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Deciphering The Indecipherable — The Dictionary of Branding
Welcome to the Scarcliff | Salvador Dictionary of Branding, the
most comprehensive glossary of branding and naming on the Web. Our
goal is to produce and maintain an up-to-date record of the terms
of art in use in our field, including the latest branding concepts,
naming styles and techniques, tagline types, and commercially-useful
linguistics terms.
Each entry is cross-referenced if appropriate and includes examples
from the marketplace wherever possible. Please contact us with your
suggested additions and corrections.
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Genericide (trademark law)
The process by which a trademark becomes synonymous with its associated
category, to the point it may cease to be protectable. Although
Xerox is a brand name, it is often used to refer to any copied
document, and a verb has been created from it: 'to xerox' means
'to photocopy'. To a trademark attorney, genericide is a major headache;
to a marketing professional, it's “a good problem to have”.
It means your offering is dominating your category, and you'll have
to take care to always pair the name with a existing or new category
descriptor. Rollerblade, for example, always pairs its products
with the category descriptor ‘inline skates’.
Gerund (linguistics, naming)
In English, the verbal form ending in ‘-ing’, conveying
the meaning of the verb but used as a noun. The commercial advantage
of this sort of name is its immediacy; Martha Stewart Living
magazine is a case in point.
Gynonym (naming, verbal branding)
Any brand name with a distinctively feminine tonality. The Gillette
Venus razor is an example of a gynonym. Compare Andronym.
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