By popular acclaim in your blog posts, today we have a post full of curiosities. As many of you have asked me, we talk about brands that have managed to turn their naming into generic.
It is quite a curiosity, almost always coming from a product, how these names become generalized and acquire the status of category leader. Ordering a Kleneex, buying a Chupa-Chups or taking an aspirin are, day by day, everyday actions.
There are several brands which, thanks to their great success, have established themselves in the collective memory of society. Although this also depends on the markets in which they operate. They are a reference and give name to competitors’ products, as well as to their own.
Such is their scope that it can even be a problem if we perceive it from the point of view of not having known how to transmit their differential value with respect to the competition.
It should be noted that not all brands have become generic names in the same way. Therefore, we can distinguish 3 types of generic brands:
- 100% generic: brands that are practically mentioned as a type of product.
- 50% generic: brands which, despite being mentioned as a type of product, have not lost their identity.
- regional generic brands: combination of the two previous ones, but created and developed in a specific region
Examples of brands that have succeeded in making their naming generic
- Danone: the well-known yogurt brand
- Post-it: the famous stickers
- Donuts: the appetizing round sweet biscuits with a hole in them
- Coca-Cola: the iconic cola soft drink
- Band-aids: the indispensable adhesive bandage
- Plexiglass: the functional moldable plastic
- Velcro: the practical hook-and-loop fastener for fabrics
- Jeep: the off-road sport utility vehicle
- Photoshop: the photo editing software
- Jacuzzi: The relaxing whirlpool tub
- Aspirin: the acetylsalicylic acid compound
- Thermos: the vacuum bottle
- Kleenex: the disposable paper tissue
- Bimbo: the reference in the sliced bread world
- Rimmel: the famous eyelashes mascara
- Chupa-Chups: the mythical stick candy
I’m sure I’ve left a lot out, so I invite you to add them to the list in comments.
Photo credit: DNN
