Brand fitness... stretch or jump?

How far do you push your brand before rebuilding the brand architecture?

A sports car manufacturer near me is considering a city car to extend its product category into a different sector.

While there is some merit in this and credibility may come from the green credentials associated with this product, you have to question if such extreme brand stretch is sensible or whether a jump to a sub brand would keep the sports car heritage credible.

Porsche managed to carry their credibility into the SUV sector by ensuring the performance credentials were at the heart of their Cayenne. Toyota decided they needed to create a prestigious marque (Lexus) to jump sectors and compete credibly with Merc and BMW.

The diagrams below illustrate how kudos can be maintained provided the brand is positioned with growth in mind.While there is some merit in this and credibility may come from the green credentials associated with this product, you have to question if such extreme brand stretch is sensible or whether a jump to a sub brand would keep the sports car heritage credible.

To support this, understanding of user preferences allows brand strategy to add value. Five areas or dimensions of brand value that emerged from research*, in order of frequency mentioned were:

• functionality

• product image and style

• corporate image and style

• credibility and intimacy

• price and value

Of particular interest was how far respondents differentiated between corporate and product image and whether this influenced their brand selection. It was reported that very few constructs were mentioned exclusively in relation to the corporate or parent brand.

Brand positioning, structure and architecture are important factors when launching or extending your brand. Get it right and credibility will flow to your new product or service, get it wrong and the failure could back fire and harm your corporate reputation.

For a Brand or Design Audit, please get in touch :)

Andy Griib.