Brand Matters: Extending Your Brand
Robert C. Sprung can be reached at robert@tippingsprung.com. TippingSprung (New York City) offers brand strategy, naming, and design services with a focus on the needs of technology companies.
Brand-extending fragrances from KISS, Daytona 500, and Play-Doh reach out to consumers.
By Robert C. Sprung,TippingSprung LLC
Brand extensions surround us. The Jeep Stroller, the Red Cross Emergency Radio, and even the kitchen sink made by Jacuzzi are all examples. A brand extension can be defined as a move into a new area often not directly related to a company’s core competency. Almost all brands are getting in on the extension game—and that includes companies in the personal care, cosmetics, and fragrance markets.
The Top Extensions
TippingSprung conducts an annual trends survey on brand extensions in cooperation with Brandweek magazine. A total of 860 respondents to the survey chose the following top brand extensions. American Red Cross emergency radios were named best overall brand extension with 56.7% of the vote. Pantone Eurolux house paints came in a distant second with just under 18%. Runners-up included Nike MaxSight contact lenses (with Bausch & Lomb), Build-A-Bear Workshop youth home furnishings (with Pulaski Furniture), and Dwell Homes by Empyrean (with Dwell magazine).
Pantone was considered a great, logical extension. Its score may be hampered given its niche; most people don’t know the brand. However, it is the color-matching standard for professional designers.
Worst Brand Extension
The extension that least seemed to fit with the brand’s core values was Cheetos’s lip balm (41.4% of respondents). The Salvador Dalí deodorant stick, part of a line of cosmetics and body care products sold under the surrealist’s name, came in second with 28.3% of the votes.
Emerging Trends in Brand Extension
Celebrity brand extensions. As the market becomes saturated with celebrity extensions, consumers are increasingly critical about the brand fit. Although Lance Armstrong has reached almost mythic status, that doesn’t mean a consumer will make investment decisions based on his celebrity (Livestrong life cycle mutual funds). And despite Willie Nelson’s embrace of environmental issues, his persona may not lend sufficient credibility to fuel (Willie Nelson Biodiesel fuel).
Brand revivals. Recent years have seen the revival—or attempted revival—of numerous “heritage brands.” Resurrecting brands or reshaping them in ways that resonate with core audiences is a challenge that entails significant risk. Entrepreneurs are banking on the nostalgia factor. Can the brand be made newly relevant and make money after the initial excitement of an old friend’s reintroduction? A skeptic may ask: the brand did disappear for a reason, didn’t it? Scoring high in this year’s survey were Hubba Bubba and Holly Hobbie.
The packaging for Elizabeth Arden’s Daytona 500 fragrance is certainly clever, but was the product a good extension of the Daytona brand? The fragrance’s cap was designed to look like a racecar tire. The pump was produced by Rexam Dispensing Systems (Purchase, NY).
Too much perfume. One of the easiest ways of playing off a celebrity is to put his or her name on a fragrance. But the category has become saturated. Perhaps sweaty rock concerts and oily pit crews lingered in people’s minds as they voted thumbs-down to fragrances from KISS and Daytona 500. Fond childhood memories were not enough to save the Play-Doh perfume from being voted most inappropriate fragrance extension. (This was a promotional item launched in honor of Play-Doh’s 50th anniversary.)
You may obtain a full copy of the annual survey report by writing to robert@tippingsprung.com.