Best and Worst Brand Extensions

The other day I was thinking about brand extensions and decided to go on the net to see if there were any "top" lists of brand extensions.

And I found one! Well sort of. It's TippingSprung's second annual brand extension survey.

http://www.brandchannel.com/papers_review.asp?sp_id=1222

So what did they find the best extensions to be??

Over-all

Best: Iams Pet insurance

Runner up: Febreze Scentstories

Why do I figure they worked? Because they are extensions that the existing target audience for the brand wants and finds useful. A lot of target market research will have been done before these extensions were created.

Most Over-due

Tide to go pen!!

I agree. When the tide to go pen came out I was overjoyed! You mean if I am out or meeting someone important and I spill ketchup on my shirt I can get it out right away??

And for mothers - genius!! Professionals I think would also love this product. You can't always go home to change in the middle of a work day.

I think this is probably the best extension I have ever heard of. Fits perfectly with their established target audience!!!

Let's movie on to worst brand extensions..............drum roll...............

and the winner is: Harley Davidson for their cake decorating kits!

WOW

That is probably the worst fit in the world! Hmm the typical Harley rider decorating cakes in his spare time? NOT.

Runner up for worst brand extension? Evian with their water filled bra. Yes, that's another Evian brand extension that I would never use.

Cereal Brand Characters

When I think of brand characters the first things that comes to mind are cereal brand characters. They hold a place in my heart. When I see them or think of them I find myself reminiscing about the good 'ol days when I was young. The ones I remember the most fondly are: Tony the Tiger, The leprechaun from Lucky Charms, Toucan Sam from Fruit Loops, Snap crackle and pop from Rice Crispies and the Trix Rabbit.

I remember Toucan Sam and all the adventures through the rainforest. He was so cheerful and always seemed to share a fun little fact. I recently went to the Fruit Loops website and found that Toucan Sam is still very prevalent in their marketing, only now he has 2 side-kicks, his nephews! When you enter the site it takes you to a location around the world (when I entered the site it took my to Egypt) where you find Toucan Sam and his nephews in an Egyptian setting where every item on the page is a different game. (All branded of course). Talk about top of mind awareness.

http://www.frootloops.com/#/home/Egypt/Phase1

After looking at the Fruit Loops website I was interested to see which of the other brand characters I love are still in use and if they have changed since my youth. Next I looked at Tony the Tiger, the Frosted Flakes website. Tony is prevalent on the site, but not like Toucan Sam. Frosted Flakes' big campaign is "show your stripes" which focuses on kids getting active. I remember that Tony was always associated with sports, basketball is the one I remember, so it's good to see he has kept his personality over the years.

http://www.frostedflakes.ca/index.shtml

Next I looked at Trix and the Trix Rabbit. What did I find?? Trix are not longer available in Canada and I can't find their website anywhere!!! How disappointing. What else? They changed their cereal chunks from fruit shaped to little balls. Spheres aren't exciting!

Last but not least, I checked out the Rice Krispies website. Snap, crackle and pop are probably the most well known cereal brand characters around. What did I find? Front and centre to help navigate the website is Crackle. An animated moving character. I wouldn't say the website's main focus were its brand characters but none the less they are still there! :)

http://www.ricekrispies.com/#/Default

Oh how I wish kids cereal wasn't so expensive. I think I'll go to Mac's and buy some Fruit Loops anyway.

Evian - Brand Extension

When I think of Evian I automatically think bottled water. It's a solid brand, been around a while and I don't mind the taste. (Yes, different brands of water do taste differently, to me at least)

But wait...

A few years ago when I was at Mooney's Bay beach for the Hope volleyball tournament I discovered an Evian brand extension.

Hope volleyball is a huge event and many companies sponsor it. I think that for my age group (17-30) it is a really good way to get your brand out there and create top of mind awareness. (The story I'm about to tell happened a few years ago and I still remember it and the brand top of mind) So, within minutes of getting through the gates at the tournament I was approached by a few sponsors, giving me their branded items (Vitamin water, radio station frisbees, and a mini bottle of Evian facial spray). I thought to myself, okay it's hot, we're at the beach, a refreshing spray....I guess it makes sense. At this time I was not in the advertising program, in fact I don't think I had even thought of applying yet and I was more in a scientific mindset because I had gotten back from McGill's science program recently. Makes ense that my next thought was: spraying water on your face in the sun and not wiping it off, sun burns skin a lot faster through water, maybe not so good of an idea.

To this day the advertising vs science debate about Evian's facial spray still gets me. As a brand extension it makes sense. You think Evian you think refreshing water, this is another use for water that's refreshing, therefore it's a good fit as an extension. As a scientific thing it makes no sense. Let's refresh your face but increase the burn you get.

So did the extension erode the core brand? I don't think so. Use me as an example, I would never buy or use the extension (the spray) but I drink Evian water (the core) just as much as I used to. And I'm sure the product has pretty good success with people other than myself, for one because it had the advantage of better odds for product success being a line extension of a successful brand.

So what did we get out of all of this?

Evian, just don't pitch the spray to science geeks!

Pepsi - Brand Positioning

When thinking about Pepsi's brand positioning we must consider the competition as well.

In the right corner wearing blue we have Pepsi, and in the left wearing red it's Coke.

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!!!

Category: Soft drink, more specifically Cola

Target Market:

- male and female, skewed male

- 16-45

- think of themselves as hip or youthful

- forward thinking

- middle class, middle income

- high school plus educated

- rural and urban dwellers

Of course Pepsi's main competitor is Coke who is in the same category and has a very similar target audience.

So how does Pepsi position and differentiate itself?

Pepsi positions itself on points of difference as well as points of parity. Pepsi's POD is their forward thinking attitude. I don't believe any of the other cola brands (including Coke) are very strong in that area. This falls into image differentiation. Pepsi has the image of being action oriented and I think that a large part of their target audience associate themselves with the brand because of that image.

Pepsi's POP is their wide selection to fit every lifestyle of consumer. They have regular pepsi, pepsi max with more caffeine, pepsi cherry vanilla, caffeine free pepsi, diet pepsi and pepsi zero to name a few.

Pepsi also considers themselves the bold, refreshing, robust cola which Coke and other colas could also claim. These points of parity are product differentiations.

I know tons of people who only drink Pepsi, I know a lot of people who only drink Coke and I also know a bunch of people who don't really care which it is as long as they're getting cola. Maybe a bunch of people grew up with either Coke or Pepsi in their houses because that's what their parents drank and so the brand preference has been passed through generations. Others I'm sure, as I mentioned before, can associate with Pepsi's POD and that's how they bought in.

Pepsi's Brand Personality

Think back a while and you'll probably remember that Pepsi underwent sort of a brand personality overhaul. They created a new logo (one that smiles at you) and launched their groundbreaking Joy It Forward campaign. Pepsi had always portrayed themselves as hip and youthful but the brand wasn't really involved in things that were hip and youthful, until the Joy campaign. They aligned themselves with social and environmental programs and recently they have launched the Pepsi Refresh project giving away over 1 million dollars in grants to fund great ideas that will move the world forward.

So.....................

What do you think of when you think about Pepsi's brand personality?

I think male, 16-45, young in attitude/hip, cheerful, forward looking (socially and environmentally conscious), active and middle class.

Would I be friends with Pepsi?

For sure I think I would. Maybe I would even date him.

What's interesting about my perception of Pepsi is that I am not even a user of the product. I feel like I therefore see Pepsi pretty much as it is portrayed in ads and with sponsorships and events. I don't enjoy pop and I never drink it, yet I find my personality similar to that of Pepsi and therefore I feel like I can relate to the brand.

The ever debated Mac vs PC - Brand Loyalty

I have not always been a very electronic savvy person, I guess I still wouldn't consider myself that savvy. When computers first came into public schools I hated them, wanted nothing to do with them. I couldn't type and I had no idea how to get to anything on the hard drive. How silly it all seems now. Through middle school I only typed up assignments if it was mandatory. I would have rather written three drafts to make sure it was all right. It wasn't until high school that I really participated in the computer world. We had a PC at home, no idea what brand (that in itself might tell you something) and I used it for word processing, some games and the internet. Then came university, I moved to Montreal and had to have my own laptop. Again a PC, it was what my parents knew and had always had. As an aside, I bought that laptop in 2003 and I found it a week ago while cleaning. My god that thing is bulky and ugly!

The thing I remember most vividly about all the PCs I ever used were the VIRUSES!!!!!!!!! Oh and the few versions of Windows that just never worked out very well. So, was I ever moved along the brand continuum with PC? Well I supposed I accepted them, but definitely never moved into the preference stage.

Now it's time for College in a completely different field than science which I took in university. I read the requirements for the advertising program and I need a new laptop, a Mac is suggested, I had never heard of Apple before. (Brand awareness) At this point I'm dating a guy whose brother is a computer tech, so I ask for some advice. After a few minutes of talking to him there was no doubt that he had moved through all the stages of the brand continuum with Apple/Mac and was very brand insistent. Well if he thinks Macs are the best and the school suggests it then I should check them out. After hearing all the benefits especially for a creative program I decide to buy a Macbook Pro. (Brand acceptance) I take it home and try it out. At first I'm frustrated with the new look and operating system and the fact that the close and minimize buttons are on the left side of the windows, not to mention the fact that none of the files I have saved from before on my old computer are compatible with me new Mac.

A few weeks pass.................

I've gotten the hang of everything and am starting to use the different programs. It's a beautiful computer with a sleek design, and everything just seems easier to do.

A year later.....

It's Christmas time and all I want is an ipod! Yes, I've decided I want an mp3 player and obviously I want it to work with my baby - my Macbook. (Brand preference) My parents look at prices and compare ipod to other brands. The consensus, we should get her a different mp3 player ipods are too expensive. This gets relayed back to me and I feel my stomach turn. But I love everything about Apple and the ipod, it's hip it has a huge amount of store, a big screen, comes in sweet colours, and has so many other cool features. Don't bother getting me one if it isn't an ipod. (Brand insistence)

I guess my story boils down to, Apple did a good job moving me along the brand continuum. I went from being completely unaware of the brand to brand insistence in about a year and a half. What's more, I rave about Apple to all my friends, so they're getting positive word of mouth advertising as well!