Brand Extension - "Extended" Out, How To "Stretch"?

It may be that the brand has reached the point where it can not sleep anymore. In recent years, many enterprises in China have launched a "brand extension" trend overnight.

It's a rush to catch up with cars, sell drinks and make clothes, and make big white chips. After just a few days, the industry leaders are thinking of creating a "manufacturing kingdom".

When these enterprises are complacent on the road of brand extension, the industry's numerous points and comments are endless. In general, these voices contain more questions and questions than affirmation and encouragement.

In these well intentioned comments and questions, the industry professionals are concerned about the national industry.

Indeed, in many brands that carry out brand extension, they lose more than they succeed.

However, the author believes that no matter how these enterprises take the road of brand extension, the fact is that they have already embarked on the road. They have made tens of millions and hundreds of millions of capital investment. Obviously, even if they find it wrong, they will not be able to stop at one thirty.

Now that we can't stop, we need to go forward. We need to review where we are wrong when we take this step.

Try to find ways to solve the problem.

As a career marketing practitioner for more than ten years, I never believe there is no way to save the wrong step. The key to the problem is whether you can find the "acupuncture point" to solve the problem.

Generally speaking, there are several mistakes in brand extension, which are easy for enterprises to commit.

First, the extension is too wide to disperse the brand assets.

Two, the demand of the new brand's selling point deviates from the core demand of the target customers.

Three, we have overestimated the excessive extension of consumer loyalty to the brand.

Four, although the direction of extension is right, there is no necessary strengthening element in the core gene of the brand.

The five is the loss of customers caused by the conflict between extended products and customers' loyalty to the main brand.

The six is the message from the new extension brand, which makes the original customers of the original brand feel self esteem.

What happens if there is a mistake?

Marketing is to solve the problem. Let's combine two specific cases to explore a way to solve the problem of extended mistakes.

Wahaha children's wear

On the brand extension, Wahaha children's clothing undoubtedly committed second and third mistakes in the above error group.

That is, the selling appeal of the extended new brand deviates from the core demand of the target customer, and overestimates the excessive extension caused by the loyalty of the brand.

When we studied the brand chain of Wahaha, we found that we should ignore the problem of channel operation.

The most fundamental reason for its failure is that the demand points deviate from the core needs and preferences of the target audience. Instead, it is "self talk", forcing the "health" to be imposed on consumers.

We look at children as users of products. They are naive and young. Maybe they have some knowledge about the nutrition and health of food, but it is hard to agree with their health through clothes.

Do not say children, in fact, even the vast majority of parents have doubts and disagreements about this, and no doubt they are parents. After all, they are hundreds of dollars or even hundreds of dollars worth of clothing. They are no more than a few yuan worth of drinks. Parents can let their children pay for their own sex.

That is to say, the so-called "health" concept should not be played by Wahaha children's clothing.

Wahaha Group has also overestimated the impact of Wahaha's main brand on consumer groups. It believes that Wahaha's brand value has reached the point where customers can do almost anything quickly.

But this is not the case. If we want to evaluate the value of Wahaha's main brand, it can only be said that it only sets up a brand value perception which can be called "professionalization" on beverage products, rather than a universal brand that can cover many industrial fields and also does not fade.

That is to say, when Wahaha extends to a product outside the beverage, it will remain famous, without professionalism and reputation.

But it is very obvious that after nearly twenty years of market economy education, Chinese consumers now consider the factors of purchasing decisions not entirely "popularity", but have begun to evaluate the degree of specialization and reputation of the industry.

Where is the "acupoint" that can solve the plight of Wahaha children's clothing?

I believe that the best way to solve the failure of Wahaha children's clothing market is to live a brand visual image with impact and "lethality" and to create a series of products and products corresponding to the brand association bearer.

It should be noted that although children's behavior in children's clothing plays a decisive role in the purchase decision of children's clothing.

But the root cause of this result is that the Wahaha children's clothing brand lacks the appeal to users - children.

We analyze them from the perspective of children's psychology. They are very simple. They can not and can not consider too many functional benefits such as "health".

Therefore, enterprises must give them one of the simplest reasons, either to look at it beautifully, or to see it joyfully and intuitively, without too much complicated analysis process, nor do they have such analytical ability.

We can not hesitate to assert that what they need is actually a vivid "lovely" intuitive endorsement image, such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snoopy, little bear Vigny, queer, and even blue cat.

This image must satisfy their smart, lovely, naughty, individual and even rebellious needs, so that children can have the simplest and most direct appeal.

But one problem is that children do not pay too much attention to advertising appeals.

What shall I do?

In a word, Kungfu must be independent of the brand image of Wahaha children's clothing and operate as a vivid and entertaining image. It can be said that this is the only way to solve the failure of Wahaha children's wear.

We should know that in fact, people accepted Disney's products on the premise of accepting the lovely images of Disney's Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.

For example, the reason why people are willing to accept McDonald's fast food is actually after feeling the relaxed and joyful atmosphere of McDonald's.

Similarly, the reason why people accepted the Nike sports products was actually first accepted and experienced the spirit of "Just Do It" and the spirit of advocating sports created by Nike.

Advice Wahaha's policy maker: don't be obsessed with any children's model contest, because your clothes are only suitable for babies and children, and they will not compete in dressing.

And when they started to compete at the age of 10, the object of the competition has changed. It will not be children's clothes anymore, but Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Metersbonwe.

Therefore, the author believes that the only way out for Wahaha children's clothing is to give the target customers a vivid and interesting image on the premise of creating happiness and pleasure for potential customers, and enable them to understand the character and personality of the image, so that they can accept the goods faster and easier.

Haier IT

The heroism of Haier's march into PC has led many people to have great confidence in Haier's diversification process.

But then the quiet retreat made many people do not believe their eyes.

The error is there, many people in the industry have different opinions, the industry chain matching short board, the channel operation mistakes and so on.

But the author believes that the most fundamental reason is that Haier does not have the ability or the channel is not ready.

But when Haier entered PC, the core of its brand was not related to the Internet and high-tech information. In the eyes of its original customers and many potential customers, Haier was still a famous brand in the field of professional appliance, but it was not related to modern information technology.

When Haier brand extended to the IT field, it made fourth mistakes in the brand extension we mentioned earlier.

That is, although the direction of extension is right, there is a lack of necessary intensification elements in the core genes of the brand, which is a major mistake in Haier's brand extension strategy.

Although Haier IT products through a series of opportunities to make customers and other social public feel the strong strength of Haier into the PC.

However, there is not enough Lenovo and Lenovo in the promotion of brand extension, which leads to the lack of attractiveness of Haier PC brand to potential customers.

To do marketing today, we have arrived at the time when we must understand a truth. When the market competition is upgraded from product competition to conceptual competition, brand competition has already increased to the level of Lenovo to pay for Lenovo and pay for experience.

It's like an ordinary clerk who has a 500 yuan of income a month bought a pair of Nike shoes worth 300 yuan.

He needs to be able to turn around like a handsome guy in Nike's advertisement. He hopes to send a signal to the people around him by buying these Nike shoes. "I am also a fashionable person, or I belong to a level with you."

This is what Nike brings to the brand by constantly creating associations with fashion, grades and class status.

And through the investigation of the author and colleagues and consumer special research, it is found that the first thought of 80% of consumers' minds in the first sight of Haier computer is that it is not a IT brand, but a home appliance brand.

Within half a minute of browsing the product, the high-tech image related to IT is weak, and there is a lack of associative objects and events that can be linked.

In the extension area, the brand foundation is so shallow that I heard that Haier is coming back to prepare for the IT battlefield.

The author believes that the strategic acupoint that Haier wants to impress IT potential customers is that they should constantly create anecdotes about IT technology and Internet for potential consumers, and store enough associations and events for Haier IT brand in the minds of potential customers. Only in this way can customers gradually identify with Haier IT's professional image and market position under the influence of multi angle events.

In fact, TCL has performed for us. Remember the "Wu Shihong incident"?

Do you remember the fashion of "heaven and earth family"?

All the same!

Brand extension should learn from virgin.

We know that Virgin Group is a brand extension machine.

Among many