BUS101: Introduction to Business

Armed with positive feedback from their research efforts, the Wow Wee team was ready for the next step: informing buyers – both consumers and retailers – about their product. They needed a brand – some word, letter, sound, or symbol that would differentiate their product from similar products on the market. They chose the brand name Robosapien, hoping that people would get the connection between homo sapiens (the human species) and Robosapien (the company's coinage for its new robot "species"). To prevent other companies from coming out with their own "Robosapiens," they took out a trademark by registering the name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Though this approach – giving a unique brand name to a particular product – is a bit unusual, it isn't unprecedented. Mattel, for example, established a separate brand for Barbie, and Anheuser-Busch sells beer under the brand name Budweiser. Note, however, that the more common approach, which is taken by such companies as Microsoft, Dell, and Apple, calls for marketing all the products made by a company under the company's brand name.