Great cartoon on one of the greatest perils facing marketers…
Why is brand stretching and the related tactic of line extension so dangerous?
Well, basically it comes down to positioning.
A brand can only occupy ONE space in the mind of the consumer.
McDonalds means “hamburgers”…
…it can’t mean “pizza” as well (although, of course, they have tried).
Now, arguably a brand can stretch into related areas…
…see the comments in the original post “brand stretching” for some good points about this.
Food brands like Heinz are good example of this.
But Heinz is only the leader in a couple of areas, not across the board.
Related to brand stretching is line extension and this is rarely a great success.
Line extensions tend to weaken the original brand by eating into existing sales.
To take the beer industry, for example, Bud Lite sales probably come from Bud drinkers, not from other brands.
Toblerone has indulged in line extension in recent years,
Used to be you knew exactly what Toblerone was…
…the triangle shaped, Swiss milk chocolate.
Now there’s milk, plain and fruit-and-nut Toblerone…
…and I very much doubt if overall sales have gone up much.
Now, it’s arguable that line-extension helps to protect sales.
With any regularly consumed product, there’s the risk that customers get bored.
If you have alternatives, it gives customers a chance to try something different while still spending their money with you.
However, any benefit in this area comes with a price.
Best insights into this vexed subject come from Al Ries (author of the classic “Positioning” along with Jack Trout). Highly recommend his book “Focus: The Future Of Your Company Depends On It”.
While I think of it, great post about Google’s brand-stretching antics by Laura Ries…