Runny nose? Here, have a ‘Kleenex’. Dry lips? A ‘Chapstick’ can help. Oh my, bleeding from a cut? Don’t worry, I have a ‘Band-Aid’ right here. These terms which we use in daily life just as commonly as ‘duck’, ‘pig’, ‘table’, ‘chair’ are actually registered brand names owned by big companies. Normally, people would think that it is good for a brand to become such famous representative of its product category. But is a “generic trademark” truly a blessing or a curse?
Now, you may think that companies do not care about generic trademark at all unless they are Kleenex or Clorox – or these 34 brands-turned-household names. That’s wrong. Interestingly, there are brands that actively steer themselves into a promising ‘generic trademark’ situation. For instance, Supermarketnews.co.nz recently reported in its article “Giving fake produce the boot” (2019) that Italian food investigators are trying to deem non-Italian produce as ‘fake’ product. This can effectively make Parmigiano Reggiano the only valid parmesan cheese brand in the world - “if Italy had its way”, the article said. This is the perfect starting point of a generic trademark as households begin to use ‘Parmigiano’ instead of ‘parmesan cheese’.
But what exactly is a ‘generic trademark’, and how can Parmigiano Reggiano (and brands in general) benefit from being a generic name anyway… ?
A “generic trademark” refers to any brand name that becomes common descriptive name for its entire product class (Rozek, 1982). It often occurs when the brand is a leading face in the market, or the brand owns patent to its product, making it the only manufacturer of that product line for a certain period (take Aspirin for example). According to Rozek (1982), companies owning generic trademarks can maintain a monopoly position in their market for a certain time and gain significant reputation, higher price mark and excess profit as a result. Thus, this is also the sign of market dominance for a brand in its territory. It is noteworthy that even though trademark and copyright usually belong exclusively to a company’s legal department, generic trademark is no less of a marketing phenomenon than a legal issue as it entails market dominance and profit possibility.
Don’t know something? Just ‘Google’ it
However, letting the public genericize your brand name is like signing a deal with Satan, and the dark side is not pretty at all. Scholars call the process of commonizing a brand as “trademark genericide”, with genericide meaning “Generic + Suicide” – and there is a reason for it. According to Moore (2003), genericizing a brand name equals killing its brand identity: when the name becomes a mere word of the language, the product is recognized as a mere commodity with no face and its product differentiation no longer matters to the consumers. Figure 1 shows the normal branding model and the genericide branding model . In genericide situation, a product’s identity or [mark] is completely erased when it gets to the consumer’s hand (Moore, 2003). Rozek (1982) also added that advertising done by the seller of the generic trademark might just be doing free service for competing brands, as it increases the probability of buyers choosing another brand’s product.
Figure 1. Minimal models of branding as a form of communication in normal situation and in trademark genericide situation (Moore, 2003).
As a matter of fact, the companies that once enjoyed the broad awareness and market dominance with brand names-turned-household names are now fighting fiercely to re-identify their trademarks. Famous brands are so desperate that they advertise this issue to not just the public but also directly to the people who write articles about them (Garber, 2014). Figure 2 shows an advertisement from Kleenex on printed media, reminding the consumers to not take the name ‘Kleenex’ for generic use in a comparatively strong voice. Velcro has also stepped into the fight with their online ad, though in a more nuance and humorous style than Kleenex as they wrote a funny parody dedicated to the topic (figure 3). There are more ways to battle trademark genericide – if you are a brand owner looking to protect your brand name from this disease, this article from Medium can be a big help.
Figure 3. Velcro’s commercial “Don't Say Velcro”. VELCRO® Brand. Retrieved August 15, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRi8LptvFZY
Back to Parmigiano Reggiano cheese in the beginning, is it worthy for the brand to jump into this trap? With all the conflicting pros and cons, there is no definite answer and it is up to the brand to judge its own decision. However, my humble suggestion is that Parmigiano Reggiano should acknowledge competing products in the world market instead of trying to put them to the ground with ‘fake’ label. The Italian cheese brand can make use of the competition to highlight its elite trademark (and not killing its brand identity to gain market dominance). The small letter ‘R’ beside the brand name should not be taken lightly in any case, because it is no less of a marketing problem than a legal issue. If you let your brand name being turned into common words, at some point your brand will keep being called but never bought again.
References:
Garber, M. (2014). 'Kleenex Is a Registered Trademark' (and Other Desperate Appeals). The Atlantic. [online]. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/09/kleenex-is-a-registered-trademark-and-other-appeals-to-journalists/380733/
Giving fake produce the boot. (2019, May 6). Supermarketnews. [online]. Retrieved from http://supermarketnews.co.nz/giving-fake-produce-the-boot/
Moore, R. E. (2003). From genericide to viral marketing: on “brand.”. Language & Communication, 23(3-4), 331–357. doi:10.1016/s0271-5309(03)00017-x
Rozek, R. P. (1982). Brand identification and advertising: the case of a generic trademark. Applied Economics, 14(3), 235–248. doi:10.1080/00036848200000018
VELCRO® Brand. (2017, September 25). Don’t say Velcro. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRi8LptvFZY