Occasionally, without thinking about it (or when racking your brain to come up with a blog post topic) things jump out at you. One of these things may be an ubiquitous trademark component which, for reasons unbeknowst to you, has become a part of an incredible number of marks. Dan Kelly previously commented on the seemingly expansive use of blue ovals. Alan Bergstrom, a Guest Blogger from Brand Insights, followed up with his observation of 3D spheres. One trend that I noticed while walking down the street was the use of “X” based marks.
There are marks such Xcel, Xbox, Rain-X, Gas-X, X-Men, XLab, Cast-X, X-Rite, X-Max, Germ-X, and on and on and on. Granted, I didn’t see all of these on the street, but a short perusal of the USPTO website demonstrated that there were probably hundreds, if not thousands of marks, based on the letter X. I’m simply amazed that one letter, which has very limited use in everyday words, is likely the most popular branding letter in the world.
Adding to my astonishment is the simple fact that I just don’t get it. Why is X as prevalent in branding as it is. Now, some of these marks are making use of the negation concept of the letter X, i.e. Gas-X, Rain-X, and Germ-X. However, a great number of the marks have no discernible reason for using the “X,” in my opinion. The history of the letter doesn’t seem relevant. Additionally, Sesame Street (the indisputable expert in all things letters) certainly provided no help.
I guess it’s going to have to remain a secret, unless someone can enlighten me.