Ask an American to name the first-ever creme-filled sandwich cookie, and the answer will almost certainly be the Oreo. The iconic black and white cookie has become as definitively associated with its category as Xerox has with copiers, or Google with search engines. Ironically, however, the Oreo wasn't the first creme-filled sandwich cookie, and the cookie brand that beat it to the punch is still around.

That's not to say the Oreo doesn't have a long history, of course. It has been sold for more than 100 years, and has been wildly popular since 1912, when Nabisco first created the product in New York City.

In fact, from the first Oreos sold at a Hoboken grocery store in 1912 to 2011 — on the eve of the cookie's 100th anniversary — more than 500 billion of them were sold around the world.

Sales weren't quite so brisk for the Hydrox cookie, despite the fact that it looks almost exactly like the Oreo — wafer-like black cookies sandwiching a white creme filling — and was actually created four years earlier in 1908.

Timing isn't everything, it turns out. Naming and marketing are also pretty important factors when it comes to long-term success.