The Name of the Game: Can a Brand Become Too Recognizable?
In general, public recognition of a brand name is incredibly desirable to a company, but, sometimes the name of the brand becomes so prolific that it comes to refer to products of that type, rather than the brand itself.
For example, when was the last time you said, “Hey, can you pass me a facial tissue?”
You’d be more likely to say “pass me a Kleenex”, right? Here’s the catch: though, on one hand, Kleenex would be gratified with your strong memory of the brand, if you use the term ‘Kleenex’ to refer to any facial tissue, Kleenex has cause to worry. If the word ‘Kleenex’ is judged to to colloquially refer to tissues of any generic brand, Kleenex could lose their trademark and no longer have the exclusive right to use the name ‘Kleenex’.
This is a worry echoed by many other brands. For example, Band-Aid has changed the lyrics to their jingle from “I am stuck on Band-Aid”, to “I am stuck on the Band-Aid brand“, as part of their efforts to save their brand from becoming genericized. The same fear has struck Google as well, as evidenced by this blog post.
The list of genericized brands that have lost their trademark include some familiar words you may not even realize were once brands, like:
- Asprin
- Escalator
- Petrol
- Zipper
- Thermos
When does a brand become too successfully associated with their product? Is there anything companies can do to prevent ‘identity theft’? Is there any real way to prevent consumers from using your product name colloquially? It seems clear that this is a case where different departments (legal and marketing, for example) would have to work together to protect a brand’s interests.
References:
O’Reilly, Terry, auth. “Genericide: When A Brand Becomes Generic.” The Age of Persuasion. CBC Radio, 06/05/11. web. 27 Sep 2012.