In response to Dan's post...

Dan talked about schools facing budgets cuts that have decided to allow companies to sponsor them. The companies are allowed to place ads in exchange for funds for the schools. He asks,

Was it acceptable for this school to accept the funding from these advertisements? Should advertisements that send children the wrong message even be allowed in schools in the first place?

I believe, like with any advertising campaign, there is a fine line between acceptable and unacceptable. If companies can put their ads on the sides of buses or on outdoor scoreboards, I don't see that as a problem. As soon as the ads invade the learning environment, they have gone too far. As Dan said, kids are impressionable. Why do you think there are laws against advertising cigarettes and alcohol to kids? 

That being said, schools need funds to operate. I know my high school had a lot of budget problems. It was practically impossible to get a new budget passed, and we were behind in terms of supplies and technology. We certainly would have benefited from newer equipment. That being said, I wouldn't have liked it if my school had to run advertisements with the morning announcements, hand out product flyers, or add product plugs to the teaching lessons. Those are over exaggerations of course, but companies have been known to go above and beyond what is considered ok. As the phrase goes, 'give them an inch, and they'll take a mile."

Do you think companies should be allowed to advertise in schools, or that schools should be allowed to take outside sponsorship? Where do you think the line gets drawn?

Genericization

When you cut yourself, what do you do? You reach for a Band-Aid, not a bandage. This is called 'genericization', and it is something that Apple is dealing with now. Making a company's product synonymous with the actual product poses both benefits and hazards.

Can you name all these tablets? Probably not.

On one side, the product becomes a household name. Asprin, Band-Aid, and Kleenex are all examples of this. Their products have come to define entire market for pain killers, bandages, and tissues, respectively. The same is happening to Apple's iPad. When people think of tablets, the first one they think of is the iPad. This gives Apple an instant advantage over competitors.

The downfall comes when a product becomes too generic, and competitors can use the product name to their benefit; zipper, yo-yo, and escalator are all examples of this.

The biggest issues that companies like Apple face is in the balance. They must get their brand to become a household name, while at the same time distinguishing it from competitors and generic knockoffs. What other products have fallen prey to this generification? How can companies increase brand awareness while not becoming overexposed or generic?

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