Feb 18 2011
The Problem with Brand Extension
After reading Seth Godin’s blog, When was the last time you bought a tie, it got me thinking about market segmentation. In Seth’s blog, he talks about the difficulties of activating a segment of the market that isn’t looking as opposed to the easiness of targeting a market that “can’t wait for your arrival” (Godin, 2011). He argues that while most marketers think it is important to expand their target market, it is actually most beneficial to create products matching what the market is looking for, seeking out those people, and ignoring the rest.
I thought this blog was particular interesting because we just talked about this in my marketing class. While brands can extend their name to an unrelated product category, it is not successful all the time. In addition to the failed brand extensions shown in class, I was curious to see what other products came up. After researching some online, I came across some very bizarre brand extensions on this website titled, Top 25 Biggest Flops of All Time. One that stood out to me was Colgate Kitchen Entrees which was a range of food products that Colgate decided to create. Apparently the idea was that consumers would eat their Colgate meal and then brush their teeth with the toothpaste. However, when a person hears the Colgate brand name, it doesn’t necessarily activate their taste buds. Going back to Seth Godin’s point, why create a new product to extend your brand if you already have a successful market with your existing product?