Brand Extension
A brand is the sum total of all the features of the service & good that takes the physical features, assets of emotion and cultural associations. The features of the good or the service become important to differentiate it from the competitors. The brand is defined as the name, term, sign, symbol, design and combination of all the features in order to identify services & goods of the seller in order to differentiate from the other sellers or the other competitors. The identity of the brand is applied to an individual good or service or to an extended family of services or goods. All the visual & verbal features of a brand are integrated by the brand identity programme (French & Smith, 2013). There is always need of the perception of the audiences, consumers and the public on the brand. The brand has a target audience and that group is a specific group of consumers. The target group is selected carefully by the organisation and continuous investigation of the perception of the target group is also made by it.
Brand extension refers to the extension of a new product or the introduction of a new product of a firm that has established a brand, name. The line brand extension refers to the addition of a new product that is different in variety. The new product is different in the form or size and the application for the brand is also different. Category extension of the brand refers to applying of the parent brand by the marketers. It is to make an entry of a different product group from the one that is currently served by the marketers (Drucker, 2017).
Brand extension has important merits. The brand extension facilitates the new products that will be accepted by the consumers. The brand extension gets feedback from the target groups and this helps the parent brand to formulate strategies as per the need.
The management plays a vital role in the modern organisations. The dimensions in which management plays a major role are such as in the area of investment, corporate image, sales & corporate branding. The brand image relates to the feelings of the consumers on a particular brand. The most important role is played by the brand image is that it is an important part of the brand equity. The companies who have been serving the global market encourage their CSR department to create awareness among the people about their brand (Schmitt, 2012). The consumers accept the products of the company those who are responsible to the society and contribute to the development of the society. The consumers accept that particular company’s brand. Thus the brand value becomes more. Thus management is very important for the development of the brand value. A brand provides the features of the differentiation among the products offered by the various companies. The differential and the distinction made the organisation for the product determines the success and failure of the company. The distinction of one brand with other is identified in the terms of the logo, trademark, design & packaging of the same product (Fassin, et al., 2015) The brands have also the symbolic values that offer the consumers to make a choice of the best product as per their needs. The functional ability of the offering of the product also influences the consumers to make a choice of the product. The feelings, knowledge & experiences with the brand of the consumers also determine the brand value (Balmer, 2010).
Facilitating the acceptance of the new products
The new products bring an improvement in the brand image. Due to the brand image, the new products launched by the brand are not taken as a risk for the choice. This reduces the risks perceived by the consumers. The new product always increases the possibility of gaining the trail & the distribution. There is need of the less advertisement and expenditure becomes very less for the promotion of the new product (Aquinis & Glavas, 2012). The marketing programmes are not required and the costs made for the introduction of the product will not be there. The cost will be decreased. The extension of a new product will avoid more costs (Mehta, 2014). The new product remains available in the market and the customers will accept the product for its efficient packaging & labeling. The extension of the brand has the advantage for the consumers to get a variety of products.
The brand extension offers the brand meaning to the parent brand. This works to improve the image of the parent brand. The market coverage becomes more and the new customers become more into the franchise of the brand (Mann & Ghuman, 2014). This helps to revitalise the brand. This also helps for the extensions of the subsequent products or services of the brand.
- The brand extension may confuse the consumers and they may get frustrated.
- The parent brand may get affected by the extension of the brand. The failure of the new product in the market affects the brand.
- The brand extension may bring success to the parent brand. But the sales of the products may not be more that is expected by the organisation.
- The brand extension may bring success to the brand or the organisation. But there is a possibility of the decline of identification with any other category.
- Sometimes the brand extension dilutes the meaning of the brand.
- It may so happen that the brand extension may cause the organisation to forgo the possibility of developing a new brand(Velsor, et al., 2010)
The procedure of the branding for the products was made in order to protect them from facing any kind of fall in the market. The brand for the product is made in order to protect the product from being diluted in the minds of the customers. This initiation has been made to create a human feature to position the products. The brand gives an opportunity to create faith in them and offers a choice to the consumers for buying the products. Due to branding, the products do not face difficulties from failing in the market (Frynas & Stephenes, 2014). The landscape of the business has been transformed due to branding. Branding helps the global companies to make business throughout the world. Each and every strong brand has its history and it helps the product to grow and sustain the tough competitions in the market. There is a need of studying the case studies of the different brands to study some popular stories that discuss the making of the successful brands (Teichert & Schontag, 2010).
Starbuck is a popular brand that transforms coffee into a brand of success. The logo and the image of the coffee mug come into the minds of the people when Starbucks name is taken. This brand image made by Starbucks and this differs it from other competitors of it. The brand has created a phenomenon in every store, every ad, in each and every employee for the coffee they are served. This shows that Starbucks has been the successful brand. The company has developed its sale and it has been earned the valuable assets. This asset is called the Starbucks brand.
The brand was designed by Terry Heckler of Heckler Associates. The iconic logo was designed taking resources from the 15th century Norse woodcut of the mythical siren. The corporate identity of the brand faced challenges for its logo of a bare-breasted siren on the side of a truck. The hair of the siren was lowered in order to cover the bare-chested icon (Shamma, 2012).
Feedback to the parent brand
During the expansion of the brand, the brand faced a unique challenge. The current logo of the company focuses on the warm & inviting face of the mermaid. It does not focus on the body of her. The brand has iconic cigar brand and it framed one of the most popular corporate identity in the world. The story of the success of the Heckler Associates in the modification and design of the logo created an important legacy and it became popular branding.
Coca-Cola is one of the popular brands in the world. New Coke is the brand extension of the company. The extension of the brand for launching a new product in the market was due to its competitors Pepsi. This has happened due to the competitive nature of Pepsi and it was outwitted by Coke. This has happened in terms of the success in the market. In the year 1960 Pepsi introduced its new brand and it was very popular among the youths. In the year 1970 Coke introduced a new drink and it challenged Pepsi and claimed that it was the real drink. The Pepsi took this as a challenge and worked to win the market through its innovation. The 1980s became the year for Pepsi. The position of Coke was in danger and it faced danger in the market. Coca-Cola faced challenges from its competitor, Pepsi. It also faced cannibalism from its own brands. There were like Fanta and Sprite. The company wanted to start a new brand called New Coke to challenge its competitors and this was its most important brand extension. The New Coke was produced in the year 1985 and this was launched in the market. But the sale of the new brand was not a huge success. It was due to the demand of the people for the old Coke which was stopped by the company after New Coke was introduced (Brunk, 2010)
Branding is very important in the present market when the company plans for any brand extension. In the above case study, we could find that brand image sometimes helpful for the brand and sometimes not favourable for the brand extension. The rationale for the extension of the strong brand is that there is always a need to identify the identifier against the competitors of the brand (Gray, et al., 2011). The company management needs to understand the possible strategies that are to be taken to make the brand extension successful. In the context of the Coca-Cola, this has been found that the new Coke cannot be successful for the company. The company could not manage to compete with the competitors (Bhasan, 2016).
For the success of the global branding, it is always important for the organisation to standardise the essence of the brands for the global markets that the companies have spread its business. The company requires identifying the essence of the brand and then it needs to formulate its strategies to execute the image of the global brand and this will help the company to leverage the importance of the brand.
Challenges of the brand extensions
The changes in the logo of the company by the Starbuck also brought challenges to the company. The company was required to change its logo time to time for the pressure. But the company has its brand image in the market as a successful company. In this context, it was very important for the company to formulate the brand extension planning looking into the global position (Grohmann & Bodur, 2014)This logo was not accepted as it was not accepted ethnically.
There are new brands introduced in the market every time. The Fast Moving Consumer Goods, telecom products, retails etc are the some of the sectors in which lots of new brands and the extension of the brand have been found. This estimation shows that around three brands are released in the market every day and 5% of it is surviving in the competitive market. The globalisation has made the market one and integrated. The companies are facing competitors from the different global companies (Lyus, et al., 2011). The management of the brand works hard to bring success to the brand. The competitive success has also been estimated with the extension of the brand. The brand earns a name in the global market when it survives locally. For the success of the product, there is a need of coordinating the challenges and issues by the manager of the company. There are different challenges the brand faces in the present time. They are:
- The awareness of the consumers is an important challenge for the successful extension of the brand. The consumers are aware of the different new brands available in the market. The consumers are very much educated & intelligent (Fassin, et al., 2011). The consumers get immediate information on the internet. They get information in one click of the mouse.
- The plenty of propagation of brand is also a challenge for the brand extension and extension of the popularity of the brand. The propagation of the brand in the market brings lots of the competition in the market among the brands. This will create greater difficulty among the consumers in order to differentiate the products (Aldag, 2013). The propagation of the brand all over the world causes lots of challenges among the consumers to make a choice to get the correct brand.
- The power of trade and the increasing impact of it in the process of the creation of the brand is also a challenge for the brand development. The organisations are influencing the retailers and the wholesalers to promote their business so that their brand will be more popular.
- Promotion of the product is also a challenge for the brand value. There have been many more challenges from the communication process. The digital media leads the consumers and the target population and the target audience is distributed across the channels(DOOLE & LOWE, 2008). The organisation faces challenges in this concern as it has to spend lots of money on the advertisement.
- The organisation invests in lots of marketing support in order to differentiate its product from the competitors. The organisation needs to be outstanding in the market in order to get the customer’s choice. The organisation needs to deliver consistently to the consumers the best product in order to gain the brand value in the market (Schmitka, et al., 2012)
The extension of the branding depends upon the strategies formulated by the organisation to manage the challenges of the branding effectively. There is a need of creating brand equity & should work to sustain the customer loyalty. Brand loyalty is the result of the brand equity.
Brand equity is very important for the extension of the brand. The brand equity helps for the success of the product in the market that has been launched by the organisation. Due to the brand image, the new product launched by the organisation becomes successful in the market. The organisation gains the market value and easily attributed to its brand. This does not occur with the new products of a new organisation that has not earned the brand image. The brand equity is used when the consumers go for measuring the value of the product with reference to the price he or she pays for the product. The companies express their brand value and its implication to the company in their balance sheet. This shows that how the company performs well when it goes for producing new market and launches in the market. This shows that due to the brand image the product is accepted by the consumers and the company earns more revenue. The companies express their value of the brands by providing the momentum for the important branded goods as the intangible assets in their balance sheets.
This is related to the association with the loyalty of customers. The customer loyalty helps the company to continue its business in the competitive market. Loyalty to the brand by the consumers ensures that they are very loyal to the brand and attached to the products of the company. When the company makes any new product and launches in the market, they easily accept it not as a new product rather than their acceptance and faith on the product. Thus the customers always expect the up gradation of the products of the company. This directly encourages the company to launch any new product and get the market value. The marketers also believe in the brand value (Malhotra & Dash, 2012).
Case study: Analysis of brand extensions of two companies
Conclusion and Recommendation
The success of the brand extension requires to be done in the local market. The acceptance of the product by the customers is very important. The success in the local market will encourage the company to expand its brand extension or the new product in the global market. An upward extension of the brand extension will improve the brand image. It is due to the premium version of the brand always brings a positive association (Keller, et al., 2011). The extension of the brand will help the consumers to get a variety of product and revitalise the parent brand. It also makes further helps to the organisation to make further extensions of the brand in the future.
Vertical brand extensions have positive impacts on many companies. That helps to extend the brands of the companies in a new market. This can be possible with a range of the price. Thus it is always important for the companies to understand in depth the market and aware the market about the parent brand. The marketers are required to know the strength, favourable situations and uniqueness that are associated with the brands. The company requires managing the profile of the brand and it should prepare the structure of the brand image (Lee, 2008). . This will help to identify the possibility of the brand extensions. This will help to guide in the process of the decision and will contribute to the process of success in the future.
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