Tags
bar keepers friend, emery boards, hydrogen peroxide, mineral oil, products that aren't advertised, rubbing alcohol, witch hazel
What do these items have in common?
Hydrogen peroxide, Bar Keepers Friend, mineral oil, rubbing alcohol, witch hazel, & Donna Michelle's emery boards, July 2011.
It may not be obvious at first. In fact, it didn’t dawn on me until I saw the Donna Michelle’s emery boards and wondered: Who’s Donna Michelle?
None of these products receives national advertising attention. (At least none that I know of.) You don’t hear about wars between competing brands of hydrogen peroxide like you do about competing brands of pop (Coke vs. Pepsi), feminine products (Kotex vs. Tampax vs. Always), soap (Dove vs. Ivory vs. Irish Spring), bandages (Band-Aid vs. Nexcare), toothpaste (Crest vs. Colgate vs. Aquafresh vs. Pepsodent), or baking soda (Arm & Hammer vs. who else?) Even certain household items that don’t have obvious competitors still are recognizably linked to a particular brand due to advertising.
Why hasn’t this happened with rubbing alcohol, emery boards, witch hazel, or the other products pictured? These products are as necessary as any other out there (maybe even more so), which makes me glad they remain on the market despite the lack of advertising.
Are you aware of other products that are quietly available? (The other commonality between all the products pictured, except the emery boards, is that they are located on the bottom shelves in supermarkets.)
Wow. Very insightful observation. Maybe it’s because these items are so universally available, and so universally beneficial that it’s more difficult to put a patent on them. But I’m sure some entrepreneur will try!
I was thinking about that universality, too, jozie9, except that baking soda bucks that theory, as does salt. Who hasn’t heard of Arm & Hammer baking soda and Morton salt? That’s why it’s so curious that heavy-duty branding hasn’t occurred with these other products.
☼ ☼ At some thyme in the dim halls of the distant past [a few years], These products were likely “Branded” when they were first introduced!
To a certain degree, these products are pretty generic also: Aspirin [although Bayer keeps trying to convince us that "It's Special", Mineral Spirits, Paint Thinner, Epsom Salts, Steel Wool, Blue Jeans/Denim, Zipper, Dumpster, Band-Aid, and for all I know, the first Door was invented by "John Door!"
♪ Name & Word origins I find pretty fascinating! ♫
Here's a few that I picked up on the web: "generic name: Name of a successful (and usually the first) product, used commonly by people to name an entire category or class of products. For example: Fridge (refrigerator), PC (desktop computer), Thermos (vacuum flask), were once exclusive brand names but now refer to all brands under their respective category of products. Generic names cannot be owned by anyone, not even by the firm who first introduced them."
Or, pick your own poison from a google search:
" brand names that became generic? "
► [Although, google itself is losing too, as it becomes a generic for an internet search, and maybe one day, when Mz Woo goes through her Sock drawer, she'll Exclaim: "I'm Gonna GOOGLE my sock drawer!", as it becomes a generic for Any search!? ...Add to that, Google itself appears to have been a misspelling of "Googol"[1938] {…see also: “Googolplex”!!} …I find it funny that they took a common math term, misspelled it, and then Trademarked it, so reversed generic, that is again reverting to a common term!?] ◄:)
I’ve read a little bit about trademark, Jerry. From what I’ve discovered, when a product first comes on the market and is trademarked or branded, it is the responsibility of the trademark owner to protect that brand name (and associated slogan). If the owner does not protect the trademark (i.e. send cease & desist letters, sue infringers, etc.), and the brand name gets used widely, the trademark owner actually loses the trademark. The list of names you’ve provided may fall into this category, although I think Band-Aid tries really hard to hang onto its trademark name, which is why other brands will use the generic word ‘bandage’ on their packaging. (I have real trouble saying ‘bandage,’ rather than Band-Aid!)