Nouns to Verbs

: Sherrie Perkovich

The ultimate in “free advertising" comes when your brand is synonymous with the product. This can be considered the holy grail of marketing = you achieve brand enlightenment.

This is what I like to call a "noun" brand. Brands themselves went from being a proper noun to being a common noun. Let me illustrate...

Kleenex = facial tissue
Band-Aid = adhesive bandage
Xerox = photo copy
Vasoline = petroleum jelly

In today's world, common nouns are.. well... common. It's all about action these days. Customers/consumers demanding more from everything they consume. CEOs demanding more ROI out of their marketing and advertising. With that we've gone from creating nouns to creating verbs. And at the very root of the word "verb" is action itself. Again, allow me to illustrate...

Google = online searching
Digg = bookmarking
Yelp = providing your opinion
Mapquest = getting directions
Tweet = microblogging
Facebook = become my friend

So what's next you may ask? Verbal nouns and verbal adjectives of course!