Branding Strategies for Success (Collection)

Truth 42. Beware of the allure of brand extensions

The secret to building a great brand is consistency and focus. However, this can be terribly difficult to do. As soon as a brand does well, companies like to take the brand and extend the name to many other products. In theory, it is understandable. Why spend significant dollars building a new brand when there is a perfectly fabulous brand sitting there and waiting to be leveraged? By extending the brand, consistency and focus are typically lost. However, what is the long-term cost of slowly deteriorating a brand versus the immediate savings from not having to create a completely new brand? Is it better in the long run to build a new brand from scratch or develop a brand extension?

By extending ...