House marks and its hidden importance.

By Giselle Ayala Mateus and Daniela Iguaran

Think about your top-of-mind brands in the detergent category, what comes to your mind first? It may be Tide or Persil, but I am pretty sure you don’t really know what is the company or brand that manufactures and distributes these products. Well, in the case of products that are part of the large portfolio of goods this is not uncommon. That brand that consumers recognize to select several products produce or manufactured by the same company is a “House mark” The concept of “House Mark” refers to a trademark used through the company’s commercial operation to promote several products in the same general category. A house mark can be a random designation or the name of the Company in charge of the design, production, distribution, and control over the product that goes directly to the consumer when there are many intermediates involved in the process of production. This is the typical case of enterprises like APPLE or, in our detergent example, P&G or HENKEL.

A house mark does not identify a particular product. While independent and specific trademarks are used to distinguish each product in the market, the house mark identifies the provider of various classes of goods or services, covering those that are traded under specific marks. For example, in the case of cleaning products for the home, PROCTER & GAMBLE…