22 IMMUTABLE LAWS OF BRANDING SERIES -2

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LAW 1

The Law of Expansion

( The Power of a Brand is Inversely proportional to its Scope)

When you put your name on everything, that name loses its power.  Marketers constantly run branding programs that are in conflict with how people want to perceive their brands. But people don't think in way what marketers wants them to think. 
Customer in their minds, try to assign one brand name to each product. and they are not consistent in how they assign such names. They tend to use the name that best captures the essence of the product. It could be the mega brand name, or the model name, or the nickname.

Customer wants brands that are narrow in scope and are distinguishable by single word, the shorter the better.

Think Chevrolet. What immediately comes to mind?

Having Trouble? ITS UNDERSTANDABLE.
CHEVROLET is a large , small, cheap, expensive car....... or Truck.

When you put your brand name on everything , that name loses its power. Chevrolet used to be the best selling automobile brand in America. No longer. Today Ford is the leader.

In India, TATA is using somewhat similar strategy.

TATA makes large, small, cheap, expensive car or..... truck. but still not able to attain the position of leader in automobile sector. MARUTI is the leader.

Why does Chevrolet or say TATA market all those models ? because it wants to sell more cars. And in short term , it does. But in long term , it undermines its brand name in the mind of customers /consumers.
The Emphasis in most companies is on the short term. Line Extension, Megabranding, Variable pricing  and a host of other sophisticated marketing techniques are being used to milk brands rather then build them. While Milking may bring in easy money in the short term, in the long term it wears down the brand until it no longer stands for anything.

Their are lot examples of this short term view i.e What Chevrolet did in automobile, American express did in Credit cards, P&G did in Toothpaste, Levi's did in Jeans!!!!!
 Marketers often confuse the power of a brand with the sales generated by that brand. But sales are not just a function of brand's power. Sales are also a function of the strength or weakness of a brand's competition.
 If you want to build a powerful brand in the mind of consumers, you need to contract your brand, not expand it. In the long Term, expanding your brand will diminish your power and weaken your image.

we can take the example of some of the Indian Brands who started on a very well note but later on got weakened due to the rapid line extension i.e LUX was the leader in to  soap category but extension into SHAMPOO, BODYWASH etc. GODREJ was in to lock & Almirah tries to
 ( Excerpts from the Chapter 1 of the book - 22 immutable law of Branding, written by AL RIES & LAURA RIES, published by Harper Collins in 1998)  All the rights reserved with the authors & publisher of book. Excerpts written in this blog is only for the knowledge & educational purpose for my students  whom i taught or still teach.)

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