When a Product Brand IS the Category… and Then Vanishes

In August 2023, something fascinating happened in Canada: Kimberly-Clark announced it would stop selling Kleenex tissues here.

Let that sink in.

In my country, people with a runny nose don’t ask for a tissue.

They ask for a kleenex. The brand name is so embedded in our culture that it became the generic term for the entire product category – and has been since the 1920s.

Yet the very brand that defines the category is gone from our shelves.

This linguistic phenomenon, where a brand name becomes the common term for a product type, is called a “proprietary eponym.”

Think about “googling” something, or asking for a Band-Aid. In France, people used to say they were taking “un kodak” rather than a photograph. I remember my grandparents using that brand name interchangeably with “camera.”

Similarly, people referred to photocopying as “xeroxing.” We sipped hot chocolate from a ”thermos.” Your doctor told you to “Take two ‘aspirin’ and call me in the morning.”

Proprietary eponyms, all of them.

But here’s where it gets really interesting for product makers: Sometimes these category-defining brands disappear, leaving only their linguistic legacy behind.

Kodak dominated photography so thoroughly that its name became synonymous with cameras in many parts of the world. Then (as I wrote about a few days ago) they missed the digital revolution and filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

Now Kleenex joins this curious club – at least in Canada.

While the brand continues elsewhere, sniffling Canadians will keep asking for a “kleenex” even as they reach for a Scotties, Royale, or whatever other tissue brand is at hand.

For product makers, these stories offer a sobering lesson: category dominance – even to the point where your brand name becomes the generic term – doesn’t guarantee longevity.

Markets change. Consumer preferences evolve. Manufacturing and distribution challenges arise.

For Kleenex, the brand name’s margins were picked away by a deluge of generic and house-branded tissues. Parent company Kimberley-Clark decided enough was enough.

And so, the ultimate irony? Your brand might live on in language long after your product has left the market.

And then, of course, the opportunity. If your product is a challenger, even an eternal leader is no longer invincible.

What generic terms do you use that started as brand names? And more importantly, what can we learn from these category-defining brands that lost their market position?