34 Business View - January 2016
Ziebart International
Corporation
Worldwide leader of automotive aftermarket products and services
When a company’s name becomes synonymous with
the product or a service that it provides, it’s said that its
brand has become “genericized.” This happens when
the company, itself, or one of its products, becomes
so ingrained in consumers’ minds, that they conflate
it with the general product category or specific service
that it represents. For example, Jacuzzi is only a type
of hot tub – not all of them, but people enjoy “taking a
Jacuzzi.” Kleenex is a brand of tissue – there are oth-
ers, but people ask for a Kleenex. And Google is a com-
pany that invented a search engine - not a verb that
means to look for something while surfing the internet.
FRANCHISE
