A Long List Of Words In Our Brains That Brands Own

The average American knows about 12,000 words (though Shakespeare was said to have had known 66,000) — the best brands are ones that own the most market share of a couple of those words.

CNN owns “news” in my brain. When I think of “reggae,” it’s Bob Marley — he owns it. There’s an awesome analysis of this in Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind (they discuss the concept of ladders (product categories) in your brain with room for just a handful of rungs (brands) — it’s the primary reason I voted it one of the Top 20 Best Business Books Of All Time!).

Who cares? Well, if your business wants market share of something, you have to decide which words you are going to try to “own” in my brain. 

In fact, Positioning argues that your brain can’t think of more than 5 to 7 brands/rungs in each category/ladder.

Since I love Top Lists, I thought I’d share with you this list of brands that I believe own important words in our brain (at least in my American brain).

Note: Many of these brands (like Band-Aid, Kleenex and Google) are also on my list of “The Top 100 Genericized Brands”).

Brands That Own Key Words In My Brain

Internet & Software

• “E-commerce” is owned by Amazon
• “Job Boards” is owned by Monster
• “Music” is owned by iTunes
• “Online Auction” is owned by eBay
• “Search” is owned by Google
• “Social Network” (and perhaps “Friends” is owned by Facebook
• “Software (Cloud) is owned by Salesforce
• “Software (Enterprise) is owned by Oracle
• “Software (PC)” is owned by Microsoft
• “Web Video” is owned by YouTube

Content & Media

• “Business News (Print)” is owned by The Wall Street Journal
• “Business News (TV)” is owned by CNBC
• “Children’s Books” is owned by Dr. Seuss
• “Digitally Animated Movies” is owned by Pixar
• “Encyclopedia” is owned by Wikipedia (though it used to be owned by Encyclopedia Britannica)
• “Family Entertainment” is owned by Disney
• “Glass Cleaner” is owned by Windex
• “News” is owned by CNN
• “Radio Entertainment” is owned by Howard Stern
• “Radio Politics” is owned by Rush Limbaugh
• “Restaurant Reviews (Internet)” is owned by Yelp
• “Restaurant Reviews (Print)” is owned by Zagat (now owned by Google)
• “Sports Information (Internet) is owned by ESPN
• “Sports Information (Print” is owned by Sports Illustrated

TV

• “Comedy Skits” is owned by Saturday Night Live
• “Music (TV)” is owned by MTV
• “Sports Entertainment” is owned by ESPN

Food

• “Cheese” is owned by Velveeta
• “Dijon Mustard” is owned by Grey Poupon
• “Hot Sauce” is owned by Tabasco
• “White Bread” is owned by Wonder Bread

Beverages

• “Beer” is owned by Budweiser
• “Dark Beer” is owned by Guinness
• “Soda” is owned by Coke
• “Sparkling Wine” is owned by Champagne (region of France)
• “Sparkling Water” is owned by Perrier

Consumer Goods

• “Bandage” is owned by Band-Aid
• “BBQ Grill” is owned by “Weber”
• “Cereal” is owned by Cheerios
• ‘Sunglasses” is owned by Ray-Bans
• “Tissues” is owned by Kleenex

Apparel

• “Jeans” is owned by Levi’s
• “Sportswear (work-out clothing)” is owned by Nike

Automotive

• “Car Rental” is owned by Hertz
• “Car Share” is owned by Zip Car
• “Hybrid Car” is owned by Prius
• “Moped” is owned by Vespa
• “Motorycyle” is owned by Harley Davidson
• “Small Car” is owned by Mini-Cooper or the Smart Car (though it used to be the VW Bug!)

Music

• “Cello” is owned by Yo-Yo Ma
• “Electric Guitar” is owned by Fender
• “Portable Music Player” is owned by iPod (though it used to be owned by the Sony Walkman)
• “Reggae” is owned by Bob Marley

Animals

• “Duck” is owned by Disney’s Donald Duck
• “Mouse” is owned by Disney’s Mickey-Mouse.

Toys

• “Female Doll” is owned by Barbie
• “Male Doll” is owned by GI Joe

Retail

• “Fast Food” is owned by McDonalds
• “Coffee Out” or “Coffee To-Go”  is owned by Starbucks

Misc.

• “Auto-Racing” is owned by NASCAR
• “Golf Balls” is owned by Titleist
• “Jewelry” is owned by Tiffany’s
• “Triathlon” is owned by Ironman

Locations

• “Freedom” is owned by the USA
• “Gambling” is owned by Las Vegas
• ” Movies” is owned by Hollywood
• “Movies (Indian)” is owned by Bollywood
• “Neutral” is owned by the Swiss
• “Theatre” is owned by Broadway
• “Technology” is owned by Silicon Valley
• “Technology (New York)” is owned by Silicon Alley

Which words in my brain does your brand own?

Note: I’ll try to do a separate post on advice for owning words in the brain.