I have a Motorola Razr. It’s a lousy, generic cell phone that I hate.
I call it my “phone”. Like, if I’m looking for the recharger, I say “Darn it, where did I put the charger for my phone?”. I do not say “Darn it, where did I put the charger for my Razr?”. In fact it would sound really weird if I said “where did I put the charger for my Razr?”. It would sound like I was in a commercial or something.
I would guess that most people call their phone a “phone”.
Except for Apple iPhone users. They always call it an “iPhone”. Even if they’re in a hurry. “Darn it, where did I put the charger for my iPhone?”. They never just call it a “phone”.
You see what Apple did there? They somehow convinced us all on a subconscious level that their phone is so different from all other phones that it’s in a category all by itself. Whatever they did, it worked so well that we always refer to their product by its full brand name and not by the short generic term.
Nobody calls an iPod anything but an “iPod”, either. Apple’s been doing this ever since they convinced us that a Mac was somehow in a category of its own, and not just an overpriced high-end PC with a better operating system that was incompatible with everything else (…, he typed on his MacBook Pro.)
Sometimes this kind of thing works too well, and backfires. Like, Sony got everybody to call their Walkman a “Walkman”; but to Sony’s chagrin, we started calling every other portable tape player a “Walkman” too. It became a generic term. But that doesn’t seem to happen with Apple’s stuff. Apple has somehow imprinted their brand identification into our very language. That’s a pretty scary level of marketing savvy, bordering on hypnosis. How do they do that?
December 14, 2009 at 5:42 pm
P.S. I think the “Blackberry” has achieved something similar. But few other devices have.
Like, I like my Nintendo DS, but I always call it a “game boy”, even though that is not technically its name, out of habit, or respect for its ancestors, or something.
December 14, 2009 at 6:35 pm
I call my laptop “my laptop”, even though it’s a macbook pro. I’d call it “my macbook” if it were accurate, but it’s not and “macbook pro” is just too long. I think the ipod/iphone naming genius has a lot to do with simplicity — you’re not going to call an ipod an “mp3 player” or “music player” because “ipod” is just easier.
As for the nintendo DS, I just call mine a “DS”. Two syllables might be the key.
December 14, 2009 at 6:48 pm
I think iPod is in danger of becoming the new walkman. I have heard many people referring to their portable mp3 player as an iPod even though it isn’t.
December 14, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Good point. It is a bit scary that they seem to be able to do this at will. I have certainly called my friend’s iPhones as such, but now that you’ve pointed this out to me, I’m going to see if anyone attempts to correct me when I call it simply “phone”.
December 14, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Interesting blog post. Definitely agree with you on the iPhone/iPod thing.
December 14, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Interesting that you should point that out. Not sure that I buy the syllable argument as I have heard people take the time to say my iPod Touch…I think the key is people are proud to own the iPod brand…
December 14, 2009 at 8:01 pm
dria makes an interesting point about the much-reviled “MacBook Pro” name. My PowerBooks were always “my PowerBook,” yet my MacBook Pro is always “the new laptop”—likely because “MacBook Pro” rolls off the tongue about as well as a truckload of bricks.
The theory I’ve heard is that Apple had some marketing/branding reasons for wanting “Mac” in the name of all of its Mac products (and “Pro” in the names of “professional” models for easier differentiation), but those changes definitely seem to have come with adverse effects as far as our daily-usage reinforcement of the brand.
December 14, 2009 at 8:27 pm
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December 14, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Maybe it’s just because their target market is people who are so insecure they need to attach themselves to brands to make some kind of statement about themselves.
They don’t go for a coffee, they go to Starbucks (with their iPhone obviously) and cross off the ‘drink Starbucks coffee’ entry on page 43 of their Moleskine. Probably with a particular brand of pen.
December 14, 2009 at 10:45 pm
I’ve long wondered why “PC” only refers to computers with Microsoft operating systems, when Macintoshes were personal computers, too.
December 14, 2009 at 11:54 pm
I agree with this post, apart from “we started calling every other portable tape player a “Walkman” too. It became a generic term. But that doesn’t seem to happen with Apple’s stuff.” As Dave said, this happens with people referring to any portable music player as an iPod.
On a car journey: “Does anyone have an iPod?”
“No, but I have this.”
“Yeah, that’s what I meant…”
December 15, 2009 at 12:20 am
I’m sure I’ve heard people refer to their iPhones in a generic sense as “phones”, though I can’t think of any specific instances, but surely they have? The only reason to refer to it as an “iPhone” is when you’re specifically talking about something specific to the iPhone, like a feature or an app, which I presume comprises a fair amount of phone-related talk among iPhone owners.
You nailed it with the Blackberry note, though, which has preceded this “my/your iPhone” business by a long ways. One of the stupidest things that I hear not infrequently is “Okay, so if everyone could please turn off their phones and Blackberries now…” Ugh.
December 15, 2009 at 8:29 am
>I’ve long wondered why “PC” only refers to computers with
>Microsoft operating systems, when Macintoshes were personal
>computers, too.
The reason for that is that IBM came out with the “IBM Personal Computer” which ran Microsoft DOS. It originally only referred to IBM microcomputers. Then non-IBM Microsoft compatible machines running DOS came out and inherited the phrase PC.
December 15, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Sometimes it backfires in strange ways for Apple too, on more than one occasion I have heard friends refer to their iPods as “iTunes”
Don’t companies put a lot of effort into toeing that line between being a household word and too much so? Like Asprin or Xerox, the fear is that your brand name can lose its power and trademark if everyone starts to use it generically. I would suspect that Apple puts a lot of work into managing that in ways we don’t even know.
December 16, 2009 at 9:56 am
I don’t like motorola, the best is IPhone im addected to it
December 16, 2009 at 11:51 am
In my opinion, there are not many consumer product that is uniquely named by its intended brand name and is referred to its intended product.
iPod, iPhone, Mac, are examples of brand name unique to the proudct only.
I guess Apple has achieve its intended branding strategy
cheers
December 18, 2009 at 6:59 pm
ohh blackberry nothing like it
December 25, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Apparently it was a bad idea to title a post “Marketing Genius”, as the title seems to have made this post irresistible catnip for spammers. I’ve filtered out more trackback spam on this post than on all the rest of my posts put together. Might have to close comments now.
December 27, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Although I agree with the general view of the post and am personally annoyed when I hear people call their… whatever (from new gadgests to decades old household appliences) by the brand name, I must point out that the ‘Walkman’ analogy fails:
Sony Walkman was a groundbreaker, the first of it’s kind. It would’ve been more surprising if it wouldn’t have turned into a generic name.
The same happened with ‘PC’ for computers, as some here mentioned:
The DOS operated computers that appeared after the ‘IBM PC’ were “IBM Compatible PC”, which after a time when more brands appear, the most common denominator turned into the generic name.
(I’m guessing it’s also do to the fact that computer users at the time had to be somewhat anal retentive, so most people remembered what PC stands for)
Apple’s genius is marketing (and now, style), branding themselves apart with what I lately see only as a new trick for an old dog.
January 6, 2010 at 1:18 pm
The Motorola Razr isn’t a lousy generic cell phone! It’s still the most beautifully designed phone ever produced.
The software was crap and I was kind of pleased to be rid of it but I still miss snapping it shut at the end of a phone call while saying (in my head) “ciao”.
March 24, 2010 at 12:13 am
The software is rubbish on the Motorola phones. Same as Symbian, really hard to navagate and just plain slow. I have an IPhone now, the interface is fantasic. Gets the job done with no fuss and a natural feel.
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