What is the oldest (or longest-running) brand mark (or brand name)?
It seems to me that branding of products is a fairly recent phenomenon - is this true?
Gp
Branding first started in the Victorian ages when people needed reassurance that the food they were buying was of an OK quality.
He cited examples of cheese being dyed red by using lead and a few other horrible examples.
If you’re interested the program was called ‘What the Victorians did for us’.
You may find some more info here http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/victorians/index.shtml
How far back brand names go depends on how you define it I suppose. Firearms manufacturers have been stamping their names on their products since the 17th century at least, and the product was priced according to the manufacturer. I guess that qualifies as a brand name but I doubt any names from that era still exist. I suspect sword manufacturers has been doing the same before this but I can’t prove it.
Then we have the problem that many early ‘brand’ names were just regional names. Sheffield cutlery, Toledo steel and Champagne wine being some examples. All are still in use, but do they count as brand names?
In terms of ‘real’ brand names still in use I’d have to take a guess at ‘Colt’, which has been used continuously since 1836 at least (one year before Victoria inherited the throne.)
Belay that.
Guinness has existed since 1760.
If by “brand name” you also include “protected name for a specific product used to specify a specific quality, origin and fabrication method” I believe the history traces back a lot further than the Victorians.
Bordeaux wine for example have been made since Roman times, and I believe that the Bordeaux winemaker would have been outraged if someone else sold wine called “Bordeaux” that didn’t come from there.
The same would have applied to “Camembert” cheese, limousin beef, “Toledo” steel and “Parma” ham.
To start with this was only of local/national concern, and not until the last century were there any major international treaties. (Somewhere in the back of my memory there’s a voice saying WIPO, Madrid, 1926 - But I’m not sure I trust that.) (It is also worth noting that Americans don’t seem to giva a damn about this, and keep calling all fizzy wine “champagne”.)
I think grimpixie means a brand owned by a company not a specific region of a country.
Though I could be wrong.
The first ever registered trademark in the UK is the Bass beer red triangle if thats any help
Hudson’s Bay Company has existed since 1670. It used to trade for furs with the natives; now it’s just another retail store, like Sears.
And the Swedish mining and lumbering company Stora, originally Stora Kopparberg now merged with another company to form Stora Enso, was founded in 1288.
Hudson’s Bay Company has existed since 1670. It used to trade for furs with the natives; now it’s just another retail store, like Sears. **
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Surely thats a ‘trading’ name rather than a brand name?
Yes, but they didn’t really have any brand name to start with. I would believe that their first recognised unique product must be the Falun Red Paint, which was first produced in 1750. It still remains the most common paint for Swedish cottages.
I think we’ve really got to distinguish between company names and brand names here. Hudson Bay and Stora may well be old company names, but could you actually go out in the 18th century and ask for a ‘Hudson Bay’ beaver skin, or a pound of ‘Stora’ copper sulphate?
When I said that Guiness has existed since 1760 I meant the beer, not the company.