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Promotion Planning And Techniques
A trademark, by definition, must meet three fundamental requirements to be legally protectable:
- It must consist of a device, symbol, name, word or any of these combinations that has been
found registrable by law as a valid mark. - A mark must be adopted and used by a manufacturer or a merchant.
- The mark must identify and distinguish goods sold or manufactured by one individual
from those of another.
HIERARCHY OF REGISTRABLE TRADEMARKS
A basic requirement for choosing a valid mark is to select one that can be federally registered, which
eliminates marks that are deceptive, immoral, disparaging, confusing or constitute a generic term.
Researchers have identified a hierarchy for determining eligibility for registration; in a descending order
of protection, these categories are – fanciful, arbitrary, suggestive, descriptive and generic.
- FANCIFUL: Is specially designed with clear own identity, it is highly protectable such
a s “ K o d a k ”. - ARBITRARY: Is a brand identity based on opinion or impulse only. For example, canoe soap.
- SUGGESTIVE: Is a brand identity suggesting product performance or attribute such as
Eveready b atte r y. - DESCRIPTIVE: Is a brand identity that describes product or relate to the products
functional features which attains a secondary meaning, that is, a meaning different from
what it is primarily known to be, for example Ivory. They are usually less protectable by
law because of identification difficulty. - GENERIC: Brand names derived from basic or generic components of the product which
differs from other competitor’s brand, such as Aspirin. It is usually very difficult to secure
legal protection for trademarks under this category because of the generic nature.
BRAND NAME SELECTION PROCESS
The brand name selection process consists of six steps:
- Identifying objectives and criteria for brand names.
- Generation of registrable brand names.
- Screening for the appropriateness to the firm’s image or its product image.
- Researching consumer choices, opinions and brand name acceptability.
- Searching for a trademark, to ensure it has not been used by someone else.
- Selecting the trademark.