(FORTUNE Magazine) – When pollsters quizzed 600 Soviets, Czechs, Poles, Yugoslavs, East Germans, and Hungarians to test their familiarity with Western products, only four -- three Poles and a Russian -- professed unfamiliarity with Pepsi. Hence the cola's No. 1 spot on a survey of best-known names done by MAI, a British market research firm. Surprises: the Guinness Book of Records in ninth place (see table) and the absence of any Japanese names among the top 12. Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi, and Toshiba placed 14th through 17th.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: NO CREDIT CAPTION: HOW WESTERN NAMES SCORE