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They say you are what you eat. If that is true, then as a child I was probably half Knorr Chicken noodles and the other half of me was the red stuff that is essential for life… Knorr Chatpatta noodles. What that little fact means for my health is beside the point. However, I, to this day call Knorr noodles ‘Maggi’ for some reason, even though I know that’s a completely separate brand of its own.
For some reason, I began to think quite a bit about that. At this point, I must admit I spent an unhealthy amount of time thinking about marginally unimportant topics. But it did seem like a very odd thing to do, like calling any washing powder ‘Surf’ (the reference to ‘Surf Excel’), or calling any SUV a ‘Jeep’ (the reference to the vehicle manufacturer ‘Jeep’) … but I thought to wait, I think I do those too. Why was that, I wondered. Thus, I did a bit of research, and my findings amazed me, to say the least.
The first thing I realized was that I wasn’t an uncultured fool for calling Knorr noodles ‘Maggi’, nor was I uneducated for calling all SUVs ‘Jeeps’, everyone did that. In fact, these were not the only cases of one particular brand being used to refer to products in its category regardless of their actual brand.
This is actually a well-known process called ‘Genericizing of a trademark’. When a product and its manufacturer gain so much popularity that they become synonymous with the type of product, their trademark name becomes ‘genericised’. That means that their trademark or brand name becomes the general term referred all the products in the category.
As to why that happens, well the technical side of it deals with the linguistic concepts of ‘Metonymy’ and ‘Eponyms’. Which, as a linguist in training, I found fascinating. However, in simple terms, the brands that break into the market first, and gain a significant market share become the name that people will associate that product. Take for example ‘Maggi’, they introduced the ‘2-minute’ noodles in the Pakistani market and a whole generation began to associate noodles with ‘Maggi’. Even when ‘Knorr’ became a market leader in the sector, my mother still called all noodles ‘Maggi’. And thus, so did I.
One of the things I noticed when doing my research was the number of brand names that we use as product names in our daily lives. Things like ‘Jeep’ and ‘Surf’ I knew, but some of the others surprised me. Take a look at the examples below to see how many you knew were actually brand names and not the product itself.
THERMOS: This was a trademark of Thermos GmbH; the product is called a vacuum flask.
FRIDGE: Although it might seem like an abbreviation of ‘refrigerator’, its actually a short form of ‘Frigidaire’, a refrigerator company that manufactured the first self-contained refrigerator.
FRISBEE: Originally just called flying discs, Wham-O (a toy company) introduced their brand called ‘Frisbee’. Its popularity leads to all flying discs being called ‘frisbees’.
PAMPERS: I think most of us know that ‘Pampers’ is just a brand of diapers, however, notice how most of us would simply ask the store clerk where the pampers section is rather than where the diapers section is.
SCOTCH TAPE: Originally a product of ‘3M’ (formerly known as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company). Its popularity became the reason that now all cellulose tape is called ‘scotch tape’
ESCALATOR: The name for the magical moving stairways was actually a trademark of the Otis Elevator Company. However, when the competition started using the word as well, the trademark was lost and all moving stairways became known as ‘escalators’
CHAPSTICK: A must have for all those with dry lips, this was actually the brand name of a lip balm manufactured by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare. But again, due to popularity, every lip balm in a tube is now called a ‘Chapstick’.
Isn’t it interesting?
