when we are there alone. Since round tables are more welcoming than square edges, people look less alone when they are seated on the former.
2. Coca-Cola
One of the most valuable brands in the world, Coca-Cola’s iconic red-and-white logo is recognised by 94% of the globe’s population. But when the brand launched in China there was a lot of research that went into finding the right characters to transliterate the name. Some of the kanji that sounded like the name translated to “female horse fastened with wax” and another meant “bite the wax tadpole”. They finally settled on the characters that read ke kou ke le, which means “Delicious Happiness”.
3. Apple
An iPhone user who loves talking to Siri should know that their talks are not private. Everything said to Siri is sent to Apple where it is stored and thoroughly analysed. At least for 2 years. The company ensures that they take customer privacy very seriously and this practice is followed solely to improve their service.
4. Google
It is not common knowledge but Google was originally named BackRub. Larry Page and Sergey Brin renamed their company ‘Google’ in 1997. Google is actually a play on the word ‘googol’ – a mathematical term for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros.
5. Amazon
All employees at Amazon spend two days every two years working at the company’s customer service desk. This includes CEO Jeff Bezos. This practice is religiously followed to help employees understand the customer service process.
6. Warner Music
For a long time, Warner Music held the copyrights to “Happy Birthday”. This meant that the company could collect royalties from anyone who ever sang it. However, a couple of years ago, Warner Music paid $14 million to settle a ‘Happy Birthday’ copyright lawsuit and put the song in public domain.
7. McDonald’s
Interestingly, there were nine items on McDonalds’ original food menu when the burger joint first opened its store in California in 1940. The menu included pure beef hamburger, tempting cheeseburger, triple thick shakes, golden French fries, root beer, hot coffee, an orange drink, cold milk, and cola.
8. Facebook
Facebook is primarily blue in colour because its owner and chief, Mark Zuckerberg suffers from red-green colour blindness. Blue is the only colour he sees best. “Blue is the richest colour for me,” he once said.
9. Vaseline
The inventor of Vaseline and the founder of the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company, Robert Augustus Chesebrough, ate a spoonful of the product every day. It was his unfaltering belief in his product that birthed this habit which continued until his death at the age of 96.
10. Walmart
Every week, without fail, nearly one-third of the US’s population visits the Walmart stores. That’s about 100 million customers visiting Walmart to satisfy their shopping needs. This store-hopping, in turn, leads to the company making a profit of $1.8 million every hour!
11. Volkswagen
Believe it or not, the Volkswagen Group owns some of the world’s biggest auto brands. The groups sells passenger cars under these brands namely – Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, and Škoda. It also sells motorcycles under the Ducati brand.
So, now that you know some serious behind the brand trivia, you can go out and impress your friends with little-known facts about the most recognizable names in the world.
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