Leica – the brand. A myth brought into focus
An essay in: Leica, part of a series called Views of Brand Culture
Edited by Volker Albus and Achim Heine; published by Nikolai.
Excerpt:
Some companies are a brand, other companies own brands. Nivea, for example, is world renowned. But nobody is interested in its manufacturer, Beiersdorf. That is the company that owns Tesafilm, the German equivalent of Sellotape – itself a wellknown brand whose origin is unknown and unimportant. Many years ago, Beiersdorf also wanted to become a brand and developed its own logo comprising the initials BDF and four large dots (inspired by Beethoven’s Fifth: da-da-da-dam). Today, this logo can still be found on the back of every tin of Nivea and on every roll of Tesafilm, but Beiersdorf never succeeded in becoming a real umbrella brand. One could say, thank goodness. Because the real brand names have remained the undisputed champions and can play up to their strengths, develop their own unique selling points and benefit from their illustrious pasts.
But what is Leica? A product, a trademark, an umbrella brand, a company? Despite all the theories, Leica is all of these at once, both contradictory and – successful. Since all theories are notoriously grey, I have to sift through my equipment cupboard and get out a few Leicas.
(…)
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Spiekerblog (Erik Spiekermann)
