[oooyay]

It's normal for companies to use different names to operate in different markets. There's some bidirectional setting of value through exclusivity that happens in some cases as well, like with Nismo. It's not exclusively an American concept.

[MenhirMike]

Matsushita trading under the name Panasonic is probably the biggest example I can think of that most people would recognize.

[hakfoo]

I always found it interesting that in other countries, they trade under "National"-- an even more perfectly English sounding word. I have a radio that I suspect originally game from the German market with a "National Panasonic" badge, because I guess they couldn't quite decide what brand to use.