It’s Taylor Ham.

I realize not everyone who reads my blogs may be familiar with Taylor ham, or the big ‘debate’ us New Jerseyans have (even though there isn’t one since it’s in fact called Taylor ham and not pork roll), but allow me to explain.

Taylor ham is a breakfast meat we eat on a delicious roll or bagel with egg, cheese, salt, pepper, ketchup – in that order. You can only get it up North, and in some spots, New York and Pennsylvania. North Jersey people say Taylor ham (which is correct) and Southern NJ people say pork roll which is incorrect. And here’s why:

As stated in the following article, here are the important pieces that prove why it’s Taylor ham and not pork roll.

‘A state Senator and well-known businessman by the name of John Taylor from Hamilton Square, N.J., originally named his product “Taylor’s Prepared Ham.” Taylor tried to protect his invention from competition by trademarking “pork roll,” but failed.‘

I know I bolded ‘but failed’, but I just want to emphasize it one more time. He failed. Even if you’d like to argue that later he redesigned the label to, “John Taylor’s Original Taylor Porkroll” – the actual name has no mention of pork roll. So it’s settled.

I know what you’re thinking – Ariana, what does the best breakfast sandwich in the world have to do with advertising? The answer is branding! Taylor ham is a great example, but here’s additional products and their stories to help you understand why branding is so important:

The Flying Disc

You mean a Frisbee? The Frisbee was originally the ‘Flying Disc’. The manufacturer, Wham-O, heard that college students were using a different name for the flying discs. They were referring to them as “Frisbies” after the Frisbie Baking Company, since many were using their pie pans as ‘flying discs’. The product didn’t take off until the branding change, unlike our story with Taylor ham – which as a reminder, failed when they attempted to rebrand to porkroll. Unless it’s produced by Wham-O, you’re using a flying disc.

Adhesive Bandage

You mean a Band-Aid? Well, Band-Aid is a brand of ‘adhesive bandages’, but we have collectively made the term into a generic word that refers to all adhesive bandages as band-aids. So if you’re wearing the generic brand from your supermarket, it’s technically not a Band-Aid.

There are a TON of brands in addition to the two above we’ve coined as generic terms. To name a few: Hula Hoop, Dumpster, X-acto Knife, White Out, Rollerblades, Q-Tips, Popsicles, Jacuzzi, Chapstick, and Bubble Wrap. I think there are both pros and cons to your product becoming a generic term. It’s just important that you avoid confusing your consumers, otherwise they’ll argue with each other about it for years until they read my blog and realize Taylor Ham is the correct term.

I ate about 15 of these during my trip up to NJ – I even packed some in my suitcase to bring home with me, which you can see in the photo below.