In the next few months, we will take a look at the unique, top-quality, most well-known brands in different countries around the EU. This week, we look at some of the best the Netherlands has to offer.
Corporations spend millions of dollars on marketing their products and ensuring the public knows what it is they do and how good their goods and services are. A good brand can draw customers, help the bottom line and increase profits in a competitive global marketplace. Not only companies have brands but nations do as well.
The Netherlands are associated in many people’s minds with assertive, competent, wide-ranging brands. Indeed, despite its small size, the country boasts some of the most recognisable and powerful brands on earth.
Philips
According to Businessweek, Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Royal Philips Electronics N.V.), usually known as Philips, (Euronext: PHIA, NYSE: PHG) is the forty-second most powerful brand in the world and leads the list of Dutch companies. Philips is one of the largest electronics companies in the world.
In 2006, its sales were EUR 26.976 billion and it employed 125,500 people in more than 60 countries. Philips is organized in a number of sectors: Philips Consumer Lifestyle (formerly Philips Consumer Electronics) and Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care), Philips Lighting and Philips Healthcare (formerly Philips Medical Systems).
The company was founded in 1891 by Gerard Philips, a maternal cousin of Karl Marx, in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Its first products were light bulbs 'and other electro technical equipment'. Many experts agree that Philips has continued its market dominance by offering very good products for fair prices with unique design and functionality.
In 2004, Philips abandoned the slogan "Let's make things better" in favour of a new one: "Sense and Simplicity". For many, this expresses the Philips brand perfectly.