arketing concepts. One of the purposes of advertising is to create or support brand loyalty by reinforcing and repeating the brand name and the subjective messages related to it. In some cases, sellers have exaggerated actual product attributes in ways that leave consumers with a perception of greater differences than actually exist. For example, Bayer Aspirin and other branded aspirin products are "physically identical to private label products that sell for less than half the price. Yet national brands continue to hold more than 95% of the market." This is a situation known as "induced product differentiation."
Heavy advertising can lead to an association between a brand name and a product to the extent that the brand becomes a generic label for the product in consumers' minds. Bayer is not the only product that enjoyed this advantage -- for many years, people said "Kleenex" when they meant "facial tissue," and "Xerox" when they meant "photocopy." Once such saturation occurs, it is difficult for competitors to break the association with the domina
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