Have you ever wondered why you say “bring me a coke, will you?” instead of “Bring me an aerated soft drink on your way back” or saying “use a sellotape for that one” instead of just saying, “use a tape for that one” or why was the pug known as the Vodafone dog before people knew the real breed name?
Although it wouldn’t make sense if someone said, “why are you asking me, just Internet Explorer it” or “Bring me my Navneet” (unless you’re in a Punjabi film with a character named Navneet, set in the times when people used Internet Explorer.
Language has many characteristics itself, and one of them is its dynamic.
Words like ‘xeroxing,’ and ‘googling,’ indicate actions, hence are now verbs while brands like ‘Thermos,’ ‘Tabasco,’ and ‘Fevicol’ have replaced the name of the products they’re named for, becoming nouns.
Some brands were so strong that they have now surpassed their brand name because they make much more sense otherwise like ‘dumpster.’ The etymology of this word seems like ‘-ster’ was added to the use of the product, which is to dump garbage but the origin of the word goes back to when it was called the Dempster-Dumpster named after its founders, the Dempster brothers.
David Placek, the founder of Lexicon Branding, gives three rules to a good brand name:
