2 minute read
Be the generic96
by iKnow
96
BE THE GENERIC
Advertisement
Sometimes your brand name will turn into a verb, and sometimes it’s going to be a noun. Occasionally a brand turns into a metaphor, as in the case of “doing a Ratner”, saying something so disastrous about your company that you eventually cause its failure.
Verb brands: To Hoover, to Google, to Skype, to Fedex, to Photoshop, to Sellotape.
Noun brands: Rollerblade is used for in-line skate, Kleenex is used in the US for paper tissue or paper hankie, Perrier is used for sparkling water. Even Heroine was a brand name in the days when it was legal to buy opium over the counter in the form of the medicine, laudanum.
The most widely used is probably the Biro, the balloint pen invented by László Biró. It was licensed by the British Royal Air Force for using at high altitude, then sold to Marcel Bich’s company in 1950 for his Bic pen company in France. Biró himself called his pen the Birome.
The idea If you’re the fi rst in the market, or the one that does the most advertising to get your brand name known, you’re in a position to become the generic. At the moment, there’s a brand called Sugru, a strong synthetic putty that sets hard to repair things. It’s set to become a generic because those of us who use it fi nd it a lot easier to call it that than, “the synthetic putty that sets hard”. There isn’t
anything else like it so they can create their own new word for it.
In Perrier’s case it works for them. If someone asks for a Perrier, they’ll be brought a Perrier unless the restaurant doesn’t stock it, at which point your waiter will tell you which brands you can have. People realise that it’s the brand name, but use it to mean sparkling water.
In Rollerblade’s case, they aren’t as happy about it. Unless you’re a keen skater, you probably think that an inline skate is really called a roller blade. Becoming the generic name for something can be a help, or a hindrance.
In practice • You can’t always control whether or not this will happen to your brand. • If you’re the ground-breaker in a new market, then your brand name could be adopted as the generic. Use it as a verb on all your publicity material.
