3 ms·

What's bad about that? Are people not more inclined to buy Kleenex because of this?

by manmal 14y ago

robin_reala 14y ago
People (in the UK at least) regularly say “I’m hoovering” or “I’m going to buy a hoover” without thinking about the brand of Hoover. I gather the same happened in the US for Xerox and photocopying (a trend that never really made it over here). Once a word becomes common place then your branding ceases to be branding.
- sneak 14y ago
  Actually, it's worse than that: once a word becomes generic, you _lose trademark protection_.
rurounijones 14y ago
Read the "Trademark erosion" part of the link. I posted for more info.
biot 14y ago
Take Aspirin, which was a registered trademark of Bayer for the longest time until it became a generic name. Now anyone in the US (and eleven other countries) can label their brand of acetylsalicylic acid tablets aspirin. If people are more inclined to buy aspirin, it's less likely to be Bayer brand Aspirin.
Kesty 14y ago
The "bad" about that is that if "to google" became generic for "doing a websearch" is to stop other search enginge to start saying "Google it with Bing!".
- wuest 14y ago
  Just in case anyone isn't aware of the video to which you're referring: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYVCk10AzS0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYVCk10AzS0
- philhippus 14y ago
  I would have thought that would be "good" for brands to be so firmly entrenched into society that the brandname becomes a verb. "Google it with Bing!" would lead to the thought: "No, I'll use the real thing." Imagine the benefits to Bing if Google were to use "Bing it with Google."
sneak 14y ago
Once a trademark is genericized, the original owner loses trademark protection for the brand, and anyone can use it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark Things that were once trademarks: Aspirin, Adrenalin, Escalator, Heroin, Kerosene, Laundromat, Linoleum, Mimeograph, Thermos, Touch-tone, Videotape, Zipper.

What's bad about that? Are people not more inclined to buy Kleenex because of this?

by manmal 14y ago

What's bad about that? Are people not more inclined to buy Kleenex because of this?

People (in the UK at least) regularly say “I’m hoovering” or “I’m going to buy a hoover” without thinking about the brand of Hoover. I gather the same happened in the US for Xerox and photocopying (a trend that never really made it over here). Once a word becomes common place then your branding ceases to be branding.

sneak 14y ago
Actually, it's worse than that: once a word becomes generic, you _lose trademark protection_.

rurounijones 14y ago

Read the "Trademark erosion" part of the link. I posted for more info.

biot 14y ago

Take Aspirin, which was a registered trademark of Bayer for the longest time until it became a generic name. Now anyone in the US (and eleven other countries) can label their brand of acetylsalicylic acid tablets aspirin. If people are more inclined to buy aspirin, it's less likely to be Bayer brand Aspirin.

Kesty 14y ago

The "bad" about that is that if "to google" became generic for "doing a websearch" is to stop other search enginge to start saying "Google it with Bing!".

wuest 14y ago
Just in case anyone isn't aware of the video to which you're referring: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYVCk10AzS0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYVCk10AzS0
philhippus 14y ago
I would have thought that would be "good" for brands to be so firmly entrenched into society that the brandname becomes a verb. "Google it with Bing!" would lead to the thought: "No, I'll use the real thing." Imagine the benefits to Bing if Google were to use "Bing it with Google."

sneak 14y ago

Once a trademark is genericized, the original owner loses trademark protection for the brand, and anyone can use it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark Things that were once trademarks: Aspirin, Adrenalin, Escalator, Heroin, Kerosene, Laundromat, Linoleum, Mimeograph, Thermos, Touch-tone, Videotape, Zipper.