I was surprised to learn that Freight Liners are by far the most popular semi in the US and they are not a US company.
I don't confuse Companies with "brands" any more.
Yeah, the US company "Consolidated Freightways" sold to "Freightliner" to Daimler back in the '80s.
I remember when CF announced it was selling "the Freightliner brand" to Daimler.
It turns out, "Freightliner" was never a company.
That realization flexed my brain frame to the cracking point (sort of "on topic").
Freightliner is a brand, owned by a company, once American Consolidated Freightways, Inc and now German (Daimler Trucks of North America, owned by Daimler AG).
Brands, unlike companies, are completely transferable. When you buy a company, you used to change the name, or you put a sign in the window that says, "under new management." It's BS.
When you buy the brand you buy loyal customers along with (optionally) the technology, manufacturing, tooling, supplier contracts, copyrights, trademarks, debts and assets; all the required ingredients to keep loyal customers coming back as if the "brand" was the company.
Witness people that still only drive "Dodge" despite Italian ownership.
In fact, the Italians pay advertisers (think "Darren Stevens of 'McMahon and Tate'") to keep the "American" illusion alive by making commercials featuring "The Dodge Brothers." I think I just heard on a financial news network that Fiat's making lots of American dollars now by not calling their businesses "Fiat."
The whole illusion of "brand" breaks down when you look at the "brand" as an "opinion" instead of "a company."
Sorry if I flexed the topic to the point of facture, but topics drift.
They're supposed to tolerate a little bit of drift, but topics aren't designed to drift
-Jon
, if you want to play you have to read all the posts.
