Of Brands and Extension

On a lazy Sunday morning, you wake up to the ever-so-sweet aroma of freshly-brewed Bata coffee and amble your way to the washroom in your Britannia robes to brush your teeth with your newly acquired battery-operated Pepsi toothbrush. (wait, isn’t it tata coffee?!?)

And before you rub your eyes to check if you read right, let me cut to reality. ‘Brand stretching’ or ‘Brand extension’ is the next big marketing idea.

Famous brands often tend to piggyback on the success of their products to roll-out a slew of new products that may or may not have anything to do with the original product. The last couple of decades saw a mad race for take-overs and the companies are now under more pressure than ever to make sure the expensive acquisitions don’t bomb. The trick is to use the reputation and name of an established product to invade a hitherto new market. The advantage, as you must have guessed, is the phenomenal cut in the promotional and advertising cost, and less risk.

There are several success stories like the extension of well known comic/cartoon character to a merchandising machinery as is the case of ‘Winnie the Pooh’, and several consumer electronics brands like Panasonic, Sony and Apple are selling everything from mobile phones to plasma TVs. Closer home, Britannia forayed into dairy and bakery segments, while Amul started selling ice-creams and chocolates. And as retailing in India gets lucrative, the industry biggies start their own supermarket chain, cashing in on the brand name.

So what exactly is the flip side you ask? In the business jargon, they call it ‘Brand Ego-Tripping’. Extended brands fail to work when they forget what made them famous in the first place. Richard Branson’s Virgin that started-off as a record company, later on became a successful airliner. Thus, Virgin’s image as an ‘irreverent, fun-loving fighter for value’ was established. The problem arose when Branson decided to stretch the ‘lifestyle brand’ image to encompass vodka, cola, jeans and banking. Most of the products failed miserably as they did not fit the 'value-for-money' image. How many of us have heard of ‘Colgate Ready Meals’, ‘Pond’s Toothpaste’, ‘Harley Davidson wine coolers’ or ‘Levi’s suits’? These would have probably worked if the companies had decided to opt for sub-branding instead.

But the strategy seems to have worked well for Kingfisher, the desi answer to Virgin. And 'the king of good times', Vijay Mallya seems to have come a long way. From selling beer to packaged drinking water and calendars, starting a luxury airliner to dabbling in the hospitality segment - he's has done it all. And when the man in the dressing room, in the famous ad, breaks into an “Ooh-la-lalala-leh-oh” for Kingfisher mineral water (???) you know that the brand’s arrived.

Ah well, whatever works for them. For now, the successful extended brands are basking in their new-found glory.

And *three* cheers to Kingfisher! Hic-Hic-Hooray;-)