The Reserved designation, one of many commercial identification strategies
This section provides a general description of the various commercial identification strategies available to operators in marketing their products, including:
- Operator or company names
- Trademarks
- Certification marks
- Reserved designations
1.1 Operator or company names
One of the first strategies is at once both the simplest and the most difficult to use. It relies on the reputation of those operators (producers or processors) who have already demonstrated their know-how. Both the business and consumers demand products with labeling showing that they were manufactured by persons or companies known for their concern for quality.
1.2 Trademarks
This strategy relies on the trademark rather than the manufacturer to identify the product. Campbell’s Soup, for example, uses the V8 trademark to identify its vegetable cocktail. Once the reputation of a product bearing this trademark has been established, manufacturers can focus their advertising on the trademark rather than their name.
1.3 Certification marks
A more community-based strategy is to associate certain products with a given region or a group of producers for one or more specific factors. This identification, usually a label of origin or added-value claim, may be reflected by a certification mark registered and managed by an organization that has set out its conditions of use in its specification manual. If based on motivation and elements of credibility, the first result of this strategy is to increase product sales volumes and the second is to attract tourists who want to learn more about their manufacturing method, as well as flavors, when they are associated with a particular region.
1.4 Reserved designations
Reserved designations are more precise, and are limited to the products they target. They result from the collective effort of a group of operators wishing to have an existing product recognized and protected with respect to their added value, developed over decades or generations. Reserved designations refer only to product types whose particular characteristics are known by consumers. These types may be production method (such as organic production) or specific characteristics related to their origin (e.g. Camembert from Normandy) and specificity (e.g. pre-salted lamb).
