Saturday, April 25, 2009

Yet another succesful brand

There are many cases where a brand name has become synonymous with its product category. It must be a dream come true for the people behind the brand. Probably the best example is Xerox. The others belonging to India are
1. Dalda (this is history now, but valid example nevertheless)
2. We made Maggi at 3 in the night. Could have been any brand....
3. Ek thandi Bisleri bottle dena.
4. Cadbury's chocolate. I have once heard a little boy in the shop asking for 'one Kit Kat Cadbury'...
5. Godrej steel cupboard. Any steel cupboard, even a local make, is a Godrej ki almari.
6. Also Godrej locks. Same story.
7. My son goes to a Casio class..... Any keyboard aka synthesizer.

I chanced upon another example, this time on the Thane toll booth. So it is for all purposes an 'official board'. I first thought it was remarkable that Tata Sumo should have become synonymous with jeeps and that this could be proclaimed on an official board. As I passed through the toll gate, I realized that even 'Jeep' is a brand name! How regularly we use it to describe anything from a Willys to a Sumo to a Scropio, Bolero, Trax.....
So this board is an ultimate proof of a succesful brand promotion strategy.

3 comments:

Vinay said...

Similar to saying- "is paper ki 2 xerox nikalna"

Anonymous said...

Actually in the Jeep category yo also have Trax - a trendsetter in intra city passenger transport.

Unknown said...

Vinay - As I said in the post too, Xerox is really the ultimate example.
Anonymous - Sure Trax is a trendsetter. I remembered another example, Volvo. No matter which kind of bus people travel in between Mumbai and Pune, they say 'Volvo ni gelo hoto'. It has spawned an entire range of fake names and I have seen Volgo, Valvo and some more.