Verbification.

We used to Xerox, we used to Hoover, we used to Superglue, we used to Whiteout and we used to Windex. Now we Google, now we Skype, now we FaceTime and we Photoshop. The "ubiquibility" (I've already used verbification, so why not keep making em up?) of brand names to enter the lexicon as everyday verbs has long been the aim of marketers everywhere who see this as the pinnacle of success. When a brand name becomes synonymous with a clearly defined use or action, the passage from noun to verb becomes complete. With thousands of brands created daily, it becomes more difficult to stand out and this is where marketing departments concentrate action on trying to "verbify" but sometimes no matter how much marketing you throw at the public, it doesn't add up, when was the last time you Binged something?

Today there are opposing arguments about the benefits of brand ubiquity to the extent of being "verbified" (we continue to play with the English language). Certainly the ability to become omnipresent helps the bottom line via sales of the product but if you lose control of your intellectual property, "genericide" ( losing the legal power of a trademark), can be an even bigger risk. Just because you say you will get some Kleenex or Windex or Aspros at the supermarket, doesn't mean you'll come home with those particular brands, after all how many tissue products are there and what is the difference between the dozens of headache tablets on display?

This is the problematic consequence companies like Xerox, who ran campaigns for publishers asking them to use the term "photocopy" instead of the brand name, have had to content with. Even Google, the fastest company to be "verbified" and admitted to the Webster dictionary as a verb, has maintained its "trademark is to be used as an adjective only, never as a noun or verb, and never in the plural form. Always to have a generic term following the trademark, example: Google search or Google web search." In its approach, Google is trying to make clear that the action of "Googling" cannot be made without the proprietary product being used.

This now becomes the pinnacle of marketing success, where the brand verb gives you no option but to use the product. Some have success because they are market leaders and "I'll Facebook you" has no alternative but to use Zuckerberg's site, while others like FedEx work hard to differentiate themselves from the opposition so that "FedExing" can only mean using one service.

The discussions that lead on from brand ubiquity to individual marketing, so important in today's social media, have similar challenges and it is even more important to keep your intellectual property safe guarded, so your name, your brand doesn't become synonymous with something you don't want to stand for. "To do a Bradbury" has long been in the Australian vernacular, a verbalisation of being the unlikely winner of a contest and has come to mean more about keeping going and never giving up. Such is the power of individual "verbification". What are you good at?