When I grow up, I want to be a verb.
When Microsoft Corp. recently launched the most recent evolution of its Web search project, the name drew mixed reviews. “Bing” was an odd choice. (One blogger wondered why Microsoft had named its search engine after the most passive-aggressive character on the sitcom Friends.)
One of the prominent rationales for the choice, according to Microsoft head honcho Steve Ballmer, was the name’s potential to “verb up.”
The trend toward brands becoming verbs is a recent one, and it’s been largely confined to the search space. In fact, it’s pretty much become a necessity for any kind of market share in search. Have you ever AltaVista’d anything? Of course not. You Googled it. And that’s why Google is king and for most of us AltaVista is a vague memory.
Do you Yahoo? Sure you do. (Read that one aloud; it’s fun.)
Will you be Binging something in the near future? Time will tell.
This is a break with branding tradition. In the old days, once a year, every newsroom would receive a letter on behalf of the legal department of some company whose product risked becoming a generic: “When referencing in print, remember that Kleenex® is capitalized and should be followed by the registered trademark symbol,” or words to that effect. Fridgidaire and Aspirin also sent periodic reminders. It must have cost a fortune in postage.
The reason was this: Legally, a company must be able to show evidence that it is aggressively protecting its brand from other uses, or it risks losing it and allowing the brand to become a generic.
In tech, Xerox Corp. fought an uphill battle against the generic. Photocopies were long referred to as Xeroxes. (Brand protection seems to be built into my word processor; it won’t let me start the word with a lower-case “x,” auto-correcting to the capital.) And interestingly, it’s one of the first examples of a brand becoming a verb.
Why is it so prevalent in the search arena? At risk of overstating the obvious, search, like photocopying, is active, not passive. You get up and Xerox something. When you need to know, you Google it. We can PhotoShop a picture. But then, why don’t we Word a document or Outlook a message?
It’s something to consider, especially relevant as Ottawa will begin to debate (again) changes to the Copyright Act to bring it into line with the realities of the “digital millennium.” Successful branding has become about sharing the brand, whereas it used to be about guarding it. It’s collaborative marketing, with users becoming the oft-unwitting collaborator. Companies that understand that will win. Companies that don’t? Well, here’s the Kleenex®.
