تکامل برندهای عمومی در بازارهای صنعتی: چالش هایی برای صاحبان ارزش ویژه برند

The paper suggests that generic brands can develop in industrial markets as easily as they can in consumer goods markets. It briefly examines the issue of branding in industrial markets and then describes the problems that firms can face if their brand name becomes used in a generic manner. It suggests actions that such firms can take as responses to this situation.

The issue of branding in industrial markets has received little attention relative to that accorded to it in consumer markets. It is therefore not surprising that the problems that arise in industrial markets when a brand name becomes used as a generic term are seldom discussed. However, they can be as significant for industrial firms as for a consumer goods firm as the case of Sortex illustrates.

The threat of a brand name becoming used in a generic fashion is always present and so a company must take steps to try to avoid its occurrence. This involves identifying the problem and then determining what action to take. As Table 3 indicates, it is necessary regularly to monitor the use of a brand name so that action can be taken as soon as there is any evidence of the name starting to be used generically. However, it is apparent that, sometimes, evidence that this is occurring is not noted or that the generic use of the name develops a momentum that cannot be stopped. Where this occurs, then the alternatives considered in Section 7 above need to be evaluated.Reaching the appropriate decision regarding a company's response to the use of its brand name in a generic manner is difficult. Inevitably, a number of assumptions and ‘guesstimates’ will have to be made. Even a large firm, which might have the resources to carry out a thorough assessment of the costs associated with each policy and the likelihood of their being successful, will still have to reach a decision on the basis of a high degree of uncertainty. For a small firm with limited resources, the decision will necessarily be based almost entirely on managerial judgement for the cost of even the simple market survey proposed in Table 3 may be too great for it to be undertaken. Again, even a large firm may question the wisdom of defending a brand name, once it has become a generic term, because to do so may incur the expenditure of large amounts of time and money with relatively little probability of successfully re-establishing the integrity of the brand's name. For a small firm, the costs will almost certainly be too great. In spite of this, it would seem wise to reach a conscious decision. Then, at least, all staff will know the context within which they are operating and know what the company policy is when confronted with any of the many issues that can impinge on a company whose brand name is now being use as a generic term.