🪄 Synonymous with the entire category

Hey,

The Spells Master is back!

Welcome to the 147th issue.

Today's topics:

1. Synonymous with the entire category

2. A tool to Find Local Business Leads

3. One recommended video on Gross Margins, Net Margins, and Pricing

Synonymous with the entire category

When a brand becomes so popular that its name is used to describe an entire category of products or services, it's called genericization.

For example, you don't say search it. You say "Google it."

You don't say lets get a ride-sharing service. That's too many words. You say "Let's Uber it."

This happens when a brand name is so well-known that it's used as the name for the entire category.

Genericization can be a sign of success for a brand, as it means that the public has widely accepted it.

However, it can also be a concern for businesses, as the brand may lose its recognition if it goes too broad.

Countless companies have made their brand name synonymous with the entire category.

1. Aspirin → Pain reliever

2. Band-Aid → Adhesive bandages

3. Bubble Wrap → Air bubble packaging

4. Cellophane → Transparent wrapping

5. ChapStick → Lip balm

6. Dumpster → Large waste container

7. Escalator → Moving staircase

8. Fiberglass → Glass-reinforced plastic

9. Frisbee → Flying disc

10. Google → Internet search

11. Heroin → Opioid drug

12. Hula Hoop → Toy hoop

13. Jacuzzi → Hot tub

14. Jet Ski → Personal watercraft

15. Kerosene → Fuel oil

16. Kleenex → Facial tissues

17. Laundromat → Self-service laundry

18. Linoleum → Floor covering

19. Photoshop → Image editing

20. Ping Pong → Table tennis

21. Popsicle → Ice pop

22. Post-it → Sticky notes

23. Q-tips → Cotton swabs

24. Rollerblade → Inline skates

25. Scotch tape → Clear adhesive tape

26. Styrofoam → Extruded polystyrene foam

27. Super Glue → Cyanoacrylate adhesive

28. Taser → Stun gun

29. Thermos → Vacuum flask

30. Tupperware → Plastic food container

31. Uber → Ride-hailing service

32. Vaseline → Petroleum jelly

33. Velcro → Hook-and-loop fastener

34. Xerox → Photocopying

35. Yo-yo → Spinning toy

36. Zamboni → Ice resurfacing machine

37. Zipper → Slide fastener

38. Ziploc → Resealable plastic bag

Many everyday words were once trademarked brand names, including:

1. Aspirin → Pain Reliever

2. Escalator → Moving Staircase

3. Kerosene → Fuel Oil

4. Linoleum → Floor Covering

5. Zipper → Slide fastener

A tool to Find Local Business Leads

Openmart is a powerful tool designed to streamline the process of finding local business leads.

Think of it as a specialized search engine of Google Maps or Yelp, tailored specifically for sales professionals.

You can use this tool to find clients for your agency based business. The local the lead, the better it is. People trust proximity especially if you can go in-person to build rapport.

One recommended video on Gross Margins, Net Margins, and Pricing

This video covers Gross Margins, Net Margins, and Pricing with examples.

Small margin increases can significantly impact the bottom line. Many businesses undersell their services and never increase their prices due to lack of knowledge.

Higher prices allows you to charge more and hire better people to deliver better products.

Top Tweets of the day

1/

AI now enables anyone to create basic apps, with coders able to develop even more complex applications like a full-blown video editor.

2/

Current feature on every social platform is about pushing short-form videos. So it makes sense to build an app that helps create short-form videos faster without much effort.

There are so many competitors and most of them have growth stories of going from $0 to $1m ARR in 6 months using affiliates and influencers like Submagic reaching $83k MRR in 90 days.

3/

Good products can fail if you don't nail your messaging. This short video tells you everything you need to know about improving your messaging.

Rabbit Holes

1. Everyone thinks Facebook killed MySpace, but the real assassin was Google—using its monopoly to dismantle us piece by piece. If it could happen to the world’s largest website, it could happen to anyone - This is one hell of a narrative that isn't far-fetched with reality of startups. You only need to watch Founders (2016) to see how ruthless a founder can be. Dave Chappelle has a great bit on it that ends with a great punchline, "Don't ever come between a man and his meal."

2. AppSumo’s Multimillion Dollar Marketing Playbook - AppSumo managed to stay alive for 10+ years and it made around $80m in 2023 alone.

3. Maven's Lightning Lessons - Lightning Lessons on a Cohort-Based Platform are like Mini-Courses. You get the best 80/20 of a course author on a particular topic. And its all curated.

Until next time,

Your Spells Master!

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Read all the old case studies here.

More Startup Spells 🪄

1. Atomic Habit's Secret Marketing Hack (LINK)

2. Soulja Boy, A HipHop Marketing Genius (LINK)

3. How JotBot grew to $50k MRR in 6 months using Super Long Domains (LINK)