Maxell
Native name | マクセル株式会社 |
---|---|
Romanized name | Makuseru Kabushiki-gaisha |
Formerly |
|
Company type | KK |
TYO: 6810 | |
Industry | Electronics |
Founded | September 3, 1960 Osaka Prefecture, Japan |
Headquarters |
|
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Yoshiharu Katsuta ( Computer tapes |
Revenue | ¥135.1 billion (2016) |
¥5.7 billion (2016) | |
Owner | Hitachi (3.01%) |
Number of employees | 3,966 (2016) |
Website | www |
Footnotes / references [1][2][3] |
Maxell, Ltd. (マクセル株式会社, Makuseru Kabushiki-gaisha), commonly known as Maxell, is a Japanese
The company's name is a contraction of "Maximum capacity dry cell". Its main products are
and recordable optical discs including CD-R/RW and DVD±RW.On March 4, 2008, Maxell announced that they would outsource the manufacturing of their optical media.[8]
History
Maxell was formed in 1960, when a dry cell manufacturing plant was created at the company's headquarters in Ibaraki, Osaka. In 1961, Maxell Electric Industrial Company, Limited was created out of the dry battery and magnetic tape divisions of Nitto Electric Industrial Company, Limited (now Nitto Denko Corporation).
On March 18, 2014, the company was listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.[9] In 2013, Maxell, Ltd. acquired Hitachi Consumer Electronics, Co., Ltd.’s projector design, development and manufacturing assets and resources. On October 1, 2019, Maxell Corporation of America announced it would assume responsibility for all operations related to both Hitachi- brand and Maxell-brand projector products and accessories in the North American market.
Products
Batteries
Maxell, along with
Audio cassettes
During the height of the
Until the beginning of 2020, Maxell still produced UR ferric-oxide-based cassettes for the international market. Maxell has since stopped distributing their UR cassettes outside of Japan.[citation needed]
Optical storages
Since November 2006 the Taiwanese Ritek corporation became exclusive producer of Maxell CD-Rs and DVDs.[11]
LCD and laser projectors
Maxell now assumes responsibility for all Hitachi-brand and Maxell-brand LCD projectors and laser projectors, as well as the Lecture Capture Collaboration Station.[12] Maxell projectors are available in a range of lumens, resolutions, sizes, and colors for classrooms, conference rooms, houses of worship, and venues.
Advertising
In the 1980s, Maxell became an icon of
The ad campaign was conceived by Art Director Lars Anderson. Steve Steigman was the photographer. Steigman wanted a male model with long hair in order to show the effect of the wind, but when such a model could not be found on the day of the shoot, they used the makeup artist who was hired for the shoot, Jac Colello.[14]
The same concept was used for television spots in 1981 which ran throughout the 1980s. These commercials showed nearly the same image as the print ad, but with the chair, a drink and nearby lamp all being pushed away from the stereo by the strong force of the sound waves, though the man calmly catches his drink before it slides off the end table.[15] Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" was used for music. A separate ad was filmed for the United Kingdom, with musician Peter Murphy of the group Bauhaus as the man in the chair, and "Night on Bald Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky as the music.
The "blown away guy" image became quite popular, and has been copied and parodied numerous times, including in the 1992
In 2005, Maxell revived the "Blown Away Guy" ad campaign. As Maxell now made blank DVDs and CDs, headphones, speakers, and blank audio and video tape, the ads were updated with photos of iPods and accessories underneath the image. "Get blown away" was the headline, while the copy urged consumers to use Maxell accessories to "make your small iPod sound like a huge audio system".
See also
References
- ^ "Corporate Data" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 15, 2017. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
- ^ "Corporate Profile". Google Finance. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
- ^ "Hitachi Maxell To List On Tokyo Bourse In $750M IPO". The Wall Street Journal. February 14, 2014. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
- ^ "Company Profile". Retrieved March 23, 2014.
- ^ "Maxell USA website".
- ^ (alphabetically)Peter H. Lewis (December 15, 1987). "Holiday Hardware". The New York Times.
Fuji, Maxell, Polaroid, Sony, 3M and Verbatim
- ^ Peter H. Lewis (July 10, 1988). "Difficulties in Choosing Diskettes". The New York Times.
3M, Sony, Maxell, Polaroid, Fuji and BASF
- ^ "Maxell to no longer manufacture discs blow customers away". March 4, 2008. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
- ^ "Hitachi Maxell Announces Listing on First Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange" (PDF). March 18, 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 23, 2014. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
- ^ Hitachi Maxell Claims Huge Lithium-Ion Battery Breakthrough. Too Good to be True? : TreeHugger
- ^ "14 November 2006, Ritek to Become Exclusive ODM Maker for Hitachi Maxell". November 14, 2006. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
- ^ "14 Februar 2019, ISE 2019: Warum nun Maxell steht, wo zuvor Hitachi stand". February 14, 2019. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
- ^ Colman, David (30 May 2004). "POSSESSED; Designer, Recumbent". New York Times. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
- ^ Elliot, Stuart (July 5, 2006). "The 'Blow-Away Guy' Rides Again". The New York Times. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
- YouTube
- YouTube
- ^ "Happy 30th Birthday MTV at GirlHacker's Random Log".
External links
- Official website
- Company profile from Hoover's Online
- 1980s Maxell Tape Commercial on YouTube
- UK version on YouTube