Google fights ‘genericide’
MediaGuardian’s Organ Grinder has asked the question: can the acceptance of a brand as a generic term (e.g. hoover, fridge etc) be damaging to the original brand?
This is an interesting point and I’d love to know what a branding specialist thinks.
Personally, I understand that Google wants to protect its trademark from being ‘diluted’, but they’ll find it near impossible to change people’s habits in using their trademark as a generic term for web search.
Has Hoover really suffered because of this generic naming issue? Is their current position in the market more to do with all electronics manufacturers being able to produce virtually identical products?
No, this is more about trademarks and competitors being able to call their product Google. Will that really happen? Ever seen Dyson packaging or advertising refer to its product as a ‘Hoover’?
Not everyone has the ability to produce a quality search engine on the scale of Google.
I don’t think Google has anything to worry about.
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