With innovation and NPD coming under increasing focus as companies find ways to grow revenue, the related aspect of brand stretch has also become a topic of interest across the board – from entrepreneurs to corporate
boardrooms.
Two key and interrelated questions which typically face us when we talk of brand stretch. i) Where to stretch ie what categories to extend into. And ii) How to stretch ie the branding approach to take (in terms of using the mother brand, creating a new brand or a sub brand etc)
When one looks at a cross section of brands and their extension strategies, it seems
to throw up more questions than answers at first. How
does Dove extend seamlessly, from one personal care category to another…while
Colgate struggles with establishing its Gel products in India more than two decades
after its launch? What
gives Fabindia the courage to foray into organic foods and jewellery, and
elicit a reaction from consumers which says ‘great idea’! Why
it doesn’t seem odd that Virgin could
extend from music to airlines, AND it
also seems intuitively right when Frito launches a new brand (Aliva) for its
biscuits foray, and doesn’t use Lays/Kurkure.
Why does the same extension strategy work for
one company/brand and not for the other? There are extensions into adjacent
categories that are not always successful…while extensions into unrelated
categories are….
