Rival Crock Pot: First among modern slow cookers.

There are a few brand names that have come to represent a whole field or category of product; brand names that have come to be synonymous with the actual marketplace label for a given product. For example, when you think of a protective bandage you probably think of a 'band aid' - not an elastic bandage. If you want to clean the wax from your ears, you would probably think of using a 'Q-Tip', and not a 'cotton-tipped swab'. Cleaning your windows? You probably think 'Windex' and not 'window spray-cleaner', right?

The point I am making here is that the Rival Crock Pot brand name has become synonymous with the field of slow cookers. This is probably only fair, considering that the Rival Crockpot was the first slow cooker and has come to be considered by many to be the 'best in breed', so to speak.




When you think about it, the Crockpot brand really nailed it: they single-handedly created a market for an appliance that only they were able to offer at the beginning. The whole process of acquiring the necessary patented technology (the beanery appliance), the willingness to field test the newly acquired product in an effort to expand upon its usefulness, and of course the willingness to invest the time and money necessary to put a new product into a marketplace that didn't already have an established demand for that product.

Of course competition has emerged in the slow cooker marketplace since those early, uncertain days but that is to be expected in any successful field or market. However, even to this day, that has done nothing to diminish the relevance or brand name association of the Rival Crockpot brand.

The Rival Crock pot brand name has tradition on its side, and it is safe to say that Crockpot is here to stay.