5 Famous Logos And Their Hidden Meanings

1. McDonald’s

Yes, the “M” for McDonald’s and there really isn’t another meaning. In the 60’s, McDonald’s wanted to change the logo but their design consultant and psychologist Louis Cheskin insisted that they left the golden arches. According to BBC, he said customers will unconsciously recognize the logo as “symbolism of a pair of nourishing breasts.” Whether this is true or not, their logo is one of the most recognizable in the world.


Public Company

Incorporated: 1955

Employees: 413,000

Sales: $17.14 billion (2003)

Stock Exchanges: New York Chicago Euronext Paris German Swiss

Ticker Symbol: MCD

NAIC: 722211 Limited-Service Restaurants; 533110 Lessors of Nonfinancial Intangible Assets

Since its incorporation in 1955, McDonald's Corporation has not only become the world's largest quick-service restaurant organization, but has literally changed Americans' eating habits—and increasingly the habits of non-Americans as well. On an average day, more than 46 million people eat at one of the company's more than 31,000 restaurants, which are located in 119 countries on six continents. About 9,000 of the restaurants are company owned and operated; the remainder are run either by franchisees or through joint ventures with local business-people. Systemwide sales (which encompass total revenues from all three types of restaurants) totaled more than $46 billion in 2003. Nine major markets—Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States—account for 80 percent of the restaurants and 75 percent of overall sales. The vast majority of the company's restaurants are of the flagship McDonald's hamburger joint variety. Two other wholly owned chains, Boston Market (rotisserie chicken) and Chipotle Mexican Grill (Mexican fast casual), along with Pret A Manger (upscale prepared sandwiches), in which McDonald's owns a 33 percent stake, account for about 1,000 of the units.

Early History

In 1954 Ray Kroc, a seller of Multimixer milkshake machines, learned that brothers Richard and Maurice (Dick and Mac) McDonald were using eight of his high-tech Multimixers in their San Bernardino, California, restaurant. His curiosity was piqued, and he went to San Bernardino to take a look at the McDonalds' restaurant

The McDonalds had been in the restaurant business since the 1930s. In 1948 they closed down a successful carhop drive-in to establish the streamlined operation Ray Kroc saw in 1954. The menu was simple: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, french fries, shakes, soft drinks, and apple pie. The carhops were eliminated to make McDonald's a self-serve operation, and there were no tables to sit at, no jukebox, and no telephone. As a result, McDonald's attracted families rather than teenagers. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the restaurant was the efficiency with which the McDonald's workers did their jobs. Mac and Dick McDonald had taken great care in setting up their kitchen. Each worker's steps had been carefully choreographed, like an assembly line, to ensure maximum efficiency. The savings in preparation time, and the resulting increase in volume, allowed the McDonalds to lower the price of a hamburger from 30 cents to 15 cents.

Believing that the McDonald formula was a ticket to success, Kroc suggested that they franchise their restaurants throughout the country. When they hesitated to take on this additional burden, Kroc volunteered to do it for them. He returned to his home outside of Chicago with rights to set up McDonald's restaurants throughout the country, except in a handful of territories in California and Arizona already licensed by the McDonald brothers.

Kroc's first McDonald's restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, near Chicago, on April 15, 1955—the same year that Kroc incorporated his company as McDonald's Corporation. As with any new venture, Kroc encountered a number of hurdles. The first was adapting the McDonald's building design to a northern climate. A basement had to be installed to house a furnace, and adequate ventilation was difficult, as exhaust fans sucked out warm air in the winter, and cool air in the summer.

Most frustrating of all, however, was Kroc's initial failure to reproduce the McDonalds' delicious french fries. When Kroc and his crew duplicated the brothers' method—leaving just a little peel for flavor, cutting the potatoes into shoestrings, and rinsing the strips in cold water—the fries turned into mush. After repeated telephone conversations with the McDonald brothers and several consultations with the Potato and Onion Association, Kroc pinpointed the cause of the soggy spuds. The McDonald brothers stored their potatoes outside in wire bins, and the warm California breeze dried them out and cured them, slowly turning the sugars into starch. In order to reproduce the superior taste of these potatoes, Kroc devised a system using an electric fan to dry the potatoes in a similar way. He also experimented with a blanching process. Within three months he had a french fry that was, in his opinion, slightly superior in taste to the McDonald brothers' fries.

Once the Des Plaines restaurant was operational, Kroc sought franchisees for his McDonald's chain. The first snag came quickly. In 1956 he discovered that the McDonald brothers had licensed the franchise rights for Cook County, Illinois (home of Chicago and many of its suburbs) to the Frejlack Ice Cream Company. Kroc was incensed that the McDonalds had not informed him of this arrangement. He purchased the rights back for $25,000—five times what the Frejlacks had originally paid—and pressed forward.

Kroc decided early on that it was best to first establish the restaurants and then to franchise them out, so that he could control the uniformity of the stores. Early McDonald's restaurants were situated in the suburbs. Corner lots were usually in greater demand because gas stations and shops competed for them, but Kroc preferred lots in the middle of blocks to accommodate his U-shaped parking lots. Since these lots were cheaper, Kroc could give franchisees a price break.

McDonald's grew slowly for its first three years; by 1958 there were 34 restaurants. In 1959, however, Kroc opened 67 new restaurants, bringing the total to more than 100.

Kroc had decided at the outset that McDonald's would not be a supplier to its franchisees—his background in sales warned him that such an arrangement could lead to lower quality for the sake of higher profits. He also had determined that the company should at no time own more than 30 percent of all McDonald's restaurants. He knew, however, that his success depended upon his franchisees' success, and he was determined to help them in any way that he could.

In 1960 the McDonald's advertising campaign "Look for the Golden Arches" gave sales a big boost. Kroc believed that advertising was an investment that would in the end come back many times over, and advertising has always played a key role in the development of the McDonald's Corporation—indeed, McDonald's ads have been some of the most identifiable over the years. In 1962 McDonald's replaced its "Speedee" the hamburger man symbol with its now world-famous Golden Arches logo. A year later, the company sold its billionth hamburger and introduced Ronald McDonald, a red-haired clown with particular appeal to children.

Phenomenal Growth in the 1960s and 1970s

In the early 1960s, McDonald's really began to take off. The growth in U.S. automobile use that came with suburbanization contributed heavily to McDonald's success. In 1961 Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million, aiming at making McDonald's the number one fast-food chain in the country.
In 1965 McDonald's Corporation went public. Common shares were offered at $22.50 per share; by the end of the first day's trading the price had shot up to $30. A block of 100 shares purchased for $2,250 in 1965 was worth, after 12 stock splits (increasing the number of shares to 74,360), about $1.8 million by the end of 2003. In 1985 McDonald's Corporation became one of the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

McDonald's success in the 1960s was in large part due to the company's skillful marketing and flexible response to customer demand. In 1965 the Filet-o-Fish sandwich, billed as "the fish that catches people," was introduced in McDonald's restaurants. The new item had originally met with disapproval from Kroc, but after its successful test marketing, he eventually agreed to add it. Another item that Kroc had backed a year previously, a burger with a slice of pineapple and a slice of cheese, known as a "hulaburger," had flopped. The market was not quite ready for Kroc's taste; the hulaburger's tenure on the McDonald's menu board was short. In 1968 the now legendary Big Mac made its debut, and in 1969 McDonald's sold its five billionth hamburger. A year later, as it launched the "You Deserve a Break Today" advertising campaign, McDonald's restaurants had reached all 50 states.

Company Perspectives

McDonald's is the world's leading food service organization. We generate more than $40 billion in Systemwide sales. We operate over 30,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries on six continents. We have the benefits that come with scale and a strong financial position. We own one of the world's most recognized and respected brands. We have an unparalleled global infrastructure and competencies in restaurant operations, real estate, retailing, marketing and franchising. We are a leader in the area of social responsibility. We actively share our knowledge and expertise in food safety and are committed to protecting the environment for future generations. Yet, we have not achieved our growth expectations for the past several years. So, our challenge is to leverage our strengths to profitably serve more customers more ways more often.

In 1968 McDonald's opened its 1,000th restaurant, and Fred Turner became the company's president and chief administrative officer. Kroc became chairman and remained CEO until 1973. Turner had originally intended to open a McDonald's franchise, but when he had problems with his backers over a location, he went to work as a grillman for Kroc in 1956. As operations vice-president, Turner helped new franchisees get their stores up and running. He was constantly looking for new ways to perfect the McDonald's system, experimenting, for example, to determine the maximum number of hamburger patties one could stack in a box without squashing them and pointing out that seconds could be saved if McDonald's used buns that were presliced all the way through and were not stuck together in the package. Such attention to detail was one reason for the company's extraordinary success.

McDonald's spectacular growth continued in the 1970s. Americans were more on-the-go than ever, and fast service was a priority. In 1972 the company passed $1 billion in annual sales; by 1976, McDonald's had served 20 billion hamburgers, and systemwide sales exceeded $3 billion.

McDonald's pioneered breakfast fast food with the introduction of the Egg McMuffin in 1973 when market research indicated that a quick breakfast would be welcomed by consumers. Five years later the company added a full breakfast line to the menu, and by 1987 one-fourth of all breakfasts eaten out in the United States came from McDonald's restaurants.

Kroc was a firm believer in giving "something back into the community where you do business." In 1974 McDonald's acted upon that philosophy in an original way by opening the first Ronald McDonald House, in Philadelphia, to provide a "home away from home" for the families of children in nearby hospitals. Twelve years after this first house opened, 100 similar Ronald McDonald Houses were in operation across the United States.

In 1975 McDonald's opened its first drive-thru window in Oklahoma City. This service gave Americans a fast, convenient way to procure a quick meal. The company's goal was to provide service in 50 seconds or less. Drive-thru sales eventually accounted for more than half of McDonald's systemwide sales. Meantime, the Happy Meal, a combo meal for children featuring a toy, was added to the menu in 1979.

2. Pepsi

Pepsi’s old logo is the one on the left. The new logo on the right cost Pepsi $1 million. They hired Arnell Associates to come up with it. As a result, Pepsi had to spend millions more to rebrand everything. Then Arnell’s 27 page document was leaked and it was entitled, “Breathtaking Design Strategy.” It proposes that the new logo is some sort of Da Vinci Code. The logo draws on Feng Shui, the Renaissance, the earth’s Geodynamo, the theory of relativity, and much more.

PepsiCo, Inc., American food and beverage company that is one of the largest in the world, with products available in more than 200 countries. It took its name in 1965 when the Pepsi-Cola Company merged with Frito-Lay, Inc. The company’s headquarters are in Purchase, New York.

The first Pepsi-Cola was created by Caleb D. Bradham (1866–1934), a pharmacist in New Bern, North Carolina. Hoping to duplicate the recent success of Coca-Cola, Bradham named his sweet cola-flavoured carbonated beverage Pepsi-Cola in 1898. The drink proved so popular that in 1902 Bradham incorporated the Pepsi-Cola Company. After many years of moderate prosperity, the company fell on hard times after World War I and was reorganized and reincorporated on several occasions in the 1920s.

In 1931 the company’s trademark and assets were picked up by Charles G. Guth (1876–1948), founder of the modern Pepsi-Cola. He established a new Pepsi-Cola Company, had a chemist formulate a better drink, set up new bottling operations, and began merchandising a hugely successful 12-ounce bottle for five cents. Guth was also president of Loft, Incorporated, a candy manufacturer and soda-fountain chain (founded 1919), and in legal battles in 1936–39 he lost a controlling interest in the Pepsi-Cola Company to the new management of Loft. When in 1941 the Pepsi-Cola Company was merged into Loft, the name Loft, Inc., was changed to Pepsi-Cola Company.

In 1950 Alfred N. Steele (1901–59), a former vice president of Coca-Cola Company, became chief executive officer. His emphasis on giant advertising campaigns and sales promotions increased Pepsi-Cola’s net earnings 11-fold during the 1950s and made it the chief competitor of Coca-Cola. (After Steele’s death, his wife, actress Joan Crawford, became an active director of the company.) In 1965 Pepsi-Cola merged with Frito-Lay, Inc., the maker of snack foods such as Fritos, Doritos, Lay’s potato chips, and Rold Gold pretzels. The newly enlarged company diversified further with the purchase of three restaurant chains—Pizza Hut, Inc. (1977), Taco Bell Inc. (1978), and Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp. (1986; now called KFC)—and Seven-Up International (1986), but in 1997 the restaurant chains were spun off into a new, separate company called Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. Looking to add more products that were considered healthier, PepsiCo acquired the Tropicana and Dole juice brands from the Seagram Company in 1998, and in 2001 it merged with the Quaker Oats company to form a new division, Quaker Foods and Beverages. With the merger, PepsiCo’s popular brands included Pepsi cola, Frito-Lay snack products, Lipton Tea, Tropicana juices, Gatorade sports drinks, Quaker Oats cereals, and Rold Gold pretzels.

In the early 21st century, PepsiCo focused on expanding its operations in other countries, notably Russia, which was its second largest market. In 2008 it bought a controlling interest in JSC Lebedyansky, Russia’s largest juice manufacturer, and three years later it completed its acquisition of Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods. Those investments helped make PepsiCo the largest food and beverage company in Russia.

3. BMW

BMW has a history in aviation and its logo stays true to its roots. The blue and white represent a propeller in motion with the sky peeking through. In fact, BMW had a role in World War II as a creator of aircraft engines for the German military.

BMW, short for ‘Bayerische Motoren Werke1’, which means ‘Bavarian Motor Works’ in English, has come a long way since its inception and has become one of the most popular sports, luxury, and family car manufacturers today. The BMW history started with the efforts of Karl Rapp, who incorporated Rapp Motorenwerke near Oberwiesenfeld. The company used to manufacturer aircrafts and had contracts with Gustav Otto and Austro-Daimler to manufacturer V12 engines for its airplanes. Let’s learn more about the BMW Logo, the company’s history timeline, and their latest models.

In 1916, after gaining considerable success in the airplane industry, the company was renamed to Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH. It was during this time, Franz Josef Popp, became the supervisor of airplane engines. Within a few weeks, Max Friz was assigned as the designer of airplanes and a new aircraft engine was created, which would be given the name ‘BMW IIIa’. Soon enough, the company became popular by the name BMW and the owners decided to design a new logo. This is how the famous blue and white trademark of the company was created.

However, in 1918, BMW was forced to cease production of aircraft engines. Therefore, the company shifted its attention to manufacturing motorcycles by 1923. Soon enough, BMW saw huge potential in the field of automobile manufacturing and then began producing automobiles in 1928. The first automobile produced by the company was the ‘BMW Dixi’.

In the 30s, BMW introduced a new car, the ‘Wartburg’ DA3, which was also incredibly successful. Soon enough, the company attempted to introduce a new front axle on both their Dixi and Wartburg models, but due to construction faults most of the prototypes ended up in series accidents. However, in 1933, the company got back in the game and manufactured the 303 which used the new M78 engine.

Later on, throughout the 30s, newer models of the 303 were created, including the 326, 320, 329, 327 and the most popular being the 328 Brescia Grand Prix. However, due to the impending war in 1940, BMW shifted its interest to manufacturing military vehicles. By the 50s, BMW re-entered the automobile field and introduced the 501, the first post-war BMW.

By 1954, the most famous vehicle of all time, the BMW 502 V8 super made its debut, which allowed the company to enhance its reputation worldwide. In 1956, BMW introduced a muscle 507 car, which made the company the largest money earner at that time.

The 60s were an incredibly successful time in BMW’s History. In fact, the company had become so popular that the Munic Plant couldn’t handle the production and consumer demands. Therefore, in 1967, the company shifted to a new location with a larger plant and began production of motorcycles in Berlin. In the 70s, BMW began production of its vehicles in South Africa.

A few years later, the BMW Motorsport GmbH was founded. Additionally, BMW established its own museum of aircraft engines and traditional hit cars. Not to mention, it was during this time the 5 series, 3 series, 7 series, and 6 series vehicles were introduced in the market, which is still in production.

In the 80s, BMW began production in Regensburg and the company was operating efficiently all over the world. In the 90s, BMW entered the US and soon acquired the British Rover Group. This brought the active Land Rover, Rover, and MINI brands under BMW ownership along with rights of numerous dormant marques, such as Wolseley, Triumph, Riley, Morris, and Austin.

In the 2000s, BMW took over MINI and Rolls-Royce and the company introduced its famous 1 series. Soon enough, the company established a plant in Shenyang and even created a joint-venture with China. By 2013, the BMW launched the all-new I3, which kick-started the new era of electric mobility.

The history of BMW shows the prestige and still exists as one of the three best luxury automobile manufacturers in the world. Additionally, the company holds a high place in motorcycle production. Not to mention, BMW has four new divisions namely BMW Motorrad, BMW I, BMW Motorsport, and MINI. Moreover, the company has a yearly output of 2,117,965 automobiles and 120,000 motorcycles.

Some of the BMW Models,

CONVERTIBLE

2015 BMW Z4 Roadster
2015 BMW M6 Convertible
2015 BMW M4 Convertible
2015 BMW 2 Series Convertible
2015 BMW 4 Series Convertible
2015 BMW 6 Series Convertible

SEDANS

2015 BMW 1 Series 5-Door
2015 BMW 1 Series ActiveE
2015 BMW 3 Series Sedan
2015 BMW ActiveHybrid 3
2015 BMW 5 Series Sedan
2015 BMW ActiveHybrid 5
2015 BMW 7 Series
2015 BMW ActiveHybrid 7
2015 BMW M3 Sedan
2015 BMW M5 Sedan
2015 BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo
2015 BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo

4. Apple

The Apple logo represents the forbidden fruit from the “Tree of Knowledge” in the Biblical creation story of Adam and Eve.

Start with the early days, the tale of how Apple was founded, moving on through the Apple I, to the Apple II, the launch of the Macintosh and the revolution in the DTP industry... To the tech-industry behemoth that we know and love today.

So sit back as we take a stroll down memory lane. Why not brush up on what really happened before you go and watch the Steve Jobs movie, with its interesting interpretations of several important events in the company's history?

On 1 April 1976 Apple was founded, making the company 41 years old as of the 1 April 2017 - here's a historical breakdown of the company.
The history of Apple

Our Apple history feature includes information about The foundation of Apple and the years that followed, we look at How Jobs met Woz and Why Apple was named Apple. The Apple I and The debut of the Apple II. Apple's visit to Xerox, and the one-button mouse. The story of The Lisa versus the Macintosh. Apple's '1984' advert, directed by Ridley Scott. The Macintosh and the DTP revolution.

We go on to examine what happened between Jobs and Sculley, leading to Jobs departure from Apple, and what happened during The wilderness years: when Steve Jobs wasn't at Apple, including Apple's decline and IBM and Microsoft's rise and how Apple teamed up with IBM and Motorola and eventually Microsoft. And finally, The return of Jobs to Apple.
The foundation of Apple

The history of everyone's favourite start-up is a tech fairytale of one garage, three friends and very humble beginnings. But we're getting ahead of ourselves…

The two Steves - Jobs and Wozniak - may have been Apple's most visible founders, but were it not for their friend Ronald Wayne there might be no iPhone, iPad or iMactoday. Jobs convinced him to take 10% of the company stock and act as an arbiter should he and Woz come to blows, but Wayne backed out 12 days later, selling for just $500 a holding that would have been worth $72bn 40 years later.

How Jobs met Woz

Jobs and Woz (that's Steve Wozniak) were introduced in 1971 by a mutual friend, Bill Fernandez, who went on to become one of Apple's earliest employees. The two Steves got along thanks to their shared love of technology and pranks.

Jobs and Wozniak joined forces, initially coming up with pranks such as rigging up a painting of a hand showing the middle-finger to be displayed during a graduaction ceremony at Jobs' school, and a call to the Vatican that nearly got them access to the Pope.
The two friends were also using their technology know-how to build 'blue boxes' that made it possible to make long distance phone calls for free.

Jobs and Wozniak worked together on the Atari arcade game Breakout while Jobs was working at Atari and Wozniak was working at HP - Jobs had roped Woz into helping him reduce the number of logic chips required. Jobs managed to get a good bonus for the work on Breakout, of which he gave a small amount to Woz.

The first Apple computer

The two Steves attended the Homebrew Computer Club together; a computer hobbyist group that gathered in California's Menlo Park from 1975. Woz had seen his first MITS Altair there - which today looks like little more than a box of lights and circuit boards - and was inspired by MITS' build-it-yourself approach (the Altair came as a kit) to make something simpler for the rest of us. This philosophy continues to shine through in Apple’s products today.

So Woz produced the the first computer with a typewriter-like keyboard and the ability to connect to a regular TV as a screen. Later christened the Apple I, it was the archetype of every modern computer, but Wozniak wasn't trying to change the world with what he'd produced - he just wanted to show off how much he'd managed to do with so few resources.

Speaking to NPR (National Public Radio) in 2006, Woz explained that "When I built this Apple I… the first computer to say a computer should look like a typewriter - it should have a keyboard - and the output device is a TV set, it wasn't really to show the world [that] here is the direction [it] should go [in]. It was to really show the people around me, to boast, to be clever, to get acknowledgement for having designed a very inexpensive computer."

It almost didn't happen, though. The Woz we know now has a larger-than-life personality - he's funded rock concerts and shimmied on Dancing with the Stars - but, as he told the Sydney Morning Herald, "I was shy and felt that I knew little about the newest developments in computers." He came close to ducking out altogether, and giving the Club a miss.

Let's be thankful he didn't. Jobs saw Woz's computer, recognised its brilliance, and sold his VW microbus to help fund its production. Wozniak sold his HP calculator (which cost a bit more than calculators do today!), and together they founded Apple Computer Inc on 1 April 1976, alongside Ronald Wayne.
Why Apple was named Apple

The name Apple was to cause Apple problems in later years as it was uncomfortably similar to that of the Beatles' publisher, Apple Corps, but its genesis was innocent enough.

Speaking to Byte magazine in December 1984, Woz credited Jobs with the idea. "He was working from time to time in the orchards up in Oregon. I thought that it might be because there were apples in the orchard or maybe just its fructarian nature. Maybe the word just happened to occur to him. In any case, we both tried to come up with better names but neither one of us could think of anything better after Apple was mentioned."

According to the biography of Steve Jobs, the name was conceived by Jobs after he returned from apple farm. He apparently thought the name sounded “fun, spirited and not intimidating.”

The name also likely benefitted by beginning with an A, which meant it would be nearer the front of any listings.
The Apple Logo

There are other theories about the meaning behind the name Apple. The idea that it was named thus because Newton was inspired when an Apple fell out of a tree hitting him on the head, is backed up by the fact that the original Apple logo was a rather complicated illustration of Newton sitting under a tree.

Later the company settled on the bite out of an Apple design for Apple's logo - a far simpler logo design. These logos are probably the reason for other theories about the meaning behind the name Apple, with some suggesting that the Apple logo with a chunk taken out of it is a nod at computer scientist and Enigma code-breaker, Alan Turing, who committed suicide by eating a cyanide infused apple.

However, according to Rob Janoff, the designer who created the logo, the Turing connection is simply "a wonderful urban legend."

Equally the bite taken out of the Apple could represent the story of Adam and Eve from the Old Testament. The idea being that the Apple represents knowledge.

5. Mercedes-Benz

The Mercedes-Benz logo is the most confident of all. The tri-star represents the company’s dominance in quality and style over all things land, sea and air

Mercedes-Benz is an automobile manufacturer that is known throughout the world as a symbol of class and wealth. But, you know what’s surprising? The history of Mercedes-Benz goes back almost 150 years ago. Yes, you read that right! The brand was created as a result of the efforts of Karl Benz (creator of the first ever automobile) and Gottlieb Daimler (inventor of the high-speed petrol engine). Check out the Mercedes-Benz Logo, history timeline and the list of latest models.

Both of them were born in Germany and shared a common interest in creating something unique. At a young age, both started working on machines and even had the goal of building cars, which no one knew existed. In 1886, Karl Benz made his first motorize tricycle and Daimler built a horseless carriage. A few years later, Karl introduced a four-wheeler and Daimler struck a deal with William Steinway to produce horseless carriages in the US.

It was during this time that Daimler established DMG and Karl Benz founded Benz & Cie. In 1900, DMG introduced a car: ‘Mercedes’. This was a stepping stone in the history of Mercedes-Benz, but soon after the war started in Germany. Therefore, there was little or no fuel for cars and high taxes made automobile production disastrous.

Karl Benz made the decision to take help from DMG but was rejected initially. However, conditions got worse, thus forcing DMG and Benz to sign an agreement of mutual interest while maintaining individual identities. However, in 1926, both companies merged to form the Daimler-Benz company and a year later the first Mercedes-Benz vehicle was introduced.

The merger was incredibly successful and production of Mercedes-Benz cars rose to 7,000 automobiles in 1927. In the 30s, the largest and most prestigious car ‘Mercedes-Benz W15’ made its debut, which allowed Mercedes-Benz to become one of the leading brands in the automotive industry. Therefore, Mercedes-Benz was created as a separate division of the Daimler-Benz AG.

Following the success of the Mercedes-Benz W15, a new cabriolet model of the same car was introduced in 1932. Two years later, the company introduced the famous W23, a small family car, and was available in 2-door cabrio-limousine and sedan options. In 1936, the name Mercedes-Benz gained a lot of recognition outside Germany and the new W136 model made its debut.

Additionally, the company released the famous 260 D Model, which was the world’s first diesel-run passenger vehicle. Towards the end of the 30s, Mercedes-Benz introduced several successful vehicles, including the W136 Spohn Roadster and the W138 limousine. By the 40s, the company stopped the production of vehicles due to the Second World War and then resumed activities in 1946 by introducing the 170 V.

During the 50s, Mercedes-Benz topped the sales charts in Germany and introduced some of their best looking cars, including the 190 and 300 SL. The 190 model was a compact roadster with a diesel engine which set new records in 1959 and the 300 SL, which was the first production vehicle to utilize the new fuel-injection technology.

Mercedes-Benz made an amazing start to the new decade by introducing the W110 which fell in the luxury segment and was available in two options: 4-door sedan and station wagon. In 1962, many vehicles introduced by the company had undergone significant style changes, since the 60s is known to be the decade of the muscle cars.

In 1967, the company founded Mercedes-AMG as a separate high-performance division of the Mercedes-Benz. This company is still present and customizes, engineers, and manufactures Mercedes-Benz AMG vehicles. The first car introduced by the division was the famous 300SEL 6.3 V8 Saloon, which was given the name ‘Red Sow’.

By the 70s, Mercedes-Benz introduced their famous SL and SLC 107 series of cars, which were exceptionally beautiful and were available in two-door coupe and convertible options. These cars proved to be the most successful introduced in the history of the company. Towards the end of the 70s, the G-Class and S-Class series were introduced, which are still in production.

During the 80s, manufacturers around the world became increasingly concerned regarding the effects of CO2 emissions and overall car pollution. In 1981, Mercedes-Benz became one of the first manufacturers to comply with the new environmental regulations and introduced the closed-loop three-way catalytic converter to reduce overall car pollution.

Additionally, Mercedes-Benz introduced several other changes in their vehicles, such as oil filters and air filters, thus allowing the company to gain more success. In 1987, Mercedes-Benz introduced its famous 100 D 631 series and a year later the W201 Serie 2 made its debut, which was a compact executive car with a sports sedan body style.

In the 90s, the company introduced the G-Class Wagons and SUVs and numerous new models of the E-Class, C-Class, and S-Class series made their debut. In the 2000s, Mercedes-Benz marked a new era in mechanical supercharging technology and introduced numerous groundbreaking designs and engineering concepts, such as the BlueTec system which was released in 2005 and had the capability of reducing CO2 emissions.

Today, Mercedes-Benz along with its AMG high-performance division exists as one of the best and most popular German manufacturers that build luxury cars, trucks, coaches, and buses. Additionally, the company offers financial services and automobile repairs. Not to mention, the company has its own Formula One Team that has won numerous titles throughout the 50s till now.