Trade names, that is. Brand names. How imprtant are they to you?
I don’t feel much brand loyalty. But as I think about it, that’s not really true.
Some brands stand out. Toyota, Honda, Brother, Canon, Panasonic, Arm & Hammer. Dickies. I trust those brands.
Hmmm. 5 of 7 are Japanese.
Did you know that the name “Canon” was taken from “Kwanon,” their first camera model? No matter. I have Canon cameras going back to the FTb, which is nearly 35 years old. Fine camera still, one of the last of the old mechanical cameras, as opposed to electronic and plastic. My Canon copier is going strong and is nearly 10 years old. I have tried to stay in the Canon brand for photographic equipment, except for my little Olympus digital.
(If you are looking for a good camera with manual exposure control, try the Canon FTb, the Nikon FM, the Minolta SRT 201 & SRT 202. Heavy cameras, mostly metal, but good. Perfect student cameras. And all Japanese. Many are going strong after 25-35 years and are available on Ebay. For a good pro camera, try the original Canon F-1; mechanical and solid, the only problem being that so many have had very heavy use.)
Ah, the glory days of photography, the 1970s and early 1980s, when there were a dozen quality camera brands from Japan and 20 or so aftermarket lens manufacturers. The Big Five being Nikon (=Nippon Kogaku), Canon, Minolta, Pentax and Olympus. Yashica, Mamiya, Konica, Ricoh, Fujica and Chinon getting honorable mention.
A great deal ot the success of those brands were their generally high quality product, marked with those “JCII” stickers (for Japanese Camera Inspection Institute).
With digital, now Sony and Panasonic are big players in the camera market.
Ever look at those brand names on cheap tools imported form China? Pittsburgh. Chicago Electric. Etc. Fully, really, that naive intent to deceive.
Southwestern Bell I felt an affinity for, mostly because as a little tyke, I went the the SWBT offices with my grandfather, and was given that booklet about Alex Graham Bell and the telephone. But when SWB bought AT&T, they changed the name–to AT&T. Which IMHO has negative loyalty for me. There are no good connotations for the name AT&T. I would stop doing business with them if I could, just because of the name.
