Marlboro

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Marlboro  is the largest selling brand of cigarettes in the world. It is made by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the US, and by Philip Morris International (now separate from Altria) outside the US. It is famous for its billboard advertisements, magazine ads of the Marlboro Man and its long associated history in the sponsorship of motorsport. Richmond, Virginia is the location of the largest Marlboro cigarette manufacturing plant.

Philip Morris launched the Marlboro brand in 1924 as a woman's cigarette, based on the slogan "Mild As May". In the 1920s, advertising for the cigarette was primarily based around how ladylike the cigarette was. To this end, the filter had a printed red band around it to hide lipstick stains, calling it "Beauty Tips to Keep the Paper from Your Lips".

A pack of Marlboro "Silvers" (previously: "ultra-lights")
After scientists published a major study linking smoking to lung cancer in the 1950s, Philip Morris repositioned Marlboro as a men's cigarette in order to fit a market niche of men who were concerned about lung cancer. At the time, filtered cigarettes were considered safer than unfiltered cigarettes, but had been until that time only marketed to women. Men at the time indicated that while they would consider switching to a filtered cigarette, they were concerned about being seen smoking a cigarette marketed to women.
The red and white package was designed by the Designer Frank Gianninoto. The repositioning of Marlboro as a men's cigarette was handled by Chicago advertiser Leo Burnett. The proposed campaign was to present a lineup of manly figures: sea captains, weightlifters, war correspondents, construction workers, etc. The cowboy was to have been the first in this series. While Philip Morris was concerned about the campaign, they eventually gave the green light.
Within a year, Marlboro's market share rose from less than one percent to the fourth best-selling brand. This convinced Philip Morris to drop the lineup of manly figures and stick with the cowboy.
In order to comply with a court ruling USA vs. Philip Morris, Philip Morris (and all other cigarette companies) is now prevented from using words such as "Lights", "Ultra-Lights", "Medium", "Mild", or any similar designation that yields a false impression that they are safer than regular full flavor cigarettes. Thus Marlboro and other cigarette companies must use only color coding instead; for example Marlboro Lights are now called Marlboro Gold Pack.


Philip Morris sold the Canadian rights to the "Marlboro" name to Imperial Tobacco Canada in 1932. After the brand's successful American relaunch in the 1950s – which later became well known to Canadians though exposure to the brand's international sponsorships and advertising – Philip Morris tried several legal manoeuvres in attempting to reacquire the Canadian rights, to no avail. Imperial Tobacco continues to sell a line of cigarettes under the Marlboro name in Canada, albeit with very different packaging from that of the Philip Morris product. Philip Morris retains the rights to the "rooftop" trade dress and other elements of Marlboro's branding which were developed after the 1932 sale, and has historically used that trade dress in Canada in combination with the names "Matador" or occasionally "Maverick".
In 2006, Philip Morris International's Canadian affiliate Rothmans, Benson & Hedges relaunched the product without any brand name, which led to a legal challenge from Imperial, contending that the new packaging created customer confusion by merely suggesting the Marlboro brand, thereby infringing on Imperial's Canadian trademark rights. Canada's Federal Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Imperial in June 2012. The opinion noted that Canadian regulations which (in most cases) prohibits the public display of tobacco products at retail locations – i.e., customers must ask for a brand by name – exacerbated the situation, as there were now two products that customers might be referring to when asking for "Marlboro". Though PMI is expected to appeal, shortly after the ruling it began using the brand name "Rooftop" on packaging for the previously unbranded cigarettes.


Marlboro Friday refers to April 2, 1993, when Philip Morris announced a 20% price cut to their Marlboro cigarettes to fight back against generic competitors, which were increasingly eating into their market share.
As a result, Philip Morris's stock fell 26%, and the share value of other branded consumer product companies, including Coca-Cola and RJR Nabisco, fell as well. The broad index fell 1.98% that day. Fortune magazine deemed Marlboro Friday "the day the Marlboro Man fell off his horse." for Philip Morris Investors interpreted the price slash as an admission of defeat from the Marlboro brand, that Philip Morris could no longer justify its higher price tag and now had to compete with generic brands.
Since the Marlboro man was an image that stood since 1954, it was considered one of the biggest marketing icons, investors reasoned that to see the Marlboro icon give in to a price war, the marketing itself must be ineffective. As a result of plummeting stock value in major American brands, 1993 marked a slight decrease in U.S. ad expenditures.
It was the only decrease to occur since 1970. At the time, this event was regarded as signifying "the death of a brand" and the advent of a "value-minded" consumer generation who pay more attention to the real value of products and not the brand names. This view soon proved to be incorrect, with the rest of the decade's economy being dominated by brands and driven by high-budget marketing campaigns



References

^ Erin Barrett and Jack Mingo, ed. (2003). W.C. Privy's Original Bathroom Companion. St. Martin's Press. pp. 407–410. ISBN 0-312-28750-X.
^ After Bans, Tobacco Tries Direct Marketing (audio on page)
^ John Wells (2010-01-06). "John Wells’s phonetic blog: Marlborough". Phonetic-blog.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
^ USA Vs. Philip Morris 2006 http://www.justice.gov/civil/cases/tobacco2/amended%20opinion.pdf
^ "''Eurosport Yahoo News'', April 29, 2010". Uk.eurosport.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
^ Jagger,Suzy; Watson, Rory, "Ferrari F1 barcode a ‘smokescreen for cigarette adverts’", The Times (London), April 29, 2010
^ "Ferrari removes bar code design from car". USA Today. May 7, 2010.
^ "Le nouveau logo de Ferrari propice à polémique?'', January 28, 2011". Toilef1.com. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
^ "''Ferrari extends deal with tobacco company Philip Morris'', June 16, 2011". En.espnf1.com. 2011-06-14. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
^ a b Gauthier, Johanne (2012-06-29). "Marlboro Canada Limited v. Philip Morris Products S.A. (2012 FCA 201)". Federal Court of Appeal (Canada). Retrieved 2012-09-15.
^ a b Krashinsky, Susan (2012-08-03). "Why Marlboro Country ends at the border". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2012-09-15.




Chevrolet

Written by Reza Tavajjohi
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Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is an American brand of vehicle produced by General Motors (GM). Chevrolet was founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, and later acquired by General Motors in 1918. Chevrolet was positioned by Alfred Sloan to sell a lineup of mainstream vehicles to directly compete against Henry Ford's Model T in the 1920s, with "Chevrolet" or "Chevy" being at times synonymous with GM. In North America, Chevrolet sells and produces a wide variety of automobiles, from subcompact cars to medium-duty commercial trucks, whereas in Europe, the brand name is used mainly for automobiles produced in Korea by General Motors.

On November 3, 1911, Swiss race car driver and automotive engineer Louis Chevrolet co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in Detroit with William C. Durant and investment partners William Little (maker of the Little automobile) and Dr. Edwin R. Campbell (son-in-law of Durant) and in 1912 R. S. McLaughlin GEO of General Motors in Canada.
Durant was ousted from the management of General Motors in 1910 for five years. He took over the Flint Wagon Works, incorporating the Mason and Little companies. As head of Buick Motor Company prior to founding GM, Durant had hired Louis Chevrolet to drive Buicks in promotional races. Durant planned to use Chevrolet's reputation as a racer as the foundation for his new automobile company.
Actual design work for the first Chevy, the costly Series C Classic Six, was drawn up by Etienne Planche, following instructions from Louis. The first C prototype was ready months before Chevrolet was actually incorporated.
Chevrolet first used the "bowtie emblem" logo in 1913. It may have been designed from wallpaper Durant once saw in a French hotel room. More recent research by historian Ken Kaufmann presents a case that the logo is based on a logo of the "Coalettes" coal company. Others claim that the design was a stylized Swiss cross, in tribute to the homeland of Chevrolet's parents.

Chevrolet logo, ca. 1943
Louis Chevrolet had differences with Durant over design and in 1915 sold Durant his share in the company. By 1916, Chevrolet was profitable enough with successful sales of the cheaper Series 490 to allow Durant to repurchase a controlling interest in General Motors. After the deal was completed in 1917, Durant became president of General Motors, and Chevrolet was merged into GM as a separate division. In 1917, Chevrolet's factories were located at New York City; Tarrytown, N.Y.; Flint, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; Oakland, California; Fort Worth, Texas, and Oshawa, Ontario. In the 1918 model year, Chevrolet introduced the Series D, a V8-powered model in four-passenger roadster and five-passenger tourer models.
Chevrolet continued into the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s competing with Ford, and after the Chrysler Corporation formed Plymouth in 1928, Plymouth, Ford, and Chevrolet were known as the "Low-priced three". In 1933 Chevrolet launched the Standard Six, which was advertised in the United States as the cheapest six-cylinder car on sale.

Chevrolet Camaro 2010
Chevrolet had a great influence on the American automobile market during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1953 it produced the Corvette, a two-seater sports car with a fibreglass body. In 1957 Chevy introduced its first fuel-injected engine, the Rochester Ramjet option on Corvette and passenger cars, priced at $484. In 1960 it introduced the Corvair, with a rear-mounted air-cooled engine. In 1963 one out of every ten cars sold in the United States was a Chevrolet.
The basic Chevrolet small-block V-8 design has remained in continuous production since its debut in 1955, longer than any other mass-produced engine in the world, although current versions share few if any parts interchangeable with the original. Descendants of the basic small-block OHV V-8 design platform in production today have been much modified with advances such as aluminium block and heads, electronic engine management, and sequential port fuel injection. Depending on the vehicle type, Chevrolet V-8s are built in displacements from 4.3 to 9.4 litres with outputs ranging from 111.394 horsepower (83.066 kW) to 994 horsepower (741 kW) as installed at the factory. The engine design has also been used over the years in GM products built and sold under the Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Hummer, Opel (Germany), and Holden (Australia) nameplates.
In 2005, General Motors re-launched the Chevrolet marque in Europe, using rebadged versions of the Daewoo cars produced by GM Korea.
The Chevrolet division is currently recovering from the economic downturn of 2007–2010. After sales of General Motors vehicles plummeted and when the U.S Government bailed out the company, GM began developing more fuel efficient cars and trucks in order to compete with foreign automakers. In late 2010 General Motors began production of the plug-in electric Chevrolet Volt (and related Opel/Vauxhall Ampera), which later was announced as the 2012 North American Car of the Year, European Car of the Year and World Green Car of the Year.

Chevrolet bowtie logo

The Chevrolet bowtie logo was introduced by company co-founder William C. Durant in late 1913. According to an official company publication titled The Chevrolet Story of 1961, the logo originated in Durant's imagination when, as a world traveler in 1908, he saw the pattern marching off into infinity as a design on wallpaper in a French hotel. He tore off a piece of the wallpaper and kept it to show friends, with the thought that it would make a good nameplate for a car. However, in a 13-year-old interview with Durant's widow, Catherine published in a 1986 issue of Chevrolet Pro Management Magazine, Catherine recalled how she and her husband were on holiday in Hot Springs, Va., in 1912. While reading a newspaper in their hotel room, Durant spotted a design and exclaimed, "I think this would be a very good emblem for the Chevrolet." Unfortunately, at the time, Mrs. Durant didn't clarify what the motif was or how it was used. Ken Kaufmann, historian and editor of The Chevrolet Review, discovered in a Nov. 12, 1911 edition of The Constitution newspaper, published in Atlanta, an advertisement appeared from by the Southern Compressed Coal Company for "Coalettes," a refined fuel product for fires. The Coalettes logo, as published in the ad, had a slanted bowtie form, very similar to the shape that would soon become the Chevrolet icon. The date of the paper was just nine days after the incorporation of the Chevrolet Motor Co. One other explanation attributes the design to a stylized version of the cross of the Swiss flag. Louis Chevrolet was born in Switzerland at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Canton of Neuchatel, to French parents, on Christmas Day 1878. An October 2, 1913 edition of The Washington Post seems, so far, to be the earliest known example of the symbol being used to advertise the brand.
The first bowtie logo without embedded text first appeared in 1985, as part of the Heartbeat of America ad campaign. In 2004, Chevrolet began to phase-in the gold bowtie that serves as the brand identity for all of its cars and trucks marketed globally.

FutureBrand, a Interpublic Group of Companies company, has been working with General Motors since 2000,[68] who also involved the commissioning of a font that would later sold as Klavika Condensed, as part of re-design of Chevrolet in 2006.
In 2010, General Motors replaced the advertising agency Campbell-Ewald, also of Interpublic Group of Companies, with Publicis Worldwide. Campbell-Ewald had served Chevrolet since 1919.[69] In May 2010 Chevrolet's advertising account was awarded to Goodby, Silverstein and Partners.
As part of the attempt to attract 18-24 year-old drivers, General Motors hired MTV Scratch. Some of the collaboration results include Chevy ads showing their cars skydiving, bungee jumping, doing other stunts. The commercial was produced with consultations from students from UCLA, Pepperdyne and high schools. Some of the footage was later used in Chevrolet Sonic ad titled 'Stunt Anthem' during Super Bowl XLVI.
In March 2012, General Motors announced two competing agencies, San Francisco-based Goodby, Silverstein and Partners (part of Omnicom Group), and New York-based McCann Erickson Worldwide (part of Interpublic Group), will join to form an equal joint venture company called Commonwealth to handle most of Chevrolet's ads. Prior to the joint venture, Goodby, Silverstein and Partners performed marketing in the U.S., including the "Chevy Runs Deep" campaign; McCann handled Chevrolet ads in China, Latin America, Mexico, Canada and other markets. Commonwealth would handle and supervise creative work worldwide out of Detroit for all markets except China, India and Uzbekistan, where GM has joint auto-making ventures. McCann would continue to handle ads in China and India, and Uzbekistan will be contracted as needed.

References

^ GM Heritage Center (1996). "Chevrolet 1911–1996". p. 97. Retrieved April 12, 2011.
^ Automotive News 1 March 2010
^ Chevrolet press release 6 September 2011
^ Polish Armor 1939 - Improvised Armored Car Kubus
^ "Uzavtosanoat website". Retrieved May 4, 2011.
^ Automoveis Classicos – Accessed May 31, 2012
^ "Just Auto 3 August 2011". Just-auto.com. 2011-08-03. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
^ "Corvette Racing official website". Corvetteracing.com. 2008-10-04. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
^ "Popular Mechanics 2011". Popularmechanics.com. 2010-07-30. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
^ "Chevrolet WTCC website". Chevroletwtcc.com. 2006-05-21. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
^ "Chevrolet UK website". Chevroletbtcc.co.uk. 2011-10-27. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
^ Stone, Simon. "Chevrolet". The Independent. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
^ History with a Mystery: The Chevrolet Bowtie
^ Chevrolet Bowtie History
^ The Evolution of the Chevy Bowtie
^ How Chevrolet decided on its iconic Bowtie logo
^ Custom Fonts
^ YOUNG CREATIVE CHEVROLET - CI Guidelines
^ Knockout, the functional family.



Michelin

Written by Reza Tavajjohi
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Michelin is a tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is one of the two largest tyre manufacturers in the world along with Bridgestone. In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal (in North America) tyre brands. Most companies identify the new Michelin Energy tyre, introduced in the early 1980s. It is also notable for its Red and Green travel guides, its roadmaps, the Michelin stars that the Red Guide awards to restaurants for their cooking, and for its company mascot Bibendum, colloquially known as the Michelin Man.
Among Michelin's numerous inventions, there is the removable tyre, the « pneurail » (a tyre for trains made to run on rails) and the radial tyre technology now used in modern "green tyres" that reduce fuel consumption.


Two brothers, Édouard and André Michelin, ran a rubber factory in Clermont-Ferrand, France. One day, a cyclist whose pneumatic tyre needed repair turned up at the factory. The tyre was glued to the rim, and it took over three hours to remove and repair the tyre, which then needed to be left overnight to dry. The next day, Édouard Michelin took the repaired bicycle into the factory yard to test. After only a few hundred metres, the tyre failed. Despite the setback, Édouard was enthusiastic about the pneumatic tyre, and he and his brother worked on creating their own version, one that did not need to be glued to the rim. Michelin was incorporated on 28 May 1888. In 1891, it took out its first patent for a removable pneumatic tyre which was used by Charles Terront to win the world's first long distance cycle race, the 1891 Paris–Brest–Paris.
Michelin has made a number of innovations to tyres, including in 1946 the radial tyre (then known as the "X" tyre). It was developed with the front-wheel-drive Citroën Traction Avant and Citroën 2CV in mind. Michelin had bought the then bankrupt Citroën in the 1930s. As of August 2008, this tyre is still available for the 2CV. In 1934, Michelin introduced a tyre, which if punctured, would run on a special foam lining, now known as a run-flat tyre (self-supporting type).
In the 1920s and 1930s, Michelin operated large rubber plantations in Vietnam. The Vietnamese workers were exploited pitilessly and brutally, which led to the famous labour movement Phu Rieng Do.

" French Indochina - The French community of about 40000 lived in the European quarters, - for the mass of the population the reality was forced labour - working to produce the colony's exports of rice, tin, tea, and above all - rubber - the source of the fortune of the Michelin company."
In 1988, Michelin acquired the tyre and rubber manufacturing divisions of the American B.F. Goodrich Company founded in 1870. This included the Norwood, North Carolina manufacturing plant which supplied tyres to the U.S. Space Shuttle Program. Two years later, it bought Uniroyal, Inc., founded in 1892 as the United States Rubber Company. Uniroyal Australia had already been bought by Bridgestone in 1980.
Michelin also controls 90% of Taurus Tire in Hungary, as well as Kormoran, a Polish brand.
As of 1 September 2008, Michelin is again the world's largest tyre manufacturer after spending two years as number two behind Bridgestone. Michelin produces tyres in France, Spain, Germany, the USA, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Thailand, Japan, Italy and several other countries. On 15 January 2010, Michelin announced the closing of its Ota, Japan plant, which employs 380 workers and makes the Michelin X-Ice tyre. Production of the X-Ice will be moved to Europe, North America, and elsewhere in Asia.


Michelin participated in MotoGP from 1972 to 2008. They introduced radial construction to MotoGP in 1984, and multi-compound tyres in 1994. They achieved 360 victories in 36 years, and from 1993 to 2006, the world championship had gone to a rider on Michelins.
In 2007, Casey Stoner on Bridgestone tyres won the world championship in dominating fashion, and Valentino Rossi and other top riders complained that Michelins were inferior. Rossi wanted Bridgestones for the 2008 season, but Bridgestone was reluctant to provide them; Dorna threatened to impose a control tyre on the series, after which Bridgestone relented.
In 2008, Michelin's tyres continued to be perceived as being inferior to Bridgestone's[citation needed], and Michelin committed errors of judgment in allocating adequate tyres for some of the race weekends. Dani Pedrosa's team switched to Bridgestones in the midst of the season, a highly unusual move that caused friction between Honda Racing Corporation and their sponsor Repsol YPF. Other riders also expressed concerns and it seemed that Michelin might not have any factory riders for the 2009 season, leading to rumours that Michelin would withdraw from the series altogether. Dorna and the FIM announced that a control tyre would be imposed on MotoGP for the 2009 season and Michelin did not enter a bid, effectively ending its participation in the series at the end of 2008.


References

^ Annual Results 2010". Michelin. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
^ Cronin Fisk, Margaret; O’Reilly, Cary (10 September 2009). "Michelin Loses $12 Million Verdict in Suit Over Crash". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
^ Chapelcornertyres.com
^ Travaux de la commission des finances
^ Solheim, B: The Vietnam War Era: A Personal Journey, page 11, Praeger Publishers, 2006. (See Google Books.)
^ Julian Jackson, BBC Radio Three, The Other Empire, episode 4/5 first broadcast 15 September 2011
^ Karen Barber,"Goodrich Expects to Sell Norwood Plant to Michelin," The Charlotte Observer, October 12, 1988.
^ "Michelin North America has been the sole tire supplier for the space shuttle program from the first launch in 1981". Greenville News. 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
^ Autoindustriya.com
^ Michelin.com
^ "A Fond Farewell". Michelin.com. 2008-10-26. Retrieved 2009-09-03.






Staedtler

Written by Reza Tavajjohi
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Staedtler Mars GmbH & Co. KG is a German fine writing instruments company and one of the world's leading manufacturers and suppliers of writing, artist, and engineering drawing instruments. The firm was founded by J.S. Staedtler in 1835 and produces a large variety of writing instruments, including drafting pencils, leadholders, professional pens, and standard wooden pencils. It also produces plastic erasers, rulers, compasses, and other drawing/writing accessories. Staedtler has over 20 global subsidiaries and seven manufacturing facilities. Over 80% of the production is taking place in the headquarters in Nuremberg, though some of its products are made in Japan. Its "Noris" line of pencils is extremely common in British schools.

The roots of the name Staedtler can be traced back to 1662, the year in which first references to Friedrich Staedtler as a pencil-making craftsman were made in the city annals. On 3rd October 1835, J.S. Staedtler received permission from the municipal council to produce blacklead, red chalk and pastel pencils in his industrial plant. In 1866, the company had 54 employees and produced 15,000 gross (2,160,000 pencils) per year.
Between 1900 and 1901 Mars and Noris brands were created. In 1922 the USA subsidiary (located in New York) was established, which was followed by the Japan subsidiary four years later. In 1937 the name was changed to Mars Pencil and Fountain Pen Factory and product range expanded to include mechanical writing instruments. In 1949 began the production of ballpoint pens, which began to be widely used instead of fountain pens (although Staedtler still produces the latter today).
In 1950 leadholders (or mechanical pencils) began to be manufactured, the first being made out of wood. Four years later, "Lumocolor" brand is registered. This brand have been used to design the wide line of Staedtler markers. In 1962 Technical pens began to be produced.
As from 2010, FIMO, MALI, Aquasoft and further brands are being marketed under the Staedtler brand. Also, they celebrated their 175th anniversary in 2010.

Staedtler is committed to introducing innovative products and has won awards as a result. Most recently, the Wopex Graphite Pencils (design with TEAMS Design) and the Triplus line have won awards.
2008
Red Dot Award, Lumocolor Twister Dry Markers
2009
Bio Composite of the Year, Wopex Graphite Pencils
ISH Design Plus Award, Wopex Graphite Pencils
Red Dot Award, Triplus 776 Mechanical Pencils
2011
Red Dot Award, Triplus 426 Ballpoint Pens

References

^ http://www.staedtler.com Staedtler Mars GmbH & Co. KG (2007)
^ http://www.hoovers.com © 2007, Hoover's, Inc., All Rights Reserved
^ Bayley, Caroline (13 April 2011). "Staedtler and Faber-Castell's Productive Pencil Rivalry". BBS News. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
^ Staedtler products
^ Announcement of 2008 Red Dot Award







Hitachi

Written by Reza Tavajjohi
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Hitachi, Ltd.  is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Marunouchi 1-chome, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company is the parent of the Hitachi Group (Hitachi Gurūpu) as part of the larger DKB Group companies. Hitachi has been a diversified company that has 11 business segments: Information and Telecommunication Systems, Electrical Systems, Social and Industrial Systems, Automotive Systems, Electronic Component Devices, Construction, and Financial services.
Hitachi was ranked 129 on the 2012 Forbes Global 2000 list.

Hitachi was founded in 1910 by electrical engineer Namihei Odaira. The company's first product was Japan's first 5-horsepower electric induction motor, initially developed for use in copper mining. Odaira's company soon became the domestic leader in electric motors and electric power industry infrastructure. 
The company began as an in-house venture of Fusanosuke Kuhara's mining company in Hitachi, Ibaraki prefecture. Odaira moved headquarters to Tokyo in 1918. Long before that, he coined the company’s toponymic name by superimposing two kanji characters: hi meaning “sun” and tachi meaning “rise”. The young company's national aspirations were conveyed by its original brand mark, which evoked Japan's imperial rising sun flag.
Hitachi entered talks with Mitsubishi Heavy Industry in August 2011 about a potential merger of the two companies, in what would have been the largest merger between two Japanese companies in history.
The talks subsequently broke down and were suspended.

Hitachi Works is the oldest member of the Hitachi Group and consists of three factories: Kaigan, Hitachi-LG Yamate, and Rinkai Works. Yamate Works, the oldest of the three factories, was founded in 1910 by Namihei Odaira as an electrical equipment repair and manufacturing facility. This facility was named Hitachi, after the Hitachi Mine near Hitachi, Ibaraki, and is regarded as the ancestral home of Hitachi, Ltd.
Many management trainees intern at Hitachi Works before being permanently assigned to other Hitachi divisions. Senior management personnel are often participants in rotations at Hitachi Works for a few years as their career develops towards eventual head office stature. As a result, many of the senior managers of Hitachi Ltd have passed through Hitachi Works.
Spin-off entities from Hitachi Works include Hitachi Cable (1956) and Hitachi Canadian Industries (1988).

References

^ a b c d e "2010 Form 10-K, Hitachi". Yahoo Invester.
^ http://www.hitachi.com/about/corporate/index.html Corporate Profile
^ "Hitachi, Mitsubishi edge towards groundbreaking merger". Reuters. 4 August 2011. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
^ "Shares of Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy get merger boost". BBC News. 4 August 2011. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
^ "Mitsubishi Heavy, Hitachi shares tumble as merger talks stall". Reuters. 4 August 2011. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
^ a b Hitachi Transportation Systems website
^ http://www.hitachi-rail.com/rail_now/hot_topics/2008/080701/index.html
^ http://www.hitachi.us/about/press/details/06222010.html






Singer

Written by Reza Tavajjohi
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Singer Corporation is a manufacturer of sewing machines, first established as I.M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac Merritt Singer with New York lawyer Edward Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Manufacturing Company in 1865, then The Singer Company in 1963. It is currently based in La Vergne, Tennessee near Nashville. Its first large factory for mass production was built in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1863.
In 1885 Singer produced its first "vibrating shuttle" sewing machine, an improvement over contemporary oscillating shuttle designs.
The 11,000 workers at the largest factory of Singer, in Clydebank, went on strike in March–April 1911, ceasing to work in solidarity of 12 female colleagues protesting against work process reorganization. Following the end of the strike, Singer fired 400 workers, including all strike leaders and purported members of the IWGB, among whom was Arthur McManus, who later went on to become the first chairman of the Communist Party of Great Britain between 1920 and 1922.

Diversification

In the 1960s the company diversified, acquiring the Friden calculator company in 1965, Packard Bell Electronics in 1966 and General Precision Equipment Corporation in 1968. GPE included Librascope, The Kearfott Company, Inc, and Link Flight Simulation. In the 1968 also Singer bought out GPS Systems and added it to the Link Simulations Systems Division (LSSD). This unit produced nuclear power plant control center simulators in Silver Spring, MD; while flight simulators were produced in Binghamton, New York. In 1987, corporate raider, Paul Bilzerian, made a "greenmail" run at Singer, and ended up owning the company when no "White Knight" rescuer appeared. To recover his money, Bilzerian sold off parts of the company. Kearfott was split, the Kearfott Guidance & Navigation Corporation was sold to the Astronautics Corporation of America in 1988. The Electronic Systems Division was purchased by GEC-Marconi in 1990, renamed GEC-Marconi Electronic Systems (and later incorporated into BAE Systems) while the Sewing Machine Division was sold in 1989 to Semi-Tech Microelectronics, a publicly traded Toronto-based company.For several years in the 1970s, Singer set up a national sales force for phototypesetting machines made by another Massachusetts company, Graphic Systems Inc.

Present situation

Today, the Singer Corporation produces a range of consumer products, including electronic sewing machines. It is now part of SVP Worldwide, which also owns the Pfaff and Husqvarna Viking brands, which is in turn owned by Kohlberg & Company, which bought Singer in 2004. Its main competitors are Brother Industries, Janome and Aisin Seiki - a Toyota Group company that manufactures Toyota, Necchi and E&R Classic Sewing Machines.

Singer Buildings

Singer was heavily involved in Manhattan real estate in the 1800s through Edward Clark, a founder of the company. Clark had built The Dakota apartments and other Manhattan buildings in the 1880s. In 1900, the Singer company retained Ernest Flagg to build a 12-story loft building at Broadway and Prince Street in Lower Manhattan. The building is now considered architecturally notable, and has been restored.[10]
The 47-story Singer Building, completed in 1908, was also designed by Flagg, who designed two landmark residences for Bourne. Constructed during Bourne's tenure, the Singer Building (demolished in 1968) was then the tallest building in the world. In addition to works in North America, the Singer Corporation also had the honour of creating the largest clock face in the world, the Singer's clock at its Clydebank, Scotland factory which opened in 1885 and closed in 1980. Singer railway station, built to serve the factory, is still in existence to this day.
Another famous Singer Building, designed by architect Pavel Suzor, was built in 1902-1904 at Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg for headquarters of the Russian branch of the company. This modern style building (situated just opposite to the Kazan Cathedral) is officially recognized as an object of Russian historical-cultural heritage.

References

^ Cunningham, John T. (2003). Ellis Island: Immigration's Shining Center. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-2428-3.
^ "A Raider's Days Of Reckoning". Time Magazine. 10 July 1989. Retrieved 2007-05-01.
^ Daniel Hilken and Albert Wong (July 1, 2005). "Semi-Tech's Ting jailed six years". The Standard (Hong Kong). Retrieved 2007-05-01.
^ The Singer strike 1911, Glasgow Digital Library
^ "Sewing Machines". Machine-History.Com. Retrieved 2012-09-03.
^ Sanders, Richard Robert S. Clark (1877-1956), Press for Conversion! magazine, Issue # 53, "Facing the Corporate Roots of American Fascism," March 2004. Published by the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade.



Warner Brothers

Written by Reza Tavajjohi
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Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. (though the name was occasionally given in full form as Warner Brothers during the company's early years), is an American producer of film, television, and music entertainment.
One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank, California and New York. Warner Bros. has several subsidiary companies, including Warner Bros. Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, TheWB.com, and DC Comics. Warner owns half of The CW Television Network.
Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).


1903–25: Founding
The corporate name honors the four founding Warner brothers (born Wonskolaser [pron. WON Sko La' Ser] or Wonsal)—Harry (born Hirsz), Albert (born Aaron), Sam (born Szmul), and Jack (Itzhak or to some sources Jacob). Harry, Albert, Sam and their Jewish parents emigrated to North America from the part of Poland that had been subjugated to the Russian Empire following the 18th-century partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth near present-day Ostroleka, Poland. Jack, the youngest, was born in Canada. The three elder brothers began in the movie theatre business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania and Ohio. They opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania in 1903. (The site of the Cascade later became the Cascade Center, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex honoring its Warner Bros. heritage, though in late 2010 all of the businesses have closed and the complex is currently for sale.) When this original theatre building in New Castle was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the modern building owners, and arranged a 3 way in hopes of saving it, between three men, Warner Bros, and the modern owners. The owners noted the fact that they were taking phone calls from all over the country in reference to the historical significance of the humble building that should be saved historically.
In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, to distribute films. In 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, and in 1918 the brothers opened the Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack Warner produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert Warner and their auditor and now controller Chase handled finance and distribution in New York City. It was during World War I and their first nationally syndicated film was My Four Years in Germany based on a popular book by former American Ambassador James W. Gerard. On April 4, 1923, with help from a loan given to Harry Warner by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. However, as late as the 1960s, Warner Bros. claimed 1905 as its founding date.
The first important deal for the company was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwood's 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, from theatrical impresario David Belasco. However, what really put Warner Bros. on the Hollywood map was a dog, Rin Tin Tin, brought from France after World War I by an American soldier. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins. The movie was so successful that Jack Warner agreed to sign the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star at the studio. Jack Warner nicknamed him "The Mortgage Lifter" and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanuck's career. Zanuck eventually became a top producer for the studio and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jack Warner's right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including the day-to-day production of films. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director; Harry Rapf left the studio and accepted an offer to work at MGM. Lubitsch's film The Marriage Circle was the studio's most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for the year.
Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners was still unable to achieve star power. As a result, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry Warner agreed to sign Barrymore to a generous long-term contract; like The Marriage Circle, Beau Brummell was named one of the ten best films of the year by The New York Times. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably the most successful independent studio in Hollywood, but it still competed with "The Big Three" Studios (First National, Paramount Pictures, and MGM). As a result, Harry Warner – while speaking at a convention of 1,500 independent exhibitors in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – was able to convince the filmmakers to spend $500,000 in newspaper advertising, and Harry saw this as an opportunity to finally be able to establish theaters in big cities like New York and Los Angeles.
As the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan. With this new money, the Warners bought the pioneer Vitagraph Company which had a nation-wide distribution system.In 1925, Warners also experimented in radio, establishing a successful radio station, KFWB, in Los Angeles.


Warner Bros. was already the owner of extensive music-publishing holdings, whose tunes had appeared in countless Warners cartoons (arranged by Carl Stalling) and television shows (arranged by Max Steiner).
In 1958 the studio launched Warner Bros. Records. Initially the label released recordings made by their television stars whether they could sing or not and records based on the soundtracks of favourite Warner Bros. Television shows.
In 1963, Jack Warner agreed to a "rescue takeover" of Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records. The deal gave Sinatra US$1.5 million and part ownership of Warner Bros. Records, with Reprise becoming a sub-label; most significantly for Warner Bros.'s future music operations, the deal also brought Reprise manager Morris "Mo" Ostin into the company. In 1964, upon seeing the profits record companies made from Warner film music, Jack Warner decided to claim ownership of the studio's film soundtracks and focus on making profits through Warner Bros. Records. In its first eighteen months, Warner Bros. Records lost around $2 million.


References


Warner-Sperling, Cass; Millner, Cork; Jack Warner (1999). Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-0958-2.


  • Mordden, Ethan (1988). The Hollywood Studios. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7153-8319-1.
  • Schatz, Robert (1988). The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era. New York: Pantheon. ISBN 0-8050-4666-6.
  • Schickel, Richard; Perry, George (2008). You must remember this – The Warner Bros. Story. Philadelphia: Running Press. ISBN 0-7624-3418-X.
  • Sklar, Robert (1994). Movie-Made America. New York: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-679-75549-4.
  • Warner, Jack L. (1970). My First Hundred Years in Hollywood. Random House. ISBN B0007DZSKW.
  • Gabler, Neal (1988). An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood. New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-56808-X.