That's crazy, I wouldn't think anyone would first and foremost associate 3M with floppies instead of adhesives, even those with a few grays like myself.
They make post-its for chrissake, and we're gonna pretend they're most known for floppies?
Wikipedia to the rescue:
"3M Company (originally the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) is an American multinational conglomerate operating in the fields of industry, worker safety, healthcare, and consumer goods. The company produces over 60,000 products under several brands, including adhesives, abrasives, laminates, passive fire protection, personal protective equipment, window films, paint protection films, dental and orthodontic products, electrical and electronic connecting and insulating materials, medical products, car-care products electronic circuits, healthcare software, and optical films. It is based in Maplewood, a suburb of Saint Paul, Minnesota."
Although recently not doing so well due to one lawsuit, they have a wonderful rule that nudges management to add new products to its portfolio sooner and more aggresively than other companies, so I associate them with innovation.
The now-famous "Post-It notes" were such a disruptive new innovation, made from scrap paper that was left over when cutting larger pages: literally rubbish/garbage turned into a new revenue stream.
What rule is that?
But I'm with the sibling commenter to you who says 'adhesive tape' as the first thing '3M' brings to mind. People talk about '3M-backed X' to mean basically 'self-adhesive X' (and maybe express a preference for adhesive brand, but it's common enough the knock-offs use it as an SEO keyword too).
I do remember seeing 3M floppies, but in my memory Verbatim were more common. And, in the 5.25 inch era, Nashua
How many people actually remember that post-its is a 3M product? Maybe buried deep in my memory, but not at the top of it
If you’d asked me to name a 3M product, the first thing that would pop into my head is Fluorinert-range of electrically inert cooling chemicals, used to cool electronics, e.g. in the 1980s Cray 2 supercomputer: stuff many overclockers daydream about but very few ever use (primarily due to how extremely expensive it is, although environmental and safety issues are also a factor). Never seen the stuff in person, but the idea of it is cool
When I think about floppy disks, especially 3.5" floppy disks, I mostly think of Sony and Toshiba. Both made floppy disks, but Sony invented them, Toshiba was the first to put a 3.5" floppy disk drive in a laptop, and Sony made one of the first consumer digital cameras which stored photos on a floppy disk (Sony Mavica). I don't even remotely think of 3M. I would associate the brand name "Fellows" more with floppies than 3M, because they were the company that made the 50 and 100 floppy storage trays you could buy at any office store. When I moved in 2022, I threw out nearly 600 floppy disks I still had in a closet for some reason, including a copy of the Windows 3.11 installer set.
OTOH 3M easily evokes images of all things adhesive.
Followed shortly by "industrial chemicals".
I got speed tape, ruby tape, silicone fiberglass hi-low temp tape. I don't really need them, I admire the engineering and I'm kinda afraid to use these tapes given how much they cost.
But yeah, the 3M brand = adhesives in my household.
https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-17542R/3M-Duct-Cloth-...
"Duct tape, sure... I got nuclear duct tape in the drawer over there."
3M getting more of my money for my next birthday I guess.