In the past year, Zumba Fitness has educated more than 15,000 individuals and clubs on the proper use of its brand. Photo courtesy of Zumba Fitness.

What’s in a name? In the business world, a company’s name is a major component of its brand identity. Throughout the years, many companies have seen their brand names transformed into generic terms. (Aspirin, escalator and zipper all were once trademarked brand names.) After “google” (the verb) was added to several major dictionaries in 2006, Google (the company) made an effort to avoid a similar fate by issuing a plea to consumers via its official blog not to use its trademarked name in that way. To companies such as Google, fighting the misuse of a brand name is about more than hanging on to a trademark—it is about protecting the brand’s reputation.

At least two vendors in the fitness industry—Mad Dogg Athletics and Zumba Fitness—work hard to safeguard their brand names from misuse.

Although some people may consider the use of Spinning as a generic term for indoor cycling as a sign of a successful brand, John Baudhuin says this type of generic use can cause problems for the brand. Baudhuin is the founder, president and CEO of the indoor cycling brand’s parent company Mad Dogg Athletics Inc., Venice, CA. For example, several years ago, a fitness industry organization distributed a press release describing the results of a study that showed that “Spinning” could be too intense for beginners. The problem was, Baudhuin says, that the classes observed for the study were not actually Spinning classes.

“They were using someone else’s bikes, someone else’s program, weren’t using heart rate monitors and weren’t using a Spinning-trained instructor,” Baudhuin says. “Our instructors are taught to stress the importance of working at the right intensity and are trained to address the needs of beginning exercisers. Using our brand to describe an indoor cycling class that was improperly done was clearly crossing the line.”

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