Sony is an example of a company that’s learnt a lot about branding – the right way.

Pass me a CFS-65L please…

This press advertising from the 70s shows them proudly announcing the arrival of their 4-wave stereo radio recorder “with the lovely name CFS-65L”. Hmm. Whose idea was that, the techy? Flows off the lips, doesn’t it? Good morning, I’d like to buy a CFS-65L.

But let’s not be harsh. In those days technical sounding things had seemingly random numbers and letters in their names – as BMW and Mercedes cars still do today (most people outside Germany still wonder what the classes A, C, S etc all mean) …

Not long after this ad, Sony grew up a bit. So rather than invent totally forgettable names for their products they created whole brands under the mother brand. It’s a clever move (and one that competitors such as “Panasonic…” also now follow).

Ever since the “Trinitron” got people proudly announcing they’d bought a Trinitron rather than a TV – Sony has had standalone brands that still somehow draw upon the corporate Sony name: Vaio (laptop), Cyber-Shot (digital camera), Bravia (plasma TV) – and the classic personal entertainment brand of all times: the Walkman.