To find out which company puts out a particular brand, search:
(a) The Thomas Register on ThomasNet.com and Westlaw (TRO); there is an international version called solusource (formerly Thomas Global Register).
(b) Two Gale directories called Brands and Their Companies and Companies and Their Brands -- available in print or together on Lexis (BUSREF;BRANDS) and Westlaw (BRANDS).
(c) The "Brand Name" index in the Directory of Corporate Affiliations -- available in print, on Lexis (BUSREF;DCA), on Westlaw (CORP-AF), and by subscription to http://www.corporateaffiliations.com.
If that doesn't work, try searching the Internet using a good search engine, trademark databases (see "Trademarks"), and/or business news databases
for press releases or other information that ties the brand name to a company. In
addition, you might want to search a database of copyrights to see if you can find out who
owns the name.
Background on Brands: The Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands (St. James Press) discusses the history and development of hundreds of major brands.
Journals Two leading brand-related journals are Brand Strategy (now appears to be out of print) and AdWeek.
Research: Adbrands.net provides information on leading brands; short profiles are free, subscribers get more. Experian Marketing Services provides a number of demographic databases to help you target your brand to a particular demographic group. If you subscribe, more in-depth information is available from World Advertising Research Center (WARC) and the Euromonitor's Global Market Information Database (GMID).
For more information sources, see the University of Pennsylvania Library's Advertising and Marketing Industries page.