Stretching The Brand
After several interviews I realized that numerous wow brands mentioned by colleagues were brands that had been extensively stretched and the question that came to my mind was: Do brands become “Wow” as a consequence of successful stretching or only “Wow” brands are the ones that have the power to be stretched?
I
do not have the bullet proof answer to this question but intuition tells me
that the truth must rely on a mix of the 2 options.
I will start with a brand that a colleague explained with such
passion that deserves to be the first of the list of stretched “Wow” brands:
Chanel
The power of Chanel to grow organically in its core category,
fashion, and yet manage to successfully stretch itself into other categories
(fragrances, make up, skincare, jewelry, watches…) without losing credibility,
relevance and still connecting with its main audience is what has made this
brand a global icon worldwide.
The key to stretching Chanel has been the consistency with its brand values and
therefore protecting the long term equity of the brand:
Chanel has always found a coherent and
flexible evolution of the brands core essence via capitalizing the brand into
new products and categories. This may sound complicated but it’s easy to
understand if we put the example of ‘would it have been a good idea that Chanel
had stretched the brand into the world of farming equipment? Of course not, as
this has anything to do with the core essence of Chanel meaning luxury, female
sophistication, French heritage, etc.
Here are other examples of stretched brands that came through in
my interviews or have been researched while building this blog:
Apple
From software and computer maker to consumer electronics titan .
Apple Computer dropped the “Computer” from its name, becoming a
consumer electronics powerhouse that destroyed Sony’s (SNE) Walkman with the
iPod, made smartphone pioneer BlackBerry (BBRY) virtually irrelevant with the
iPhone, beat Google (GOOG) to the living room with the Apple TV streaming box
and topped it all off with the iPad, a game-changer that dominated the new
tablet market while bruising PC sales.
Porsche
Brought luxury and sports car performance into the SUV category
with a unique and premium priced value proposition in the Porsche Cayenne.
Offered a new benefit for their current franchise, who owned a
Porsche 911, but then moved into another life stage with a family they could no
longer accommodate in their car.
By bringing luxury, sportiness and performance values into this
new category, they were able to grow their business, while protecting brand
image. And it didn’t stop there. After that the Panamera, a 4 door sports
saloon was launched and recently the Macan, a smaller SUV.
Virgin
Richard Branson, is a brand on itself and very closely linked to
the basic value of the Virgin brand. Virgin's brand essence is iconoclasm. Four
clearly defined values and associations describe the Virgin brand: service
quality, innovation, fun and value for money. These are Virgin's core
identities.
Coke
Managed to create a very balanced product portfolio with each
sub-brand serving a ‘fresh’ target group: Light, Zero, Life (the first soda that
is naturally sweetened).
Amazon
As an e-tailer, Amazon re-invented themselves to get a bigger
variety of products to consumers faster. Expanded its portfolio beyond books to
a marketplace, creation of Amazon Web Service, Amazon Kindle, Amazon studio
etc. Introduced same-day shipping and acquired robotics maker Kiva Systems to
solve old-fashioned warehouse problems and get products to customers more
quickly.
McDonalds
Some Europeans viewed the chain as an unfortunate American
export, so they spent over $1 billion to overhaul its European menus. Updated
its décor to a higher quality aesthetic and added more diverse menu options
such as chilled gazpacho, spinach and parmesan stuffed chicken tenders and
chicory salads.
Also expanded the times in the day it could be visited. McCafe
has been popular, especially among teenagers because it offers something
different to Starbucks (and was cheaper).
Lego
From the toy shelf to the game shelf.
Lego embraced open innovation and entrepreneurship via adapting
their product to fit the new generation of children (who play more digitally
then physically). Not only did they re-invent their toys but they also connected
with the new consumer through popular films such as Star Wars and Lord of the
Rings, plus expansion into areas such as video games – and content creation
(LEGO movie)
Interesting post! I´ve also considered Chanel as WOW! Brand on my blog, and selected the same vídeo to support my post (http://wowbrandsworld.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/heritage-tradition-as-reference/).
ReplyDeleteI consider stretching as a consequence of a WOW! Brand...only a very powerful brand can explore new categories, due to its reputation, without being questioned by consumers. Furthermore, stretching can also be a strategy to survive: a brand can change its focus by repositioning itself into a new category.
Already the third time I come across Chanel in the review of the blogs. Eduardo, just before I guess on yours or on Caroline's... I don't remember. Well, anyhow, I completely agree with you: stretching your offer so much is quite a challenge for a luxury brand which can not afford to cheapen/damage its image in order to not to lose their current franchise: To me, Chanel and Louis Vuitton are two brilliant examples. Lous Vuitton moved from its traditional leather luggage into fashion, accessories, etc..... (I am actually asking myself when they will launch a "kids" collection which would be a boom for all the LV addicted mums in the world;))) and also Chanel has known to rejuvenate itself and diverisfy during the years. Two brilliant examples of WOW brands to me.
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