Branding

Stretching a Brand

Understanding the logic behind brand extensions

Being from the marketing management stream, Sanjay Vakharia, has been with this industry for the last 15 years and partnered with the brand 'Rag' and eventually started  Spykar in 1993 with Prashad Pablaker

Through the course of its inception till the actual production of its product, a brand develops a very loyal following. It is at this point, where one realises that the consumers have started recognising and associating with it and it is not so much the product, but the brand itself, that is creating a selling space for the product. This established loyalty can provide the perfect fulcrum for extending your brand.

Product & audience: Combination

Ideally, the category should make sense to the customer and not address a different audience. It does not mean similar kinds of products related to the brand–instead, it means products related to same target audience. So, when if I do brand extension, for example, in garments, I would go about doing the brand extension for the same audience, in categories which would be other than garments, probably dealing with smaller products. Basically, one also needs to understand brand extension–unless the brand is really strong, only the smaller categories will be successful. For instance, if you have been selling mobile phones, mobile cases, etc., then you can move to a larger category of travel luggage–in this kind of brand extension, the consumer who would be buying a mobile, might also get interested in buying kits for mobiles. A brand company, if it is ready to extend its category and is sure of the standards, quality and features, should be extending its brand, else it should not get into it. An excellent example would be the world renowned Harley Davidson, which came out with mobile phones. Dolce & Gabbana too launched branded mobile phones. The franchise of the brand has to be so large and meaningful that a person has enough trust in buying anything that the brand owners do.

Advantages

You have a ready consumer base aligned to your brand, so to get a customer to your brand would not be so very difficult. I guess the assumption is that the quality that the brand is offering from its mother product should be as good or better in the extended product. If the product is not up to the mark, it would hurt the mother product.

Disadvantages

From a brand's perspective, there are not many disadvantages. From a consumer perspective, the only disadvantage that I can see is that when a customer buys a product from a brand that is not in the mainstream, there are probable chances that the product might not have all the features or not enough R&D has been carried out or it could be some kind of compromise at some level on which the person has been prepared because the company is laying that product on the brand's established rapport with the target audience and not on the product. On the other hand, if you have bought a specialist brand which is not in the product line but is manufactured by Apple or say Sony, the consumer can be sure about the product because of the brand name that goes with the product line.

Brand extension & brand stretching

I deduce that brand extension and brand stretching are similar and the only difference lies in the fact that with brand stretching, you stretch something which goes beyond your capability. I guess only natural adaptable product category should be worked on within the brand extension. When you go about stretching the brand too much into a segment which is probably not very relevant to the brand category, it leads to brand stretching.

Extension leading to dilution

Brand dilution is the weakening of a brand though its overuse. This frequently happens as a result of ill-judged brand extension. If you are cautious about whom you are doing business with and who your partner is and ensure that there is no compromise on the quality, it cannot lead to brand dilution. For example, Disney has more than 200 product categoriespencils, rubbers, walkmans, and many more.
It thus becomes imperative to expand one's product line sensibly, with due diligence in researching the basics. A well established brand, that has the capability to scale up and spread horizontally, as well as vertically, without diluting the quality of its product, would be able to increase its customer following, building on its established name, offering customers a newer, wider and more vibrant range of goods and services.

The author is Director
(Marketing),
Spykar Lifestyles Pvt. Ltd
and can be contacted
at sanjay@spykar.com