Can You Match These Famous Brands to Their Country of Origin?

SHOPPING

By: Jonnathan Chadwick

7 Min Quiz

Image: 5598375 / Pixabay / diemobilenfotografen / Pixabay / Grizzlybear-se / Pixabay

About This Quiz

It's difficult to track down the world's first-ever brand, but it probably didn't take long for the ancient concept of branding cattle to migrate to products and services. If you grew the best apples in town and you wanted to trade them for the best sandals, you needed to look for a specific cobbler's branding on the sandal. It was only natural.

Branding in the barter economy was transformed by the time of the Industrial Revolution. Factories took over, urban populations exploded, millions of people hit the workforce, and the result was mass, mass, mass production. Billions of goods had to be sold, which naturally led to mass consumerism, which was fueled by mass marketing and flooded with mass, mass, mass branding. The Industrial Revolution created a perfect storm that birthed the modern brand, and now the Digital Revolution is set to flip it on its head.

Today, the average person is exposed to thousands of ads and hundreds of brands per day. You're probably ignoring a few of them as you read this, but the most famous ones stick in our memories forever. We don't know why and if we did, we'd never create a forgettable brand again. 

What we do know is that it's not because of a product, a service, a logo, or a slogan. It's because of the history, people, stories and places that revolve around the brand. Those things create something in our head that lasts forever. You know what Nike's logo looks like. You know what products McDonald's sells, and you still can't figure out IKEA directions. But do you know where all these brands are from? See if you can match each of the famous brands in this quiz to its country of origin.


Godiva Chocolatier is named after the legend of Lady Godiva. In what country was it founded?

The first Godiva shop was opened in Brussels, Belgium, in 1926 and today, the company is headquartered in Manhattan, where it opened its first North American shop in 1972. The brand has two chocolate factories and more than 600 stores around the world.

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The pinnacle of auto luxury, Rolls Royce was founded in what country?

Rolls Royce was founded in the United Kingdom in 1906, and Bentley and Jaguar were founded in the same area within the next 15 years. Rolls Royce is known for its car models like the Ghost, Wraith, Dawn and Phantom that can easily cost half a million dollars each.

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Karl Benz built the world's first car and created Mercedes Benz in what country?

Karl Benz is usually credited with inventing the first car in 1895, but the first-ever self-propelled land vehicle was invented a century earlier. Benz co-created the Mercedes Benz brand in 1926 when he partnered with two other German engineers.

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In what country was luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton founded?

Louis Vuitton is the flagship brand for luxury goods brand LVMH, which stands for Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. Louis Vuitton was founded in 1854 and specializes in leather goods, such as handbags. It's not to be confused with fellow French fashion house Louboutin, which specializes in shoes.

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A Rolex watch can cost anywhere between $2,000 and $20 million. Where did the brand get its start?

Rolex, like most luxury watch brands, is headquartered in Switzerland, but the company was founded in 1905 in London. By 1908, it was located in Switzerland. Unlike other luxury watch brands, the founders of Rolex decided to name the company something that could easily be pronounced around the world.

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Lipton started out as a supermarket chain in the 1870s in what country?

Lipton began in the United Kingdom in the 1890s as a chain of grocery stores but began focusing solely on tea in 1982. The brand is now owned by Unilever, which is one of the biggest companies in the world with more than 400 brands and products in almost every country.

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A can of Red Bull will give you wings, but do you know in what country it was founded?

Red Bull was founded in 1987 by an Austrian businessman, but it was based on a Thai energy drink called Krating Daeng, which was created 10 years before Red Bull started. The Thai version was westernized and Red Bull took off around the world.

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Samsung is one of the top smartphone manufacturers in the world. Where is the company from?

There have been more than 1.5 billion smartphones sold in the world, and Samsung is responsible for manufacturing a significant percentage of them. The company was founded in 1938 in South Korea and makes everything from washing machines to televisions as well as smartphones.

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The Nintendo gaming console introduced Mario and Luigi to the world. Where was Nintendo created?

Nintendo was founded in Japan in 1889 as a playing cards brand and offered an eclectic range of products and services before finally settling on video games in the 1960s and '70s. It is now one of the world's biggest gaming brands and is one of Japan's largest companies.

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Almost 2 million people in 130 countries are members of The Salvation Army. Where was the organization founded?

Many people think The Salvation Army is an American company, but the organization was created in 1865 in London and didn't make it to the United States until the 1880s. This religious organization aims to bring salvation to the poor and hungry.

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Amazon started in the 1990s as an online bookseller and is today's most valuable company. Where did it start?

At just 25 years old, Amazon is one of the Founding Fathers of digital commerce. The company sells almost every item imaginable, and its founder, Jeff Bezos, is recognized as the richest person in the world.

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You can speed on the autobahn in the same country where Porsche was founded. Where is it?

The German autobahn is a highway known around the world for not having a speed limit in certain sections. The highest speed recorded on the autobahn topped 268 mph in race conditions, but someone driving a Porsche 997 Turbo hit 236 mph in pedestrian conditions.

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Guccio Gucci created luxury goods brand Gucci in what country, where it is now that country's top brand?

Gucci was founded in 1921 in Florence, Italy, by an Italian businessman and is now one of the most valuable and recognizable brands in the world. The double G logo stands for Guccio Gucci, who founded the company after working in a hotel and seeing tourists with luxury luggage.

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Nespresso, Nescafe and Nesquik are just three of the 2,000 brands owned by Nestle, which was founded in what country?

Nestle is considered the largest food brand in the world. It has about 450 factories, at least one in almost every country in the world, employing close to 350,000 people. The company owns hundreds of brands, and dozens of them regularly sell more than $1 billion in products annually.

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The largest cosmetics company in the world, L'Oreal, was founded by a German chemist in which of these countries?

A French and German chemist living in France created a hair dye formula in 1909 that would eventually become the start of L'Oreal. Ten years later the company was officially registered and has gone from three to 80,000 employees since then.

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The World Wildlife Fund aims to conserve the world's forests, oceans and wildlife. Where did the organization get its start?

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) proved to be more recognizable than the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) when they sued the group and forced it to change its name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in the early 2000s. The WWF was founded in Switzerland in 1961.

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Do you know where Haribo created the world's first gummy bear in 1922?

Where would the world be without gummy bears? Haribo sells about $2 billion worth of gummies every year. The name Haribo is an acronym for its founder, (Ha)ns (Ri)egel, and the area where the company was founded, (Bo)nn, Germany. Haribo began in 1920. In 1922, the gummy bear was created.

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It's not any easier to assemble IKEA furniture in the brand's home country, which is where?

IKEA was founded in Sweden by a 17-year-old carpenter and today sells about $45 billion worth of goods per year. The company is known for its stylish furniture and instruction booklets that use cartoon characters and stick figures instead of words.

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Gevalia is the largest coffee maker in northern Europe and was founded in what country?

Gevalia is considered a premium coffee brand in the U.S., but in Scandanavia, it is a common coffee brand. The company was founded in 1853 and has produced dozens of types of coffees and teas.

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Lego translates to play (leg) and well (godt) in the main language of what country where it was founded?

The Lego Group started in 1932 and is known around the world for its interlocking plastic bricks known as a Legos. With just a handful of bricks, you can interlock hundreds of millions of combinations. You'd need to stack about 40 billion of them to reach the moon.

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In what country did Netflix start as a DVD mailing service?

Although Netflix is today known mostly for its streaming services, it began as a DVD mailing service to compete with Blockbuster Video. It crushed Blockbuster and transitioned into streaming services, but millions still use the mail service each year.

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Do you know where the world's largest car manufacturer, Toyota, was founded?

The Toyota corporation is so big that it's the sixth-largest company in the world, and the Toyota Corolla is the best-selling car in the world, having sold more than 44 million vehicles since 1966. The second best-selling car manufacturer is Germany's Volkswagen.

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Burberry was originally founded as an outdoors clothing brand in what country?

Burberry is famous for its trench coats. The company was founded in 1859 after its founder, Thomas Burberry, decided to create some functional outdoors clothing. He discovered a tough fabric called gabardine, and the breathable and waterproof fabric became a staple of the brand.

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The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling gaming console of all time. Where was PlayStation founded?

Sony has sold more than 500 million PlayStation units, and the Playstation 2 console alone sold more than 155 million units worldwide, making it the best-selling gaming console of all time. Nintendo's top three handheld consoles have sold more than 270 million units worldwide.

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Doctors Without Borders provides medical aid in conflict areas around the world. Where did the organization start?

Doctors Without Borders is the Americanized name for the French humanitarian group called Medecins Sans Frontieres. After witnessing atrocities during the Nigerian Civil War (1967 - 1970), a group of French doctors created the organization to provide medical aid to war-torn areas. Today more than 30,000 volunteers provide aid to more 70 countries.

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Americans are familiar with Dannon yogurt, which is called Danone in the country where it was founded.

In the early 20th century, a man in Spain began making yogurt and the Danone company would soon be born. One of the company's greatest strategic moves was when the founder's son introduced yogurt to America, and more importantly, made it popular.

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Evian water is currently owned by a French company, but where did the brand get its start?

Evian water is named for an area in Switzerland near Lake Geneva called Evian-le-Baines. The brand's history can be traced to the region, but the company that created Evian was an anonymous group of Parisian investors. The water, however, comes from Switzerland.

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In what country did a European pharmacist create personal care brand Nivea?

Nivea was an official company in 1922, but in 1911, it introduced its first proprietary product. The company filed its first patents in 1890. It was founded by a German pharmacist who sold it to another German pharmacist who created some of the world's firsts in skincare.

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Lavazza — It's how you say coffee in __________.

Lavazza was founded in 1895 in Turin, but it doesn't translate to coffee. The real way to say coffee in Italian is caffe, and when you order a caffe at an Italian cafe, you'll get an espresso. If you want a giant cup of coffee, you'll need to ask for an American style caffe.

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Greenpeace educates the world on environmental issues like climate change and was founded by U.S. expats in what country?

Social activists Irving and Dorothy Stowe created Greenpeace in Vancouver, Canada, in 1972, but the organization is currently headquartered in the Netherlands. The organization funds research to help ensure the Earth's longevity, as well as many other things.

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Do you know where the world's biggest search engine was founded?

Google is not only the largest search engine in the world, but it is also the most visited website in the world. YouTube, which is owned by Google's company, is the second most visited website and search engine in the world.

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Dubai's police force is equipped with a fleet of Lamborghinis, which were founded in what country?

This supercar was created by Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1963 in Italy, but today is owned by German automaker Audi, which is a subsidiary of German automaker Volkswagen. Lamborghini is one of the most recognizable luxury cars in the world because of its scissor doors that open upward instead of outward.

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Where did Cristobal Balenciaga create his fashion house called Balenciaga?

Balenciaga joins Gucci, Prada, and Armani as one of the most popular luxury fashion houses in the world. The brand was founded in 1917 and took off in the women's clothing space in the 1950s and '60s. French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy worked with Balenciaga before starting his own luxury brand.

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LG Electronics makes everything from smartphones to refrigerators and was founded in what Asian country?

GoldStar was founded in 1958 and changed its name to LG Electronics in 1995. The company creates a diverse array of electronics, such as smartphones, tablets, washing machines and air conditioners. It's one of the world's largest companies.

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Amnesty International inspires millions of people around the world to fight for human rights. Where was the organization founded?

Amnesty International was created in London in 1961, and its goal is to ensure all humans on Earth have equal rights. It is one of the world's best leaders of the human rights movement. The group even won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1977.

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Royal Dutch Shell is headquartered in the Netherlands, but where was it founded in 1907?

Royal Dutch Shell is the fifth-largest company in the world. It was founded as the successor to the Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. and the Shell Transport Company. It is the biggest company in all of Europe in terms of revenue, beating Volkswagen and BP.

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Before the invention of the smartphone, you might have owned a Nokia cellphone, which was a product of what country?

Before Apple, Samsung, and Google were creating foldable smartphones and 3D cameras, Finnish tech company Nokia was owning the cellphone industry. The Nokia 1100 and 1110 have sold more models than any other cellphone. Nokia was founded in Finland in 1865.

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Uniqlo has recently become a popular brand around the world, but it was founded in 1949 in what country?

About 35 years after the company was founded, a unisex fashion store opened in Japan called Unique Clothing Warehouse. A misreading changed the word "clothing" to "qlothing," and the brand name Uniqlo was born.

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There are more than 2.3 billion Facebook accounts online. Where was the company founded?

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in his Harvard dorm room in 2004 and quickly spread around the world. Today it's the world's largest social media network, and it also owns social media giants Instagram and WhatsApp.

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Walmart is the world's biggest company. Where was it founded?

Walmart was founded by Sam Walton in Arkansas in 1952. The company pulls in more than $500 billion in revenue each year. It operates in 27 countries under 55 different names and is one of the most successful brands ever created.

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