Matsushita Electric Corporation of America, the North American headquarters of Osaka, Japan-based Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., has formally adopted its best-known brand name as its corporate name. As of January 1, the company is known as Panasonic Corporation of North America.
"Panasonic is the name that customers and channel partners have known us by for years," said company chairman Yoshi Yamada. "We want to take advantage of the tremendous brand equity and good will that research tells us is built into the Panasonic name, so it makes great sense to call our company Panasonic. In addition, we are also in the midst of a huge transformation of our company's systems and organization. By putting the Panasonic name on the revitalized company, we want to underline the dynamic change going on within the organization."
In all, nearly 50 Matsushita entities in the United States and Mexico, ranging from Matsushita Electric Corporation of America headquarters in New Jersey to factories and research and development units, will take on the Panasonic name between Jan. 1, 2005, through December 2005. For example, in Columbus, Ga., Matsushita-Ultra Tech. Battery Corporation, a battery-making joint venture with Kodak, will change its name to Panasonic Primary Battery Corporation of America.
Similar changes in corporate naming will take place in Matsushita Electric subsidiary companies in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania, and South America over the same period. The Matsushita corporate name, which comes from company founder Konosuke Matsushita, will be retained by the parent company and its subsidiaries in Japan, where it is widely known and respected and its association with the Panasonic brand is well understood.
For more information, visit www.panasonic.com.