Think about it, do you have an MP3 Player or an iPod? Once a year (max), do you get out the hoover or the vacuum cleaner? Numerous brands have become synonymous with what they do and while some are still enjoying the leverage (eg Google, Coke, Tipp-Ex), others have wallowed away, victims of their own success – like Band-Aid, though Bob Geldof had already marked their card.
Escalator, thermos and aspirin were too once brand names that managed to define the product category, eroding the brand to a point where it lost its value. That said, Google is rapidly expanding into new areas, determined not to become a footnote in brand genericization history but instead with its sights set firmly on world domination. Like Pinky and the Brain, only funnier.
