Name Connection: 9 Products & Services that are Virtually Synonymous with their Brand

A pillar of brand measurement, name connection determines how integrally a product or service is tied to a brand.

Name Connection

When we conduct brand measurement research, evaluating name connection is a staple of each study. Name connection measures how strongly your target audience relates your brand with your product or service. Name connection represents the value a brand can offer a product or service, and vice versa. Obviously, the stronger the connection, the greater the value.

The ultimate coup in name connection is the point at which a product or service becomes synonymous with a brand name, such that the brand name eclipses the genericized term in common language. We use products like this every single day, with name connection so strong you may not even know that you’re calling something by its brand name. Below are 9 examples of such products or services. Some may surprise you!

 Escalator.jpg1. Escalator

Whether at a mall, an airport, or even the San Diego Zoo, you’ve undoubtedly ridden a moving staircase. Maybe you’ll know this mode of vertical transport better by its commonname – the escalator. Originally a brand name owned by the Otis Elevator Company, the term escalator was deemed a “generic trademark” in the 1950s, meaning the term is used so widely, the trademark becomes invalid.

 

 

 


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2.   Post-It

The name Post-It, a product of 3M®, is regularly used interchangeably with ‘sticky note’. The “sticky” part of the note was actually a scientific accident of inventor Dr. Spencer Silver who was attempting to create a long-term adhesive. The adhesive may not have lasted, but the brand name certainly endures. The 3M® patent expired in 1997 and the term has since been genericized for public use.

 

 

 

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3.   Scotch Tape®

Another product of 3M®, Scotch Tape® is a brand name of clear, adhesive tape. Though commonly genericized throughout the U.S. and Canada to represent any clear, adhesive tape, Scotch Tape® is still a trademark of the 3M® brand. I clearly remember the Christmas Eve panic of my mother calling for more Scotch Tape® – if she’d asked for clear, adhesive tape, we would’ve all been stumped.

 

 

 

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4.  Tupperware®

Earl Tupper developed his first reusable, plastic food containers in the 1940s. Made popular through parties and in-home sales, Tupperware® became a well-known name in the American household. Though the product is still a registered trademark of Dart Industries, Inc.®, and in spite of the appearance of numerous other competing products on the market, Tupperware® is still often used at the general term for plastic food storage containers.

 

 

 

 

 

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5.   Velcro®

Velcro is an example so clear I have to ask, can you think of another term for Velcro®? No? Let’s try ‘fabric hook and loop fasteners’. Something about it just doesn't sound right, huh? Velcro® was originally patented in the 1950s as the ‘zipperless zipper’. Though it’s trademark is also still very much in place, many people struggle to find an alternative name for the product, instead relying on the technology for everything from fastening children’s shoes to securing equipment in space.

 

 


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6. Crock-Pot®

Originally registered in 1977, the Original Slow Cooker, Sunbeam’s Crock-Pot® continues to be a valid trademark today. Though “crock pot” and “crockpot” are considered genericized, the true general term for the kitchen appliance in 80% of American homes is a ‘slow cooker’.

 

 

 

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7.   Aspirin®

Much like many other medications, including TUMS®, Benadryl® and Novocain®, brand names become the recognizable, colloquial term, even when there are many generic versions on the market. Aspirin®, the Bayer® brand name dating back to 1899 for a Salicylate tablet, is the oft-used, popular term for pain relief medication.

 

 

 

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8. Windex®

Though this trademark by S.C. Johnson® has too been genericized, I think the window cleaning product may have the strongest name connection on this list. The familiar blue tint and bottle shape are as unmistakable as the brand name, leaving those desiring a streak-free shine on their glass surfaces reaching for a bottle of ‘Windex’, whether manufactured by S.C. Johnson® or not.

 

 

 

 

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9. Google®

Google®, named for the number, has become such a prevalent piece of our lives that not only is the service synonymous with its brand, it’s also become a go-to verb for the act of internet searching. In the pre-internet days, we may have said “look it up,” “hit the library,” or “do some research,” but nowadays when we need to figure out information mid-conversation or someone asks a question we don’t know the immediate answer to, the phrase, “Google® it,” rolls off the tongue like a reflex.

 

Name Connection & Brand Measurement

While name connection is just one piece of the larger effort of brand measurement research, the resulting data provides important insight into customer perceptions of your brand, brand name, and its associated products. Name connection can shed light on how your brand fares against competitors and how well-branded your product or service is. All of this information can be used to influence marketing efforts as well as the direction of your product moving forward.

 

Actionable Name Connection

Our goal is to help our clients conduct research studies that help them find the data they need to move forward. We feel research results should be data you can act on, hence the name Actionable Research. If you’re interested in learning more about what we do or how brand measurement research can help you reach your goals and objectives, schedule a call with our researchers today.
 
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