Mind share: Encyclopedia II - Mind share - Dominant mind share

Mind share - Dominant mind share

A brand may achieve dominant mind share when it is associated with a whole category of products, but has not necessarily become a generic term for these products. For example, Kleenex may sometimes be used to describe any facial tissue product, but retains it status as a proprietary trademark.

Other examples include Hoover, which has long been synonymous with vacuum cleaners; Dyson, which subsequently achieved similar status with a more sophisticated model of vacuum cleaner; and the internet search engine provided by Google, from which the term "googling" was derived to describe the act of "on line searching".

A trademark with dominant mind share may also be known as a genericized trademark. However, where the mark becomes the generic term for a product, it no longer has mind share because consumers do not associate it with a specific business. Classic examples include aspirin, escalator and mimeograph (see genericized trademark for more).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dominant mind share", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki