Brands Become generic brand name & genericized trademark

Its very common in India when one person speaks true pubic called him “Raja Harishchand”, When one become very humble or down to the earth, public calls him “Gandhi ji” and when one donates something without any interest to someone, public starts calling him “Karna”.

Now here individuals having such characteristics can be an analogy for a product and these personalities can belike Brands which symbolize these traits. When each of the trait is replaced by the personalities in day to day life, this how brands replace products and become generic brand names or genericized trademarks.

It’s an achievement to be an innovator and serve the society with new invention but when this innovation or invention becomes a generic brand name, it’s a big setback for the brand and company too.

Genericized Trademark: When a brand name becomes colloquial or generic description for or synonymous with a particular class of products or services is called a genericized trademark. list of genericized trademarks

Why It happened?

When a brand name becomes so popular, gains huge market share and has no competitor in market, then the product or service is replaced with that particular brand name.

Lets look at these example:

Xerox: Xerox launched its first photo copy machine it become huge success and slowly due to viral marketing or buzz, the name of photo state or copy was replaced with Xerox.

Band-aid: In 1921, J&J manufactured first bandage for normal cuts, to wrap burns etc named as band-aid but in later time this become bandage(genericized name) . Every one called up storekeeper for band-aid no matters which company it is?

Kleenex: The word Kleenex is now commonly used to describe any soft facial tissue. However, Kleenex is the trademarked name of the soft facial tissue manufactured and sold by the Kimberly-Clark Corporation.

Google: In year of 2006, in one of dictionaries, term google means verb: online search of some thing. Now google is replaced with search online.

In Indian context:

Godrej Wardrobes: In Indian homes, marriages etc Godrej wardrobes has replaced the product name, in Indian families “godrej ke bina ladki ka dahej(dowry) is incomplete”. It’s very common in most of Indian families.

Sintex Plastic Tank: People in our country used this brand as generic product name in place of Plastic water tanks.

Amul Butter: Same genericized trademark happened with this brand also.

In Rural Indian context:

Colgate: In our villages common people used to say “jara colgete le ana” means bring toothpaste where he replaced product name with brand name.

Limca : In india, whenever you asked old member of your family for cold drinks he/she come up with name of LIMCA; a generic brand name in elders mind. Its not similar to Xerox,Band-aid or Kleenex but Limca was on the same track.