SECAUCUS, N.J.-Matsushita Electric Corp. of America, the North American headquarters of Osaka, Japan-based Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., announced it will drop its Japanese name in favor of its better known Panasonic brand. Starting next year the company will be known as Panasonic Corp. of North America.
“Panasonic is the name that customers and channel partners have known us by for years,” said Yoshi Yamada, company chairman. “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.”
The company said similar changes in its corporate naming will take place in Matsushita Electric subsidiary companies in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia 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 known and its association with the Panasonic brand is understood.
