The BIG Kahuna

Band-Aid – Rollerblade – Kleenex – Xerox – Branding So Strong It Goes Bad?

I was watching TV last night when a Band-Aid commercial came on. The words went something like this: I am stuck on Band-Aid Brand cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me, I am stuck on Band-Aid Brand cause Band-Aid helps heal me. Wow, bummer huh? Band-Aid’s branding is so strong it’s the norm. So now they have to say Band-Aid Brand when mentioning their name. Otherwise they could lose their trademark. Doesn’t everyone call any sticky covering device a Band-Aid?

Look at their logo; they have Band-Aid BRAND right in it:

  

 

The same goes for Rollerblade Kleenex

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and Xerox .

 

Their brand identity is so strong they have to now use the word Brand in their marketing and advertising. I guess it’s worth the price to pay to have that type of brand recognition. But the flip side is you don’t want people calling your brand name their product name. When someone goes to the copy machine the last thing you want to hear is that they are making a Xerox while they push the button on an Ikon!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 10:23 am and is filed under Branding News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Band-Aid – Rollerblade – Kleenex – Xerox – Branding So Strong It Goes Bad?”

1. Harry Webber Says:
   August 15th, 2007 at 1:24 pm

   Hi Scott,

   As the creator of the “I’m Stuck On Band-Aid Brand” campaign at Y&RNY (Now with the current retread, America’s longest running ad campaign) I can tell you that it took Mike Becker and I 8 months of all-out war to get the lawyers at J&J to settle for just using the “Brand” tag in the first mention of the name. If they had their way the song would have gone like this. “I am stuck on Band-Aid Brand, ’cause Band-Aid Brand is stuck on me.”.
   And in my humble opinion the campaign would have lasted a few weeks and been forgotten. And the brand would have suffered because the message of a stronger advesive with less mass transfer to combat the Curad “Ouchless” claim would have fallen on deaf ears.

   Harry Webber

2. martialarts dummy Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 9:34 pm

   How often do you yourself Rollerblade or do you just write about it?

   Can I ask though – how did you get this picked up and into google news?

   Very impressive that this blog is syndicated through Google and is it something that is just up to Google or you actively created?

   Obviously this is a popular blog with great data so well done on your seo success..

   Rollerblading greats you should write about next.

3. Kellee Says:
   October 27th, 2008 at 8:47 am

   Well written article.

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