E-marketing adventures!

Brand extension is a key component of any growing company, both online and offline. This post is all about examining when you are ready to launch your new brand and whether it is beneficial to do so. Seth Godin gives his opinion in his article “The question to ask before extending your brand”. His belief revolves around the idea that for a brand extension to be successful it must bring something “New” to the market. An obvious example of a company who is successful at this process is Apple, take its launch of the Ipad. If a company simply attempts to extend its brand image simply because it can, it is far more likely to be received with lukewarm support and is unlikely to add much value to the company.

I would certainly agree with Godin in some aspects. A companies brand extension is going to be far more successful if it is able to launch a new product that is groundbreaking and desired by consumers. But what about small companies? Not all businesses can spend huge sums on R&D to find the next big thing. Therefore I would argue that it is dependent upon the size of the business as to the type of brand extension. Smaller companies will look to integrate new ideas and muscle in on new markets and in my opinion this does provide them new found value even if it is not bringing something new to the table.

To wrap up I believe that a brand extension is an important if not critical process for any business. Companies are surely on the look out for growth opportunities and this is done through adopting new strategies and new markets. It is the timing of such adoption that is imperative for the success of the business and although being able to launch new product categories such as Starbucks ice cream, most companies do not have the assets to do so.

*For more on brand extension check out Seth Godin’s blog article article; http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/03/the-essential-question-to-ask-before-extending-your-brand.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fsethsmainblog+%28Seth%27s+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher*