#50: Revisiting When a Brand Becomes a Verb
Which brands didn’t achieve the holy grail of omnipresence?
Author’s Note: Hard to believe, today marks the 50th edition of Relentlessly Curious. What started as a three-month creative pursuit has turned into a twice-per week technology and media publication, with more people subscribing after every release. I’m grateful to everyone who has taken the time to read my articles. New things are on the way for the Relentlessly Curious Substack in the coming weeks!
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Stay Relentlessly Curious,
Greg
Now onto regularly scheduled programming.
Uber, Venmo, and Google are all brands that have become commonly used verbs. “I’ll Uber there”, “Venmo me later”, or “Google it” are phrases that have replaced their generic alternative in society. In fact, their names provide clearer context than generic phrases like “I’ll take a car there, ”pay me back,” or “look it up”.
We went into detail on what makes these brands’ names catch fire in When a Brand Becomes a Verb. As a refresher, key components of achieving omnipresent name status include a world-class product, solving a universal problem, and growth through network effects.
Besides those mentioned above, plenty of other brands have become verbs, like Slack, Photoshop, and Snapchat. Coincidentally, all these brands sell technology products, huh? Technology tends to become more useful as more people use it, which makes scaling through network effects a major priority for these businesses.
But there are also many brands that didn’t quite turn their name into a verb. Many that had the potential yet were missing something. Let’s chat through a few brands that fall in the “almost” category.
Blade, the luxury helicopter service, was in the news recently as they sold off their passenger division to focus on their core revenue driver. Take a guess at what that is. Yep, medical services and logistics.
They fooled me. Blade was the helicopter service you took if you were looking to arrive in style. As well as saving a ton of time waiting in rush hour traffic. Blade became synonymous with the premier mode of transportation from New York City to the Hamptons. Anything authentically associated with the Hamptons instantly gains premium brand status.
“Maybe I should Blade there?” was a thought that crossed my mind several times before flights to JFK airport. For $200, you could travel from Manhattan’s West Side to your terminal in 30 minutes.
Candidly, I never pulled the trigger after realizing that you get to JFK airport from the west-side in 45 minutes for under $15, courtesy of the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) from Penn Station. Trains usually don’t get caught in rush hour traffic. And yes, this is a classic NYC pro tip. Don’t Uber to JFK during rush hour or you’ll likely miss your flight.
“Blad-ing” didn’t take off, and pun intended, it certainly had branding potential. Blade struggled because it didn’t solve a universal problem in a practical way.
To achieve verb status, a brand’s product needs to have a large total addressable market (TAM). Although many hate traffic, few can afford $200 to $1,000 or more for a one-way ride. Especially if it’s preceding another expensive ticket (i.e. a flight). Their service had utility but was reserved for the wealthy or those looking to splurge. Not a large enough TAM for a brand to become a commonly used verb.
Maybe Blade is on its way to becoming a verb in the medical community. Who knows?
The zero-interest rate policy (ZIRP) era spawned plenty of ridiculous business ideas. Especially peak-ZIRP, which was 2020 through 2021. For example, companies promising 15-minute grocery delivery with no existing infrastructure in the cities they entered.
Getir, originally founded in Turkey, took the US by storm in 2021, expanding rapidly in major cities (like New York) with eye-popping discounts. Seventy percent off groceries delivered in 15 minutes? Sign me up.
I used Getir about half a dozen times and was always impressed with their speed and end state of what I ordered (fruit and vegetables weren’t squished). I really do enjoy grocery shopping, however with the convenience and price Getir provided, it was hard to pass up such a deal.
Getir wasn’t the only grocery delivery company to emerge during the ZIRP era. Remember Jokr and Gorillas? Haven’t heard their names in years.
Unfortunately, these companies had to raise prices and cut discounts as their business models proved unprofitable. The cost to build a sticky customer base at scale was just too much. By 2024, Getir, Jokr, and Gorillas had shut down operations in the US.
A name like Getir is poised to become a popular verb. In the Turkish language, it actually is a verb, meaning “bring”. I could have seen “Getir milk for me” being a common phrase in urban households. If Getir had been able to hook customers on their convenience, I believe they would have had a real chance. For what it’s worth, Instacart has successfully offered grocery delivery; however, it usually takes about two hours to arrive based on personal experience.
Getir solved a universal problem through convenience, but I don’t think their product was world-class. Ultimately, people were drawn more to the steep discounts than the core service, leading to too many price-sensitive customers. A great product is typically price inelastic, meaning users stick with it despite reasonable price increases.
They might have succeeded by offering reliable 1-to-2-hour delivery like Instacart, but at slightly lower prices. If 15-minute delivery causes customers to abandon the service as soon as discounts disappear, the product is not strong.
Klarna, the Swedish Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) firm, has achieved global scale, boasting 93 million active customers across 24 countries. In Swedish, Klarna means “to clear”, commonly used in relation to clearing debt, which is exactly what they do. Klarna offers consumers loans to purchase things. Want to buy a new television but don’t have the money today? They allow you to buy the product and pay later over a series of installments, sometimes offering interest-free financing. Klarna and other BNPL firms like AfterPay and Sezzle have pioneered new marketing approaches around consumer debt. Though nothing overly novel besides their marketing strategies if you ask me.
What’s interesting is that Klarna is very much on the rise, even targeting a fall-time IPO. Thanks to partnerships like Amazon and broad brand recognition, with about 70 million monthly website visits per SimilarWeb, Klarna is growing quickly and becoming widely used worldwide.
That said, Klarna doesn’t have a chance at becoming a verb, regardless of how large they become. This is because people don’t want to talk about how they need to borrow money to fund what could be an everyday purchase. Klarna does not have the same network effect growth potential as a company like Uber.
Klarna may have scaled through partnerships and advertising, but without strong word-of-mouth, it has no chance of becoming a verb. I don’t expect this to happen soon, as taking on personal debt for everyday purchases remains somewhat taboo. Side note, it seems that the only debt that’s celebrated in US society is house debt (i.e. a mortgage).
Klarna is a great product, and their 0% interest rate financing option is a no-brainer. But I don’t expect anyone to say, “I’ll Klarna that” anytime soon.