When the Brand becomes the product

This weekend I came down with a small case of the flu. With my box of Kleenex all used up, I wobbled over to my housemate’s room and asked for some Kleenex. Instead of giving a sick person the box, he argued with me on how he did not own any Kleenex. Instead the brand of his tissue was Puffs. I retorted that it did not matter because everyone calls tissues Kleenex anyways. But my housemate was very adamant in his position and I had to give in so that I could wipe my nose.
Through my little spat with my housemate, I came to the realization that there are in fact many brand names that have somehow become synonymous with the product itself. Here’s a small list of products that have become broadly accepted as not only a brand but as a description for the product. Kleenex tissue is now synonymous with facial tissue, Xerox is synonymous with a photocopy, cellophane tape is now called scotch tape, Band-Aid is actually adhesive bandage. And the list goes on and on.
Through some research, I found out that there is a term for such an occurrence. It is called genericized trademark-- a trademark which has come to be used to describe all similar products, rather than the product of a specific manufacturer. It must have been some amazing marketing strategy (and probably a ton of luck) to get consumers to recognize the product by the brand rather the other way around. Thus when a consumer looks at any tissue product, their mind automatically goes to Kleenex.

I have read many articles concerning generticized trademarks. There seems to be mixed reviews on whether or not such recognition from the consumers is beneficial. On one hand such product recognition is what marketers dream of: every time a buyer sees the product, they will think of the brand. This way, buyers would be more likely to choose the brand that sticks in their head more. It can also be attributed to the fact that these products are so well known, buyers would think that they are probably the best in the market.
However, on the other hand, when a product becomes a genericized trademark, the company would run the risk of having the brand’s name become too generic. Meaning the brand would have no distinction with other similar products. This means that their product would also lose its name. Many companies have gone through great length to avoid this level of genericized trademark. For example, Google has been trying to discourage publications on the use of the term “googling” to refer to web searches.
Whether or not genericized trademark are beneficial can be debated for hours, but it seems that companies really do have to worry about getting the brand name to become too “generic”.

--Hang Lin