Would you rather say, ‘pass me the Scott please?” or “pass me the Kleenex please?”. Do you hear your mom saying, “put leftovers in a Tupperware” or “put leftovers in a Fuller Cosmetics?”.

The fact is that many brand names have become synonyms with the products for which they are famous for. Kleenex and Tupperware, for instance, are brands names but as their names became genericized, customers many not identify them as brands anymore rather than products.

And while that fame might seem like a good thing, it can be a problem for such companies as they lose their distinctive appeal! Consumers regularly use words such as “Kleenex”, “Google”, “Post-Its”, “Q-tips”, “Scotch tape”, ” Band Aids”, Tupperware” to name a few – all of which are registered trademarks – for products made by other companies. Which means that when purchasing tissue paper, a customer would buy a different brand and not Kleenex.

By contrast, other brands like Starbucks, or Nike for instance, have not lost control over their brands names. Now that is interesting. Any idea why that is? And how did they prevent being destroyed by their own success?

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