For a long time, we have not had a term for when a company’s brand becomes synonymous with an action. Today we do: brandverb.
The brandverb you will be most familiar with is Google. When someone says “Google it” or “I got the answer by Googling it” they are using Google as a brandverb. As you can see, the brand “Google” is being used to replace verb “search” becoming a brandverb.
Yesterday, I used Jetblue as a brandverb. While contemplating going out to Los Angeles for New Years, I said “Maybe I’ll Jetblue out there.” Once again, the brand replaced a verb (fly) and became a brandverb. Here is how the term brandverb was born:
[23:49] QuadsZilla: my flight to RIO is on the 4th from JFK
[23:50] QuadsZilla: maybe i’ll jetblue out there
[23:50] QuadsZilla: for like 3 days or something
[23:50] QuadsZilla: if that’s cool
[23:50] Jeff Random: I just made up a word based on your word
[23:50] Jeff Random: brandverb
[23:50] Jeff Random: example jetblue out there
[23:50] Jeff Random: aka to google
[23:50] QuadsZilla: nice
[23:50] QuadsZilla: i like it
[23:50] QuadsZilla: i’ll blog it
If you are going to photocopy something and say “I’ll Xerox it” you have used a brandverb. If you want your maid to vacuum your bachelor pad and ask her to “Hoover the place” you have used a brandverb. When you advise your grandmother to get rid of some junk and say “Ebay that crap, some idiot will buy it” - you have brandverbed ebay.
Want an important signed document delivered to finalize a deal? Fedex it over - you sexy brandverber!
By understanding the power of brandverbing you will become a better marketer. If you are thinking in terms of “How can I brandverb my company?”, your marketing will have a longer term impact. Especially if you brand becomes engrained in culture.
Do you brandverb?
13 Responses to “Do you Brandverb?”
Lets QuadsZilla.. Take a QuadsZilla. Good post. Greets.
Nice word… I might begin to use it.
But for the record, by googling “brandverb” I found one person who used it in the past (on Feb 11th 2004). But given that it almost doesn’t return any results it’s pretty much a new word!
how about a post about blackhat once in a while?
One should be aware that there are legal implications for promoting your registered trademark as a verb. My company was lucky enough to run into this problem and now we need to document efforts to combat it in case anyone challenges our trademark. I suspect this is why Google recently came out and told people not to use their brand as a verb.
Amazing conversation 
I brandverb Google all the time, haven’t noticed doing it with anything else
I could have sworn that Xerox blames “brandverb”ing as what killed their business…. (and not over expensive products that couldn’t compete in an ever increasing competitive market)
I tend to only do that with Google, mostly because when I went to ASU I never made copies, and didn’t familiarize myself with the brand Xerox. I correct people and say they are making copies though, along with the whole Jacuzzi and Kleenex thing…. there are different brands. It works well though if you actually use the brand instead of the generic, xeroxing to me is like saying I will google it on yahoo.
simple, & fucking brilliant.
There is a term for this already. It is called Trademark Genericide….and its not necessarily good for branding because you can legally LOOSE your trademark name if it becomes used too much. You must show effort to stop Trademark Genericde to keep your trademark name. I can see where your going as to why it could have positive effects, but i think if it gets past a certain point you loose your branding all together. “Though litigation is certainly not called for in every case, a trademark owner must actively and aggressively police the use of its mark to protect its value.” From http:// ecommercelaw. typepad.com/ ecommerce_law/2006/07/avoiding_tradem.html (Take out spaces, Not my site but a good article.)
Brandverbing is not always a good thing - you don’t want your web directory to get Bluefound!
Brandverbing is retarded. _You_ can’t make your brand a verb, your users and only your users can bring it into common usage, unless you pay off a bunch of legitimate journalists.
[…] During an online conversation I recently came up with the word Brandverb. […]
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http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=us&lc=en&ver=4000&template=ph1&zone=ph
- someone is trying but i don’t think they quite got it