Why are there so many doughnut shops that are working under the generic name of doughnuts? What I’m referring to is there will be a storefront and the signage on that storefront will be only doughnuts. This in contrast to a having a unique or distinctive name like Denver Doughnuts or Doughnut Time.
And so I don’t know what’s going on here. What I think may be happening is. Small business owners are looking for a simple and quick way to get started. The signage that is not customized is cheaper and this way they can get started quicker and then they don’t have to worry about any potential trademark infringement and they can just get going.
I also suspect that some of these small businesses may actually have a branded name behind the signage, but they’re not using that because again, it would cost more if they had a, if they custom created a sign for their storefront. So that’s what I think is going on. But of course, there are many associated benefits to having a branded name.
And even more advantages to having a trademark name. And one of those would be that if you had a trademark, especially with a trademark, the the business would be more of an asset because you would have a brand tied to that business rather than just the commodity business of creating donuts. So if you don’t have a branded store, then you’re really just working under your location and.
And really the existing customer base and, and not much more. And another thing is that having a brand gives people an easy way to refer you. So rather than just the donut shop on 123 Main Street, you are the specific name of Donuts. So Donuts, go to Donuts Plus on the north side of town. And then customers can also connect with you if you have a brand, but if you don’t have a brand, it makes that connection much weaker.
And so, this is a way, again, that they could refer you, or they could know about you, and it becomes more difficult to find you actually online if you’re just working under the general name of Donuts. And I say that because I search Google. And there are any number of doughnut shops and only a few times did I find the actual doughnut shop of just under the name of generically doughnuts, and so it can be difficult to find you online because there’s no way to To identify you with any distinction.
So this is something I’ve noticed. I’ve always wondered about it. Why wouldn’t you have a brand name? And so you, you’ve heard my theories. I do think that more donut shops would be better off if they If they had the brand, of course, I can understand why there are so many donut shops, because what I didn’t know before this episode is I found out the donut industry per IBIS world is over 7.
It’s over 7 billion, was over 7 billion in 2022, and it’s expected to pass 7. 4 billion in 2023. So donuts are big business. But some, some small businesses are foregoing the brand name. I think they should go in the opposite direction, go ahead and at least have the brand name and then continue on with the trademark.
But I can understand some small business owners wanting to stay away from any trademark confusion, not wanting to get into any legal disputes, but there are so many, there is so much upside to having that brand that I do think it’s worth it.