40 Why not stick with the generic?

40

WHY NOT STICK WITH THE GENERIC?

Generally, an organisation can set a higher price for a branded product and make a higher profi t, even if it’s pretty much the same quality as a generic one.

The idea Not all products and services are branded. In my fi rst aid kit ,there are some Boot’s Antiseptic Wipes. Boot’s is a brand, the name of the UK chemist shop chain and manufacturing company. They have sub brands like Boot’s No 7 make-up, and also sell their own generic products, like Boot’s own brand soluble aspirins – which are cheaper than branded ones – and the antiseptic wipes.

If they wanted to make their wipes stand out from anyone else’s, they could perhaps call them Swipeys, and launch an advertising campaign to repeat the name enough times to make people remember it. So they would invest in the publicity, and then hope to make more profi t because customers would come into Boots, look at what’s available and say to themselves, “I’d better get the Swipeys because I’ve heard of them.”

The reason to create a brand rather than use the generic word, like the Apple iPhone rather than just the Apple SmartPhone, is to make it stand out from the rest. There are lots of smart phones, but only Apple can make an iPhone because Apple has protected the name using intellectual property (IP) law.

There are plenty of industries where it’s normal to stay with the generic, especially if they are fast-changing, and products are short lived, like fashion.

There, the brands are the company names from Primark to Prada, but you don’t get any of them trying to add a brand name to a product like a skirt or a belt or a T-shirt.

There, the companies invest in building a brand reputation around their organisation’s name. Prada for luxury and style, Primark for cheap and cheerful, bang up to the minute fashions.

In practice • You have to invest to build a brand identity, to create a recognisable product or service that stands out from the rest. So you might choose to stick with the generic term. • Once you have a legally registered brand, be prepared to protect it using intellectual property law. This is a serious fi nancial investment. • The benefi ts are that your products and services are easier to sell, once you have your brand identity in place, and you might be able to charge more for them in order to recoup your investment, but this isn’t guaranteed.