Comments on: Brand Paranoia – Is it going a little too far?

By: Ankit

Ankit — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:10:41 +0000

@prats

True!! On second thoughts, emotional does not go with professional!! The words of the great Gordon gecko:) Saw it thanks to u!!

By: Prats

Prats — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:14:35 +0000

@Sumedh: True, and actually it makes all the more difficult for small companies or startups as they can be bullied this way.

By: Prats

Prats — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:13:31 +0000

@Ankit: Repeating myself the point here is when a person search for Cayman and lands on the Croc’s Cayman page he is not going to be confused that the shoe is actually not a car or vice versa. Secondly if they are so steady about their brands I believe that they do their SEO right and have an appropriate description & summary with the site. And if the Croc Cayman lists first on the search and the Porsche Cayman on page 7 then Porsche needs to do its homework and the answer is in Online marketing not the law suits.

By: Prats

Prats — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:08:13 +0000

@DPI: Thats shocking indeed… and its actually taking it a step further towards being a paranoid. I am afraid windows might drop the color magenta from their color pallet for the compliance.

By: Sumedh

Sumedh — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:37:39 +0000

Well said Pratik! This trend of nonsense law suits will surely deter people from coining innovative names… :(

By: Ankit

Ankit — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:50:24 +0000

Interesting examples Prats!! I din know about the Crocs one.Yes, the brand thing does get a little far.But, I have a contrarian take.

Brand is a crucial element and when companies spend millions of dollars and time in creating a brand a certain way , it is too risky to have the brand diluted even when the product segment is totally unrelated.More than the paranoia, i envision these cases as the companies trying to signal it to the world that their Brand is not to be played around with.If they allow , then there are chances that companies with a similar product line might one day try using the same brand name.
Consider this from a real time advertising perspective.

If someone searches for Caymen and lands up on the Crocs page, then thats a serious problem, aint it. hence, i think its imperative tht companies go tht extra mile to protect their brand entity:)
but u are right in the case of makemytrip case, that is a clear case of brand paranoia cos the Tata term is too generic to be associated with a single entity.

As for the Amul analogy i totally dig it!!

By: dpi

dpi — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:59:27 +0000

Slowly brand name war started in India also. I read many reports and blog posts in the US , EU and Australia like this. Pl read the following link for a ~~shocking~~ interesting news