When brands become the product
When a brand name becomes synonymous with the product, you know that those marketing drives have really worked out
Be it in traditional or digital media, companies are always spending a fortune on marketing and branding.
When a brand name becomes synonymous with the product, you know that those marketing drives have really worked out.
TBS looks at some popular brand names which we now use as generic terms.
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Wheel Laundry Soap
Back in the 1990s, the definition of laundry soaps was different.
The ones which were available in the market, such as Jony Soap, Chaka Laundry Soap etc, were round and white in colour.
However, things started to change with the emergence of Unilever's Wheel Laundry Soap.
The green soap bar took the market by storm.
Today, Wheel has become a synonym for all laundry soaps in the market.
Mobil
We often hear bike and car owners saying that they are going to change the mobil.
Sounds familiar, right?
But there is no changing of mobil in your bike or car; what we change is the engine oil.
Mobil is a major American oil company that merged with Exxon in 1999 to form a parent company called ExxonMobil.
It was previously one of the Seven Sisters that dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s until the 1970s.
However, the brand name is so popular that it became a synonym for engine oil here in Bangladesh.
Harpic
Do you remember ever asking for toilet cleaners when you visit stores?
Instead, you ask for Harpic, though you might be buying toilet cleaners of other brands.
Harpic has been so popular globally that it has become a synonym for toilet cleaners.
Harpic is the brand name of a toilet cleaner that was launched in the United Kingdom in the 1920s by Reckitt Benckiser.
The name came from Harry Pickup who invented the original toilet cleaner.
Honda
Honda Motor Company, Ltd is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment.
But here in Bangladesh, Honda is just referred to as all the motorcycles in the market.
Although customers buy bikes of other brands such as Yamaha or Suzuki, Honda is the word that is still stuck in their head as a synonym for motorcycles.
Jeep
Jeep is a brand of American automobile and also a division of FCA US LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Italian-American corporation Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
However, things are different in Bangladesh.
We often use the term Jeep for all the SUVs out there.
Band-Aid
Ban-Aid is the most commonly used term for small adhesive bandages.
Band-Aid was trademarked by Johnson & Johnson in 1920 and it still stands today.
People might even consider you mad these days if you try calling it an adhesive bandage. Let us stick to Band-Aid!
Google has made it into our list as well.
These days, it has become the synonym of searching anything on the internet.
Even when we are using search engines like Ask, Bing or Yahoo, we call it Googling.
Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specialises in internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, a search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware.
Ping Pong
Ping Pong is the small plastic ball used in table tennis.
It is actually a brand owned by Parker Bros.
The name was invented in 1901.
The founders thought that the sound the ball made when it was hit across the table sounded like "ping pong."
Photoshop
Photoshop is the term that is commonly used when it comes to editing photos, although there are other similar softwares.
The first version of this popular photo-editing software was released in 1990, rendering "airbrushing" obsolete.
