Assuming human society lasts indefinitely without any serious hickups like starting again from scratch, which current brand name do you think will last the longest?
Coka-Cola? Microsoft? McDonalds? etc.
Feel free to post more than just a brand name. Discuss the future. Whatever.
Well, Beretta already has a 500 year jump on the ones you mentioned. The company first made “hand-gonne” barrels in the 1400s.
Nintendo is a very old brand also right? Long before they made computers they made playing cards. But I can’t see them lasting much into the future. Unless their new handheld computer is a success.
Royal Ordnance has been around a fair bit too, and will likely last as long as the British Royal family.
Hmm… can religions count as brands?
Suppose so, but seperately from commercial brand names.
That reminds me of a book I once read ‘Cloud Atlast’ which tells a set of stories from different times (past and future) all linked. One involved a fastfood chain where the employeeys were heavily brainwashed and they treated the brand as a sort of religion.
‘Cloud Atlas’, not ‘Cloud Atlast’
This is probably the best way to go. Look for the company that has been around the longest and is still doing well.
Also, anything that references a speciifc technology or is techno-trendy is unlikely to stay around. I imagine that in a few hundred years, “Microsoft”, “Cingular”, and “Accenture” will sound as quaint as “Doctor Smith’s Olde Tyme Humor Tonic and Vitalizing Mixture.”
Publishers may come and go but I imagine “Webster’s” and “Oxford” will still be attached to dictionaries.
I can’t imagine the French would ever rename the Sorbonne.
For that matter, there will always be an England.
Yeah, over 100 years old in fact.
I think we’ll be seeing Nintendo for quite some time come. Despite their home console not being in the lead and the competition from the Sony PSP, Nintendo is still raking in a sizeable profit. Just because Nintendo isn’t #1 in console sales, people often forget that Nintendo is foremost a game publisher, in which they rake in millions.
And for the time being, Nintendo owns the hanldheld market. But for the sake of the arguement, let’s assume Nintendo’s hardware sales will decrease to an amount where they can no longer sustain themselves. I’d imagine they’d simply switch to be a software only developer and continue to prosper for some time.
Correct me if I am wrong, but Sega did exactly that. And the brand is far less known than it was 10 or 15 years ago.
No doubt, but the OP didn’t define “last.”
Regadless, Sega is still a recognizable name and, I would think, fits the OPs description.
Argh, regadless = regardless
<AAAACHEWWW!!!>
So sorry… Will somebody pass the Kleenex…
<sniff>
Oh, and one key difference between Sega and Nintendo is that Nintendo has a far stronger stable of franchises than Sega ever did. Sega’s success in the early 90s was largely due to its strong third-party support. Sega lost that edge when PlayStation came along, and subsequently, its market share.
People play Nintendo consoles because they want to play Nintendo games. That’s why I think they’d succeed even if they were to leave the hardware market.
Haha, I just now saw that you are the OP :smack:
Well, did it fit your decscription? 
Coca-Cola started out as one of those old timey “brain tonics”, and as seemingly ridden the top of the wave ever since. Quite clever really, in that they’ve kept an unashamedly nineteenth century logo, but have consistently done well in the youth market. I think as long as our society is around, that brand will be alive and well.
Zildjian has been around since Istanbul was Constantinople…
In 2011, Kikkoman (the soy sauce company) will celebrate its 450th birthday.
Anyway, in general I think the really eternal brands will be in everyday consumer goods, like food and clothing, since the needs for those things don’t change too much. At the rate technological advances are progressing, a high-tech company would have to be amazingly skilled at adapting to change just to survive to the end of this century.
I pop into GAME occasionally before work. I’d have to be actively seeking it to find a sega game or brand name, but I have no problem noticing that Electronic Arts seems to own the rights to just about all the games.
My point being that if I was not actively seeking the brand, I might easily come to assume it is obsolete. (except recently. I.e. the sonic bundle for X-box and PS2)
BTW, can we have that for the PC folks? I LOVED sonic!
I have no idea how to research it, but I’d want to take a look for chinese manufacturers of fireworks.
And paper makers.
And tea producers.