if I said “shaving system”, “after-shave” and “shaving gel” and asked someone to name a brand, which is common across these categories, Gillette might come readily to mind. On the other hand, if I asked the same question after mentioning “airline”, “cola” and “records”, Virgin might not be recalled so readily.
And yet, both brands have been extended successfully. Both have a shared quality that provides an ‘agglomerating glue’ which determines the success of brand extensions. The ‘agglomerating glue’ of Gillette is ‘Shaving products’, for Virgin, it is ‘Richard Branson’.
The first question about Brand Extensions is: Why should one consider them at all? The most common would be that it will grow the Brand franchise. If it were only that simple! The reason why the effort could fail is that this strategy presupposes one or more assumptions.
Assumption One. It will help get trial / sell the new product.
This need not be inevitable, even if it seems ‘reasonable’. Because the extension of the brand name will help to get trial only if it is seen to Add Value to the new product. Some years ago, Nirma introduced a toothpaste – but the many consumers who saw a value in Nirma washing powder, did not find it in the toothpaste.

The most critical failing in many brand extention initiatives is that they start with the marketer, not the consumer

Assumption Two. It will help to strengthen the existing product.
A brand extension can achieve this, but only if the new product incorporates a truly New Idea. For example, the Apple computers brand was actually enhanced by the introduction of the iPod MP3 Player - but that happened only because the iPod is a sensationally new idea. The Apple brand could not have achieved this, if the iPod were just another MP3 player.
Assumption Three. The brand equity will ensure ready acceptance in the new category.
A common assumption is that the brand has enough Stretch to carry its strength into a new category. But Bournvita was unable to stretch its strength as a health beverage to biscuits. Internationally, Xerox couldn’t stretch the brand to computers. And consider the recent announcement that Amul will extend the brand into sugar. Will the brand stretch that far? What do you think?
The most critical failing in many Brand extension initiatives, however, is that they start with the marketer, not the consumer. Because while the trademark may belong to the marketer, the brand finally exists in the mind and heart of the consumer. Brand Extensions will succeed only when they create a Consumer Connect. Here are some guidelines on looking for them.
Guideline One: Extend a strong Attribute / Performance Characteristic Association.
This is the simplest level at which to begin. Amul stands for pure milk.
Indeed it is likely that to many consumers, Amul is milk. Therefore, it is easy to extend the brand from wet milk, to butter, to cheese, to dairy whitener, and recently, to ice cream. However, with pizza, Amul may now be moving just a bit too far from the core ‘milk’ association. Does the consumer think Pizza = cheese (=milk) or is Pizza = baked food?
In a like manner, Sunsilk is a brand that stands for beautiful hair. So it seems legitimate to extend it beyond shampoo to hair colour.

Guideline Two: Extend a strong Benefit Association.
Fair & Lovely owns the skin fairness benefit strongly enough to extend the brand from the original fairness cream to a lotion to a soap to an under-eye cream.
Lux is strongly linked to the beauty benefit. So it can extend from the toilet soap to an entire range of beauty products such as Moisturing body wash and Sun-protection products.
Guideline Three: Extend an association with a Consumer Attitude or Belief.
An intangible like this can actually be a very strong basis for extending a brand. Think of Body Shop. The brand represents an ethical, environment- friendly world view. For consumers who share this point of view, this is strong enough to prefer Body Shop products across a host of categories.
Nike and its swoosh stand for pushing oneself beyond the limit and an individualistic attitude – so the brand appeals to those who share this view and who wear the brand as a
badge: in sports shoes, sports goods, bags, casual wear, even watches.
Guideline Four: Extend the brand based on Brand Essence.
Brand Essence is one of the most slippery aspects of branding. It is not the Brand benefit, it is not the Brand Differentiator, it is not the Brand Personality; it may incorporate aspects of all of these and yet be beyond them. To put it in another context, there is a “Bogie-ness” that makes Humphrey Bogart unique and something “Marilyn-esque” that keeps every buxom blonde from being another Marilyn Monroe. That is Brand Essence!
The essence of the Ferrari brand is thrill and excitement. The essence of the Dunhill brand is old-world, refined, sophisticated luxury. Brands with such indelibly etched essences can carry the essence across a wide spectrum of products. So Ferrari is not just fast cars, it is also expensive clothes and fragrances. Dunhill is cigarettes; but it is also lighters, jewelry, watches, writing instruments, men’s clothes and more.
There are also several watch-outs to note before extending brands.
Watch-out One: Is your brand extension sending out contradictory signals?
This could be happening in the case of Nivea, where after offering skin-care products for women for years, a range of men’s toileteries was introduced under the same name. Bad idea.
Another brand, Zodiac, avoided such a situation. Zodiac is formal, sober, mature. Not exactly the right associations for trendy clothes! Zodiac has created the Zod brand to enter this category, rather than extend Zodiac into potentially incompatible territory.
Watch-out Two: Is there any link to the brand extensions or is it merely a convenient, available name that’s being used?
Maggi came into India with 2-Minute noodles - a hearty, anytime snack. Since then the Maggi brand has been extended to sauces, soup cubes, even pickles. There is nothing that holds this set of products together. Is it surprising that the extensions are not resounding successes?
Watch-out Three: Check the interpretation of the link across extensions.
Dettol was the ubiquitous antiseptic liquid (and then cream). When the brand was first extended to soaps, the antiseptic property was interpreted to mean care and Dettol was launched as ‘The Love and Care Soap’. It did not work.
Today, many years later, Dettol soap offers protection – a more realistic interpretation of the antiseptic property, and the soap is doing far better.
In closing, I’d like to state that brand extensions are certainly a valid strategic option for a brand manager. With the right basis of extension, they can offer advantages in terms of getting trade support, reducing barriers to trial, improved media-spend multiplier effects, and so on.
The key issue is whether there is an underlying linkage binding and mutually strengthening the brand extensions. If you’re Richard Branson, you can stretch your brand across an airline, a cola, and a record label. If you are Michael Jordan, a line of basketball shoes makes sense. If you are Lata Mangeshkar a fragrance is probably not such a great idea.