Generic Brands

Let me begin by confessing that yes, brands have become synonymous to the product range that they once endorsed which in turn announces the importance and strength of a brand and their recall among the TG , this very statement of mine fuels my future discussion on to a strangest phenomena of numerous companies who once sowed the seed of a successful brand and watered the same with patience, efforts and money but failed to taste the fruits of the same. In general the phenomena I am trying to endorse is Generic Brands, and companies failing to capitalize on the visible success of the same.

To name a few, lets begin with the Classic; XEROX which replaced the noun photocopier from the dictionaries of most of middle class Indian (can’t declare much about other nations). The success of any brand in such fashion has always been gone in vain coz masters of such brands have miserably failed to sustain the edge that these brands created, Xerox gradually loosing out market share to Canon photocopiers is a evidence in this context.

Another contender joining the league of such brands in the Indian context is the well know disinfectant Dettol, the brand not only once enjoyed domination in the market but also commanded monopoly, bearing all signs of a generic brand, Reckitt Benekiser the company that owned the brand gradually slipped into a phase of complacency blinded by the persistent success of the brand the creator of one of the iconic brand shuts itself from the market dynamics that was brewing only to realize that it now had company in the form of Savlon from Novartis .. is this a common phenomena that all successful brand have to result in or is this is just failure of companies to look into the future and constantly nurture its brands. ??? Only time will answer our sophisticated yet inescapable questions.

Guest Author