Executive Summary Marketers are now finding it extremely difficult to create new brands.

The brand building costs tend to be very high. At the same time the developments at the demand side are creating pressures on marketers to fine tune their offerings as per unique needs of target customs. In order to cope with demand side pressures and cost constraints the firms are adopting extension route to growth. That is when they extend a successful brand name to promote a product in an unrelated category. Such a move is based on the logic that a brand can stand for two things. In reality, if a brand stands for something, it is difficult for to acquire a second meaning at the same time. This goes against the fundamentals of positioning and perception. Brand extension strategy is pursued by the marketers very vigorously these days. It involves using an existing brand name to launch a product in a different category. Here the brand remains constant but product category tends to be variable. Brand extensions are justified on the basis of promotional efficiency, savings on product launches, consumer benefits and returns. Various types of extensions could be identified such as product form, companion product, expertise, customer franchise, and brand image type. An extension can be good when extended product succeeds and parent brand benefits. A bad extension is one which fails to lift off while an ugly extension not only fails to lift off; it also damages the parent brand. Extensions involve transfer of parent brand associations to the extensions. The nature of parent brand is crucial determinant of extension success. Therefore, before embarking upon extension programme, brand's extendibility must be judged. A brand's extendibility depends upon its character whether the brand is a product brand, formula brand, knowhow brand or an interest brand. Brands which are symbolic and philosophical are easier to extend into unrelated product categories. The product or know-how brands have narrow zone of extension. The parent brand and the extension must enjoy a good relevance. In the absence of relevance, the brand beliefs and attitudes are unlikely to be successfully transferred to the extension candidate.

Introduction to Brands
Brand: What is it? A brand is a collection of feelings toward an economic producer; more specifically, it refers to the concrete symbols for those feelings, such as a name and design scheme. Feelings are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service, both directly relating to its use, and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary. A brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to a company, product or service. A brand serves to create associations and expectations among products made by a producer. Brand expert Dr Nikolaus Eberl defines a brand as "the premium which it demands as compared to similar products or services". A brand often includes an explicit logo, fonts, color schemes, symbols, which are developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even personality.

History of brands
The word brand comes from the Old Norse brandr, meaning to burn, and from these origins made its way into Anglo-Saxon. It was of course by burning that early man stamped ownership on his livestock, and with the development of trade buyers would use brands as a means of distinguishing between the cattle of one farmer and another. A farmer with a particularly good reputation for the quality of his animals would find his brand much sought after, while the brands of farmers with a lesser reputation were to be avoided or treated with caution. Thus the utility of brands as a guide to choice was established, a role that has remained unchanged to the present day. Brands in the field of marketing originated in the 19th century with the advent of packaged goods. Industrialization moved the production of many household items, such as soap, from local communities to centralized factories. When shipping their items, the factories would literally brand their logo or insignia on the barrels used, which is where the term comes from. These factories, generating mass-produced goods, needed to sell their products to a wider market, to a customer base familiar only with local goods. It quickly became apparent that a generic package of soap had difficulty competing with familiar, local products. The packaged goods manufacturers needed to convince the market that the public could place just as much trust in the non-local product. Campbell soup, Aunt Jemima, and Quaker Oats were among the first products to be 'branded', in an effort to increase the consumer's familiarity with their products. Many brands of that era, such as Uncle Ben's rice and Kellogg's breakfast cereal furnish illustrations of the problem. Around 1900, James Walter Thompson published a house ad explaining trademark advertising. This was an early commercial explanation of what we now know as branding. Companies soon adopted slogans, mascots, and jingles which began to appear on radio and early television. By the 1940s, manufacturers began to recognize the way in which consumers were developing relationships with their brands in a social/psychological/anthropological sense.

From there, manufacturers quickly learned to associate other kinds of brand values, such as youthfulness, fun or luxury, with their products. This began the practice we now know as branding, where it is felt that consumers buy the brand instead of the product. This trend continued to the 1980s, which have been described as "brand equity mania". In 1988, Phillip Morris purchased Kraft for six times what the company was worth on paper; it was felt that what they really purchased was its brand.

What is Branding?
1. Brands are people. People make friends with people when they have things in common, want to spend time together, and find something special in the relationship. Brands make friends with people in exactly the same way. Brand management is about finding a group of people you can identify with, spending time together, & becoming committed to each other. The more time you spend with your customers the better. This is sometimes referred to as share of mind. 2. Branding is about the totality of a customer's experience. A brand is about everything you do which impinges on the consciousness of the customer and, more importantly, it is about everything he thinks you do. Some experiences carry greater weight than others. Some experiences have been forgotten entirely consciously by a customer, but are nevertheless of paramount importance in the way he views you. Customers build brands piecemeal. They build a story about based on their experience. They see a product in certain shops. They heard of it on the radio. Somebody told them about an experience they had with the company - actually, they got the name wrong. The brand logo reminds them of daffodils. The customer owns a brand - company does not. Companys job is to behave as consistently as possible. 3. There are plenty of branding opportunities in any mass market place, so long as you do not try to copy the market leader. Brand marketing is about niche marketing. Different messages will appeal most to different groups of people. Be different. 4. Brands are best communicated implicitly. Let the customer make the connection. The company must try to facilitate that experience. 5. The group of people on whom the brand is focused - the customers of the brand - need not necessarily pay any money directly. 6. Brands last forever, if managed correctly. The most exciting brands to have are icon brands that represent a certain moment in history. Icon brands grow rapidly, become

outdated and decline, and can then bounce back on the next cycle of history. More traditional brands may have fewer ups and downs, but there will usually be fluctuations in their fortunes. Nevertheless, brands will tend to endure if invested in consistently. Consistency is one of the key underlying themes of branding. 7. Brands win when they create a powerful experience that is totally compelling to the customer, and deliver it better than anyone else. The fewer the people are targeted with your brand the more compelling to be the claim in a highly competitive market. The more people you try to capture with your brand, the weaker may be your claim on any given customer, with one exception. In an environment where the customers do not have a relationship with any brands in particular, they will probably be drawn to those they recognise the best. Brands are therefore a bit like light beams. The more concentrated the beam, the more cutting power it will have (as in a laser beam); however, even a diffuse beam, like sunlight, will shed more light and heat than will darkness. 8. As brands are people, they can be analysed like people. Brands can therefore be analysed along two key dimensions:

The level of intimacy they have with their customers Their level of stature in the world

Elements that will drive these dimensions are:

The central organising thought of the brand The personality of the brand The values the brand espouses The tastes/dress of the brand, including how it speaks The emotional benefits the brand satisfies The hard benefits the brand delivers to the customer

Why is it important to develop a brand for a product or service?

A brand offers instant product recognition and identification. Consumers identify branded products and, as a result of effective advertising, have confidence in product quality. Retailers like branded products because they make the store profitable - shoppers attracted to branded products spend three to four times more on groceries than do privatelabel shoppers. Branding is beneficial for four reasons: Differentiation A brand provides a clear and definitive reason for customers to buy a product. If this reason does not exist, a product is a commodity and the only measure of value is price. Small, value added businesses cannot compete on price successfully and need to incorporate some form of differentiation. Conveys value Consumers perceive branded products as higher quality, more reliable and a better value than non-branded products. Generally speaking, the number-one brand in a category can command a 10% price premium over the number-two brand, and a 40% premium over the local store brand. This price premium is known as a brand tax. Consumers understand that a strong brand can reduce getting stuck with disappointing or faulty products. Builds brand loyalty Brand loyalty is the recurring stream of profit generated by repeat and referral sales of a specific brand. Repeat sales can be as much as 90% less expensive to a company than new customer development. Builds pride Branded, recognizable products invoke a sense of pride in those associated with production, promotion, sale and distribution of those products.

Brand Extensions
During the last two decades the firms are increasingly convinced that a companys success can be improved by the introduction of new products. A key factor for the new product success is the used brand strategy. Capitalising on the equity in established brand names has become the guiding strategy of product planners. For firms of branded goods brand extension strategy have become very popular. Brand Extension is leveraging the values of the brand to take the brand into new markets/sectors. Brand extensions lets a marketer take a brand with well-known quality perceptions and associations and put it in a new category. Not only can marketers capitalize on brand awareness, they can also leverage of the associations consumers know about the parent brand. In several product categories more than 90% of new product introduction are brand extensions. Consumers who favorably evaluate a parent brand are more willing to try and adopt the brand extension than an unfamiliar brand in the same category. They trust a known brand name. For these reasons, brand extensions make new product introduction less expensive. Brand extensions can also help a firms stock prices. An academic research has found that Wall Street attend to brand extension announcements and that whether they like them or not depends on how much they like the parent band. Brand extensions can also help consumers understand the core meaning of the brand name. When Arm and Hammer extends its name from baking soda to deodorant, kitty litter, shoe inserts, its core "deodorizing" brand concept is enhanced. Arm and Hammer means deodorizingno matter what it is on. So, in this sense, brand extensions truly help to build equity in the brand name itself.

Advantages of Brand Extension

For most firms, the question is not whether the brand should be extended, but when, where, and how the brand should be extended. Well-planned and well-implemented extensions offer a number of advantages to marketers. Brand extension strategy has found favours in the modern marketing world because of the advantages it has over the other new product launch options. The important benefits that it promises to deliver are as follows:Facilitate New Product Acceptance The high failure rate of new products is well documented. Marketing analysts estimate that perhaps only 2 of 10 new products will be successful, or maybe even as few as 1 of 10. As noted previously, new products can fail for a number of reasons. Robert McMath, who oversees a collection of over 75,000 once-new consumer products called the New Products Showcase and Learning Center in Ithaca, New York, identifies nine main reasons for product failure 1. The market was too small (insufficient demand for type of product). 2. The product was a poor match for the company. 3. The product was justified on inadequate or inaccurate marketing research, or the company ignored research results. 4. The company was too early or too late in researching the market (failure to capitalize on its marketing window). 5. The product provided insufficient return on investment (poor profit margins and high costs). 6. The product was not new or different (a poor idea that really offered nothing new). 7. The product did not go hand in hand with familiarity. 8. Credibility was not confirmed on delivery. 9. Consumers could not recognize the product. Brand extensions can certainly suffer from some of the same shortcomings faced by any new product. Nevertheless a new product, introduced as a brand extension, may be more

likely to succeed, at least to some degree, because it offers the advantages described in the following subsections. Improves Brand Image One of the advantages of a well-known and well-liked brand is that consumers form expectations over time concerning its performance. Similarly, with a brand extension, consumers can make inferences and form expectations as to the likely composition and performance of a new product based on what they already know about the brand itself and the extent to which they feel this information is relevant to the new product. These inferences may improve the strength, favorability, and uniqueness of the extension's brand associations. For example, when Sony introduced a new personal computer tailored for multimedia applications-Vaio, consumers may have been more likely to feel comfortable with its anticipated performance because of their experience with and knowledge of other Sony products than if the product had been branded by Sony as something completely new. Reduces Risk Perceived by Customers One research study examining factors affecting new product acceptance found that the most important factor for predicting initial trial of a new product was the extent to which a known family brand was involved. Extensions from well-known corporate brands such as General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, or others may communicate longevity and sustainability. Although corporate brands may lack specific product associations because of the breadth of products attached to their name, their established reputation for being able to introduce quality products and stand behind them may be an important riskreducer for consumers Thus, perceptions of corporate credibilityin terms of expertise and trust-worthinesscan be valuable associations in introducing brand extensions Similarly, although widely extended supermarket family brands such as Betty Crocker, Green Giant, Del Monte, and Pepperidge Farm may lack specific product meaning, they may still stand for product quality in the minds of consumers and, by reducing perceived risk, facilitate the adoption of brand extensions.

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Increase Efficiency of Promotional Expenditures From a marketing communications perspective, one obvious advantage of introducing a new product as a brand extension is that the introductory campaign does not have to create awareness of both the brand and the new product but instead can concentrate on only the new product itself. In general, it should be easier to add a link from a brand already existing in memory to a new product than it is to first establish the brand in memory and then also link the new product to it. As a dramatic illustration of the marketing communication efficiencies of brand extensions, when General Mills launched its fourth Cheerios extension, Frosted Cheerios, the brand was able to achieve a 0.44 percent market share in the extremely competitive cereal category in its very first week of sales with essentially no advertising or promotion. Solely on the basis of its name and product concept, demand for the sweetened oat cereal was so high that most supermarkets were forced to limit the number of boxes that could be purchased. Several research studies document this extension benefit. One study of 98 consumer brands in 11 markets found that successful brand extensions spent less on advertising than did comparable new-name entries. A comprehensive study by Indiana University's Dan Smith found similar results, indicating that the average advertising to sales ratio for brand extensions was 10 percent, compared with 19 percent for new brands. His study identified some underlying factors moderating this extension advantage. The difference in advertising efficiency between brand extensions and new brands was shown to increase as the fit with other products affiliated with the parent brand increased, as the new product's relative price compared with that of competitors increased, and as distribution intensity increased. On the other hand, the difference in advertising efficiency between brand extensions and new brands was shown to decrease when the new product was composed primarily of search attributes (i.e., when product quality could be Judged through visual inspection), as the new product became established in the market, and as consumers' knowledge of the new product category increased.

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Reduce Cost of Introductory and Follow-Up Marketing Programs Because of these push and pull considerations in distribution and promotion, it has been estimated that a firm can save 40 percent to 80 percent on the estimated $30 million to $50 million it can cost to launch a new supermarket product nationally in the United States. Moreover, other efficiencies can result after the launch. As one such example, when a brand becomes associated with multiple products, advertising can become more cost-effective for the family brand as a whole. For example, in 1988, Jaguar introduced its first substantially improved automobile model in 16 years, adopting new technology to improve reliability although still retaining the classic Jaguar look. The resulting marketing program, which included a lavish ad campaign, increased demand for all new Jaguars. Even older Jaguars found their resale market value enhanced.

Avoid Cost of Developing a New Brand Developing new brand elements is an art and science. To conduct the necessary consumer research and employ skilled personnel to design high-quality brand names, logos, symbols, packages, characters, and slogans can be quite expensive, and there is no assurance of success. As the number of available and appealing brand names keeps shrinking, legal conflicts are more likely to result. Despite the fact that it had conducted a trademark search, Cosmair's L'Oreal division was successfully sued for $2.1 million when a court decided that the name it had chosen to introduce a new green and purple hair dye, Zazu, infringed on the name of a line of shampoos sold by a Hinsdale, Illinois, hair-styling salon called ZaZu Designs.

Allow for Packaging and Labeling Efficiencies Similar or virtually identical packages and labels for extensions can result in lower production costs and, if coordinated properly, more prominence in the retail store by creating a "billboard" effect. For example, Stouffer's offers a variety of frozen entrees with identical orange packaging that increases their visibility when stocked together in

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the freezer. A similar billboard effect is evident with other supermarket brands, such as Coca-Cola soft drinks and Campbell soup.

Permit Consumer Variety-Seeking By offering consumers a portfolio of brand variants within a product category, consumers who need a changebecause of boredom, satiation, or whatevercan switch to a different product type if they so desire without having to leave the brand family. Even without such underlying motivations, by offering a complement of line extensions, customers may be encouraged to use the brand to a greater extent or in different ways than otherwise might have been the case. Moreover, to even effectively compete in some categories, it may be necessary to have multiple items that together form a cohesive product line. Provide Feedback Benefits to the Parent Brand Besides facilitating acceptance of new products, brand extensions can also provide positive feedback to the parent brand in a number of ways, as described in the following subsections.

Clarify Brand Meaning Extensions can help to clarify the meaning of a brand to consumers and define the kinds of markets in which it competes. Thus, through brand extensions, Volvo means "safety," Nike means "winning," Gerber means "baby care," Amul means "healthy," and Chun King means "Chinese food" to consumers. Broader brand meaning often is necessary so that firms avoid "marketing myopia" and do not mistakenly draw narrow boundaries around their brand and either miss market opportunities or become vulnerable to well-planned competitive strategies. Thus, as Harvard's Ted Levitt pointed out in a pioneering article, railroads are not just in the "railroad" business but also the "transportation' business In other words, railroads do not necessarily compete with other railroads so much as with other forms of transportation 13

(e.g. , cars and planes) Thinking more broadly about product meaning can easily result in different marketing programs and new product opportunities For example, Steelcase's one-time slogan, "A Smarter Way to Work," reflected the fact that the company defines its business not as manufacturing desks, chairs, file cabinets, and credenzas but as "helping to enhance office productivity" For some brands, creating broader meaning is critical and may be the only way to expand sales In some cases, it is advantageous to establish a portfolio of related products that completely satisfy consumer needs in a certain area. For example, the $3 billion oral care market is characterized by a number of mega-brands (e.g., Colgate and Crest) that compete in multiple segments with multiple product offerings. Although these different brands were limited to a few specific products at one time, they have broadened their meaning through brand extensions to represent "complete oral care." Similarly, many specific-purpose cleaning products have broadened their meaning to become seen as multipurpose (e.g., Lysol, Comet).

Enhance the Parent Brand Image According to the customer-based brand equity model, one desirable outcome of a successful brand extension is that it may enhance the parent brand image by strengthening an existing brand association, improving the favorability of an existing brand association, adding a new brand association, or a combination of these. One common way that a brand extension affects the parent brand image is by helping to clarify its core brand values and associations. Core brand values are those attributes and benefits that come to characterize all the products in the brand line and, as a result, are those with which consumers often have the strongest associations. For example, Nike has expanded from running shoes to other athletic shoes, athletic clothing, and athletic equipment, strengthening its associations to "peak performance" and "sports" in the process. Another type of association that may be improved by successful brand extensions is consumer perceptions of the credibility of the company behind the extension. For

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example, Keller and Aaker showed that a successful corporate brand extension led to improved perceptions of the expertise, trustworthiness, and likeability of the company. In the late 1990s, several firms chose to introduce online versions of their services under a separate brand name (e.g., Bank One chose to launch its online bank as Wingspan). Besides increasing the difficulty and expense of launching a new brand, such companies also lost the opportunity to modernize the parent brand image and improve its technological credentials. In many cases, these ventures failed and their capabilities were folded back into the parent organization.

Bring New Customer into the Brand Franchise and Increase Market Coverage Line extensions can benefit the parent brand by expanding market coverage, for example, by offering a product benefit whose lack may have heretofore prevented consumers from trying the brand. For example, when Tyienol introduced a capsule form of its acetaminophen pain reliever, it was able to attract consumers who had difficulty swallowing tablets and therefore might have otherwise avoided the brand. By creating "news" and bringing attention to the parent brand, its sales may also increase. For example, although the market share of regular powdered Tidewhich once was at 27 percenthad slipped to 21 percent in the early 1980s, the introduction of Liquid Tide and Multi-Action Tide (a combined detergent, whitener, and fabric softener) resulted in market share increases of 2 percent to 4 percent for the flagship Tide parent brand by 1986. Remarkably, through the skillful introduction of extensions, Tide as a family brand has managed to maintain its market leadership and a market share of roughly 50 percent from the 1950s to the present.

Permit Subsequent Extensions One benefit of a successful extension is that it may serve as the basis for subsequent extensions. For example, Goodyear's successful introduction of its Aquatred tires subbrand led to the introduction of Eagle Aquatred for performance vehicles with either wider wheels (e.g., the Ford Mustang) or a luxury image (e.g., the Cadiltdi Seville).

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Revitalize the Brand Sometimes brand extensions can be a means to renew interest and liking for the brand. Increases the Probability of Gaining Distribution and Trial Because of the potentially increased consumer demand resulting from introducing a new product as an extension, it may be easier to convince retailers to stock and promote a brand extension. Returns: Over time many brands, from being initially mono-product or mono-activity have evolved into a diversified structure. For instance, Walt Disney was focused on children animation during the fifties but now it has branches into highly heterogeneous businesses. These include publishing, films, television, theme parks and cruises. A study exploring the returns connected with the brands found that strong brands are able to generate returns to shareholders which are 1.9 per cent above the industry average. Return comparison between focused and diversified brands revealed that focused brands like Dell and Levi's manage to earn merely 0.9 per cent higher than the industry average while diversified brand like GE, Disney etc earn no less than 5 per cent more than the industry average. These figures clearly demonstrate superior returns generating process of diversified brands. What are the responsible factors that enhance returns of diversified brands? Three factors probably drive the superior economics of such brands. First, leveraged brands are able to divide their support costs over a number of products. Second, the 'convergence' is throwing up new opportunities in many industries. Finally, the rising importance of relationship benefits for customers. The companies seem to work through loyalty programmes, better customer understanding and customers. Accordingly, leveraging brand makes more sense in these conditions.

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DISADVANTAGES OF BRAND EXTENSIONS

Despite these potential advantages, brand extensions have a number of disadvantages Can Confuse or Frustrate Consumers Different varieties of line extensions may confuse and perhaps even frustrate consumers as to which version of the product is the "right one" for them. As a result, they may reject new extensions for tried and true favorites or all-purpose versions that claim to supersede more specialized product versions. Moreover, because of the large number of new products and brands continually being introduced, many retailers do not have enough shelf or display space to stock them all. Consequently, some consumers may be disappointed when they are unable to find an advertised brand extension if a retailer is not able to or is unwilling to stock it. If a firm launches extensions that consumers deem inappropriate, they may question the integrity and competence of the brand. Can Encounter Retailer Resistance On average, the number of consumer packaged-goods stock-keeping units (SKUs) grew 16 percent each year from 1985 to 1992, whereas retail shelf space expanded only 15 percent each year during the same period. Many brands now come in a multitude of different forms. For example, Campbell has introduced a number of different lines of up including Condensed, Home Cookin', Chunky, Healthy Request, Select, Simply Home, and Ready-to-Serve Classicand offers more than 100 flavors in all. As a result, it has become virtually impossible for a grocery store or supermarket to offer all the different varieties available across all the different brands in any one product category. Moreover, retailers often feel that many brand extensions are merely "me-too"" products that duplicate existing brands in a product category and should not stocked even if there were space. Attacking brand proliferation, a year-long Food Marketing Institute (FMI) study showed that retailers could reduce their SKUs by 5 percent to 25 percent in certain product categories without hurting sales or consumer perceptions of the variety offered by their stores The FMI "product variety" study commended that retailers systematically identify duplicated and slow-moving items eliminate them to maximize

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profitability. The Science of Branding summarizes one perspective on how to reduce brand proliferation and simplify marketing. Can Fail and Hurt Parent Brand Image The worst possible scenario with an extension is that not only does it fail, but it also harms the parent brand image somehow in the process. Unfortunately, these negative feedback effects can sometimes happen. Consider General Motors's experience with the Cadillac Cimarron This model reduced in the early 1980s, was a "relative" of models in other GM lines, such as the Pontiac 2000 and Chevrolet Cavalier. The target market was less-affluent buyers seeking small luxury car who wanted, but could not really afford, a full-size Cadillac. Nor was the Cadillac Cimarron unsuccessful at generating new sales with this market 'segment, but existing Cadillac owners hated it. They felt it was inconsistent with the large size and prestige image they had expected from Cadillac. As a result, Cadillac sales dropped significantly in the mid-1980s. Looking back, one GM executive offered following insights: The decision was made purely on the basis of shortsighted profit and financial analysis, with no accounting for its effect on long-run customer loyally or, if you will, equity. A typical financial analysis would argue that the Cimarron would rarely steal sales from Cadillac's larger cars, so any sale would be one that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise. The people who were most concerned with such long-range issues raised serious objections but the bean counters said, "Oh no, we'll get this many dollars for every model sold." There was no thinking about brand equity. We paid for the Cimarron down the road. Everyone now realizes that using the model to extend the name was a horrible mistake. Even if an extension initially succeeds, by linking the brand to multiple products, the firm increases the risk that an unexpected problem or even tragedy with one product in the brand family can tarnish the image of some or all of the remaining products. For example, starting in 1986, the Audi 5000 car suffered from a tidal wave of negative publicity and word of mouth because it was alleged to have a "sudden acceleration " problem that resulted in an alarming number of fatal accidents. Even though (here was little concrete evidence to support the claims (resulting in Audi, in a public relations disaster, 18

attributing the problem to the clumsy way that Americans drove the car), Audi's U.S. sales declined from 74,000 in 1985 to 21,000 in 1989. As might be expected, the damage was most severe for sales of the Audi 5000, but the adverse publicity also spilled over to affect the 4000 model and, to a lesser extent, the Quattro model. The Quattro might have been relatively more insulated from negative repercussions because it was distanced from the 5000 by virtue of its more distinct branding and advertising strategy. Understanding when unsuccessful brand extensions may damage the parent brand is important. On a more positive note however, it should be recognized that one reason why an unsuccessful brand extension may not necessarily damage the parent brand is for the very reason that the extension may have been unsuccessful in the first placehardly anyone may have even heard of it. Thus, the silver lining in the case when a brand extension fails as a result of an inability to secure adequate distribution or to achieve sufficient brand awareness is that the parent brand is more likely to survive relatively unscathed. Product failures in which the extension is found to be inadequate in some way on the basis of performance are more likely to negatively affect parent brand perceptions than these "market" failures.

Can Succeed but Cannibalize Sales of Parent Brand Even if sales of a brand extension are high and meet targets, it is possible that this revenue may have merely resulted from consumers switching to the extension from existing product offerings of the parent brandin effect cannibalizing the parent brand by decreasing its sales. Brand extensions are often designed to establish points of parity with current offerings competing in the parent brand category, as well as to create additional points of difference in other areas (e.g., low-fat versions of foods). These types of line extensions may be particularly likely to result in cannibalization. Often, however, such intrabrand shifts in sales are not necessarily undesirable because they can be thought of as a form of "preemptive cannibalization." In other words, consumers might have switched to a competing brand instead of the line extension if it had not been introduced into the category.

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For example Diet Coke's point of parity of "good taste" and point of difference of "low calories" undoubtedly resulted in some of its sales coming from regular Coke drinkers. In fact, although U.S. sales of Coca-Cola's cola products have held steady since 1980, sales in 1980 came from Coke alone whereas sales today also receive significant contributions from Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, and uncaffeinated forms of Coke. Without the introduction of those extensions, however, some of Coke's sales might have gone to competing Pepsi products or other soft drinks or beverages instead. Can Succeed but Diminish Identification with Any One Category One risk of linking multiple products to a single brand is that the brand may not be strongly identified with any one product. Thus, brand extensions may obscure the identification of the brand with its original categories, reducing brand awareness. For example, when Cadbury became linked in the United Kingdom to mainstream food products such as Smash instant potatoes, marketers of the brand may have run the risk of weakening its association to fine chocolates. Pepperidge Farm is another brand that has been accused by marketing critics of having been extended so much (e.g. into soups) that the brand has lost its original meaning as "delicious, high-quality cookies." The vociferous business consultants Al Ries and Jack Trout, who in 1981 introduced the notion of the line extension trap, have popularized this potential drawback. They provide a number of examples of brands that, at the time, they believed had overextended.

One such example was Scott Paper, which Ries and Trout believe became overextended when its name was expanded to encompass ScotTowels paper towels, ScotTissue bath tissue, Scotties facial tissues, Scotkins, and Baby Scot diapers. Interestingly, in the mid1990s, Scott decided to attempt to unify its product line by renaming ScotTowels as Scott Towels and ScotTissue as Scott Tissue, adding a common look and logo (although some distinct colors) on both packages as well as their Scott Napkins. In perhaps a risky move, Scott also decided to phase out local brand names in 80 foreign countries where Scott garnered almost half its sales including Andrex, its top-selling British bath tissue. Scott's

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hope was that the advantages of brand consolidation and global branding would offset the disadvantages of losing local brand equity.

Some notableand fascinatingcounterexamples to these dilution effects exist, however, in terms of firms that have branded a heterogeneous set of products and still achieved a reasonable level of perceived quality in the minds of consumers for each product. For example, Yamaha has developed a strong reputation selling an extremely diverse brand line that includes motorcycles, guitars, and pianos. Mitsubishi uses its name to brand a bank, cars, and aircraft. Canon has successfully marketed cameras, photocopiers, and office equipment. In all these cases, it seems as if the brand has been able to secure a dominant association to quality in the minds of consumers without strong product identification that might otherwise limit it. Can Succeed but Hurt the Image of the Parent Brand If the brand extension has attribute or benefit associations that are seen as inconsistent or perhaps even as conflicting with the corresponding associations for the parent brand, consumers may change their perceptions of the parent brand as a result. For example, Farquhar notes that when Domino's Pizza entered into a licensing agreement to sell fruitflavored bubble gum a number of years ago, it ran the risk of creating a "chewiness" association that could negatively affect its flagship pizza products. As another example described Miller Brewing's difficulty in creating a "hearty" association to its flagship Miller High Life beer brand in, part because of its clear bottle and other factors such as its advertising heritage as the "champagne of bottled beer." It has often been argued that the early success of the Miller Lite light beer extension-market share soared from 9.5 percent in 1978 to 19 percent in 1986only exacerbated the tendency of consumers to think of Miller High Life as "watery" tasting and not a fullbodied beer. These unfavorable perceptions were thought to have helped to contribute to the sales decline of Miller High Life, whose market share slid from 21 percent to 12 percent during that same eight-year period.

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Can Dilute Brand Meaning The potential drawbacks from a lack of identification with any one category and a weakened image may be especially evident with high quality or prestige brands. Can Cause the Company to Forgo the Chance to Develop a New Brand One easily overlooked disadvantage to brand extensions is that by introducing a new product as a brand extension, the company forgoes the chance to create a new brand with its own unique image and equity. For example, consider the advantages to Disney of having introduced Touchstone films, which attracted an audience interested in movies with more adult themes and situations than Disney's traditional family-oriented releases; to Levies of having introduced Dockers pants, which attracted a customer segment interested in casual pants; to General Motors of having introduced Saturn, which attracted consumers weary of "the same old cars sold the same old way"; and to Black & Decker from having introduced DeWalt power tools, which attracted a higher-end, more skilled market segment. Each of these brands created its own associations and image and tapped into markets completely different from those that currently existed for other brands sold by the company. Thus, introducing a new product as a brand extension can have significant and potentially hidden costs in terms of lost opportunities of creating a new brand franchise. Moreover, there may be a loss of flexibility in the brand positioning for the extension given that it has to live up to the parent brand promise and image. The positioning of a new brand could be introduced and updated in the most competitive advantageous way possible.

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Types of Brand Extensions

Brand extension essentially involves leveraging an existing brand to promote a product into a different category. The product category definition must be customer-perception based. If the extended product is perceived to be part of the existing brand category, the extension classification would change accordingly. The brand must venture into an unrelated category from a customer's behaviour point of view in order to qualify as brand extension. Brand extension can come in many forms. Some of them are as follows. Product Form Extension: A product launched in a different form usually means line extension rather than brand extension. But if different product form constitutes entirely a different product category from customer behaviour perspective, it would be called brand extension. For instance, liquid milk and dried milk may not be perceived as same product category. Similarly, the chocolate bars and chocolate powder belong to different categories.

Amul Milk

Amul Condensed Milk

Companion Product: Brand extensions in the form of companion products are perhaps the most common. The idea perhaps is to capitalise on product complimentarity. The consumer may view both products jointly and hence, provide scope for launching brand extension.

Gillette Razors

Gillette Shaving Foam

Gillette After Shave

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Customer Franchise Marketer may extend a product range in order to meet the need of a specific customer group. For instance, a company may launch a variety of products meant for e.g., nursery going school children. The focus here is not customer base but their diverse needs. Johnson & Johnson Baby Shampoo Johnson & Johnson Baby Talc Johnson & Johnson Baby Oil

Company Expertise Brand extensions often come in the forms of different product category introductions using a common name but emanating from a common expertise pool. This strategy is particularly true in Japanese companies. Honda Cars Honda Gensets Honda Scooters

Brand Distinction Many brands achieve distinction in the form of a unique attribute, benefit or feature which gets uniquely associated with the brand. In these situations, a company can work backwards to launch different products which essentially cash in on this distinction. For instance, Parachute may have expertise of 'coconut nourishment' in customers mind over time. This would give its company Marico the opportunity to launch a variety of products exploiting this distinction.

Parachute Hair Oil

Parachute Shampoo

Parachute Cream

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Brand Image or Prestige A brand extension may involve a foray in to unrelated product categories based on a brand's exclusive image or prestige. Brand exclusivity or prestige bestows great extension opportunities. This is particularly true of designers and artist brands Cartier Jewellery Cartier Watches Cartier Purses

Distinctive Taste, Ingredient or Component: Brand may develop equity based on any and/or combination or taste, ingredient or component. When such a close association develops, a marketer can make entries into unrelated product categories capitalising on these properties for instance, Nescafe enjoys proprietary association of distinctive taste. Accordingly, the brand could be leveraged in other product fields: Nescafe Chocolate Nescafe Biscuits Nescafe Milk Supplement

Vertical extensions Some brand extensions are vertical extensions of what they currently offer. A brand can use their ingredient/component heritage to launch products in a more (or sometimes less) finished form.

Vim Bar

Vim Liquid

Vim Powder

The Good, Bad and Ugly Extensions:

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The primary lure of using a well established brand name to promote a product belonging to a different category is to exploit/leverage what the brand name stands for in the mind of the customer. A brand is nothing but a network of associations, which drive consumer buying. The logic of brand extension is to transfer these associations in the extension context so that desired brand equity outcomes result. However, brand extensions do not always create desired outcomes. Five possibilities exist: the good, more good, the bad, the ugly and the more ugly. The Good Extensions When the parent brand contributes positively to the extended product, it is called good extension. The parent brand can help the extension by providing brand associations, quality, associations and recognitions and awareness to the extended brand. Making a foray into the toilet soap market is quite difficult because of overcrowding, consumer's low involvement and product similarity. Dettol's extension into toilet soaps illustrates how extension acquired Dettol's associations and became a successful soap. The parent brand may also help extension by providing quality rub off. Brands can bestow quality perception to extension. The Tata name in India stands for some level of quality, if not exceptionally high quality. By extending the Tata name to its small car, the car successfully got quality rub off. Brand name awareness and recognition plays a very crucial role in marketing under low involvement conditions. A brand extension in such situation builds awareness and recognition much efficiently for the extended product. For instance, Nirma gained in terms of these dimensions when it extended its name to toilet soaps. More Good Extension Sometimes it is not just that the parent brand helps the extension, rather the extension also aids the parent brand by way of positive feedback. That is, the extension may enhance and strengthen the parent brand by increasing the brand visibility and supporting the core associations. For instance, the, core associations of Dettol brand are strengthened by launching products which are antiseptic oriented like plaster, shaving cream and toilet soap.

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The Bad: It is not that the use of a brand or a product belonging to a different category is always beneficiary, Sometimes the name does not help the extension. This may happen on account of two reasons: first, when the name does not add value and second, the name passes on negative associations to the extension or instance, the Pierre Cardin name does not add value to its range of writing instruments. Ponds name also failed to add any value to it toothpaste extension. Similarly was the fate with Nirma's foray into toothpastes. The value addition did not take place because these names do not have any expertise and credibility in the extension context. Also, extension may stimulate negative attribute associations. This happened when Levis launched their tailored classic line. Tailored classics and Levis strong association with casual clothing conflicted. The Ugly Sometimes the extension succeeds but its success comes at a cost. The extension damages the brand name by creating undesirable attribute associations, hurting quality perception, and altering its existing associations. All these indicate negative feedback to the parent brand by an extension which succeeds in the marketplace. An extension would create its own associations. But some of these associations may damage the brand. For instance, if a premium brand like Rolex enters into the mid price clothing line, it creates undesirable associations and hurts the parent brand. However, the reverse transfer of associations are less likely if the parent brand associations are strong and there is distinct difference between parent and the extension. Brand extensions also, sometimes may weaken the associations (making associations fuzzy and blurred). This problem can particularly arise when the brand's core associations are class related (e.g., Bisleri's water, or Amul's milk products). So when the brand is extended beyond its product class, its core brand association may get weakened. Imagine Amul launching aerated soft drinks. Further, brand extension may hurt the brand by affecting its quality image. For instance, Louis Phillip enjoys a quality image in India, what would happen if it allows its name to be used by inexpensive, low quality toiletries for men.

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Brand extension is a common route followed by the marketers. But commonness does not mean that extension is also a quick short cut to launch new products and services. The above discussion clearly spells out the potential dangers associated with unplanned extensions. By simply putting a successful brand name to any product one cannot be assured of success. Instead, the brand extensions can backfire. This necessitates that the manager while planning for brand extensions, must systematically analyse the possible opportunities.

What's important to consumers?

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When considering brand extension fit there are four underlying constructs which consumers evaluate individually, to formulate an overall judgment as to whether or not the brand extension fits with the core brand. Relevance: It is the extent to which the core brand attributes are relevant or important to the brand extension category. For example; (1) the core brand attributes of Starbucks are clearly relevant to the sale of coffee grinders, but not relevant to the sale of other kitchen equipment such as microwaves or fridges, (2) the core brand attributes of Coca-Cola are relevant to the sale of other soft drinks and sodas but not the sale of fruit juice such as orange juice. Recognition: It is the extent to which consumers understand the reasoning behind why the brand is conducting the brand extension as well as the logic of the brand extension. For example; (1) the core brand attributes of McDonalds make it easy to understand / logical in the eyes of consumers for McDonalds to extend its brand into another restaurant concept, however not easy to understand / logical the eyes of consumers for McDonalds to open a chain of grocery stores, (2) the core brand attributes of Nike make it easy to understand / logical in the eyes of consumers for Nike to extend its brand to sell golfing clothing, but not easy to understand / logical in the eyes of consumers for Nike to sell highly fashionable clothing. Credibility: It is the extent to which the core brand has attributes which are credible and acceptable to conduct and sell the brand extension. For example; (1) the core brand attributes of Sony make it credible and acceptable for Sony to extend the Sony brand into laptops and digital cameras however they are not credible and

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acceptable to extend the Sony brand into sports clothing, (2) the core attributes of Budweiser make it credible and acceptable for Budweiser to extend the Budweiser into new beers however they are not credible or acceptable to extend the Budweiser brand into wine or spirits. Transfer: It is the perceived ability of a brand to transfer their skills and experience to the brand extension. For example, (1) The skills and experience of British Airways are transferable into other areas of air transportation such as domestic flights and low cost flights, however British Airways skills and experience are not transferable into coach transportation, (2) the skills and experience of American Express are transferable into travel insurance and foreign exchange services, but not transferable into car rental. The most crucial component of consumers' brand extension fit judgements is the relevance construct. However all the constructs are important and consumers must perceive all constructs to some degree to perceive a brand extension to fit.

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Brand Extendibility Extensions involve transfer of associations from the parent brand to the extension. The nature of the parent brand is, therefore, a critical determinant of extension success. The question that strikes is whether all successful brands lend themselves to brand extensions? For instance, do the brands like 'Cherry', 'Captain Cook', Raymonds', have similar extendibility? Or is it that the nature of the parent brand determine the extendibility. When one thinks of extension, the strategist has to explore as to how 'different' or remote a product the brand can support. An observation of the marketing scene reveals that in some cars the brands are extended within the narrow or immediate proximate brand boundaries whereas in other cases the brands are successfully extended into far off remote product categories. The issue is what makes it possible? Why in some instances a brand is able to support products successfully in cousin categories while in other cases the extension tends to be a hit in even other species categories. A brand's extendibility depends on its character. There are five types of brands. These are product brand, formula brand, know how brand, interest brand, philosophy brand. The Product Brand It is situation when there is very little difference between the brand and the product. Brand is a close approximation of the product. Passively the brand is used to identity the product, may be, for internal purposes. The brand does not play any role from the customer's point of view. Formula Brand: Formula means a set procedure. A brand which comes in the formula category simply implies that a standard procedure has been used to make the product. This type of brand may be found in cooking oil categories. (e.g., K.K. brand of mustard oil once enjoyed its reputation for aroma and purity), food (a set procedure used to cook a particular cuisine), pickles (a pickle formulation used to give it a unique task).

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Know how Brand Know how is expertise that one firmly develops in a specialised area of activity. For instance, Sony is known to have expertise in miniaturization, Honda has know how in motors. Amul has developed expertise m milk processing. Interest Brand A brand may be defined by its centre of interest. It may reflect its core spirit. For instance, Gillette brand maintains its focus on men's grooming in all its brands. They all are designed to make the best a man can get'. Nike's focal point is winning. That is to be on the cutting edge. Whirlpool's centre of interest is the home ('homemaker'). Philosophy The brand at this level acquires more intangible character and orientation. The philosophy transforms the product in a realm altogether different from its physical reality. This generally happens in case of designers and artists. For example, Armani signature on the product completely changes it to give it a higher philosophical meaning - an expression that creative style of Armani carries. This categorisation of brands has powerful lessons for extensions. Brands which are product, formula or know how have limited flexibility in supporting dissimilar product. For instance, a formula brand like K.K. mustard oil can be extended to the oil category only where the formula seems appropriate and valuable. Whereas know how brands still have greater flexibility. The know-how can be appropriate for a variety of applications. For instance, motor is a key component in a number of products like lawnmowers, motorcycles, scooters, cars etc. Therefore, know how brands have greater territory where they can support extensions. The ultimate extension capability lies with the brands which have the greater depth. The philosophy brand can support highly dissimilar products. It is for these reason designers levels are able to lend credibility and support to a variety of products which apparently do not share

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anything. But what may bind them together is the creative style or 'impression' of the artist.

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Extending a Brand
More than 30,000 new product introductions will be launched into the marketplace this year, the vast majority of which will represent extensions of existing brands, according to Information Resources Inc. (IRI). Fewer than 25% of those will ever achieve an annual retail sales level of $7.5 million. Why do so many new products and services fail to survive, much less meet or exceed the expectations of their respective organizations? A significant contributing factor is that most organizations dont have a comprehensive, strategically sound approach to identifying and evaluating high-potential new product or service opportunities for their existing brands. Specifically, a comprehensive and strategic approach is one that accounts for three important factors: (1) organizational capabilities, (2) marketplace opportunity, and (3) brand relevance. This strategic framework is referred as the credibility footprint.

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Most organizations today are relatively adept at the first two factors, but surprisingly few invest the time or resources required to fully understand their brands and truly determine the brand relevance component in their brand extendibility efforts. All too often, the result is brand extensions that are inconsistent with, or worse, detrimental to the current brand equity. A four step approach for determining the types of new product or service offerings that are a strong fit with the brand, along with specific tools and techniques for conducting that assessment when combined with the other two components of the credibility footprint, will provide a more comprehensive approach for identifying and launching new products and services. The four-step approach for determining brand-relevant extendibility is as follows: (1) determine brand and category associations, (2) develop brand extendibility proxies, (3) conduct brand extendibility research, and (4) create brand extendibility guidelines.

This approach enables brand managers to clearly articulate which of countless potential new product or service areas make the most sense with what their brand stands for in the market and the degree to which it stretches its current equities in new directions. The result of this approach is a road map to guide future brand extendibility work and ensure that any new opportunity identified and pursued is not only consistent with organizational capabilities and marketplace opportunity, but also with customer perceptions of the brands core equities. Additionally, it helps ensure that brand extendibility decisions are made in a more objective and less emotional manner (e.g., adhering to pre-defined guidelines vs. choosing the presidents pet idea).

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Step 1: Determine key associations. The first step in determining brand relevance is to begin with a comprehensive assessment of what a brand and those of key competitors in the category currently stand for in the minds of customers. Even an outstanding new product concept, satisfying a significant unmet customer need, will not succeed in the market if it is launched under a brand identity for which it is a poor fit. The foundation of this assessment is qualitative customer research (e.g., focus groups and in-depth interviews), which provides the richness and depth of response needed to construct an accurate portrait of a brand and the category which it belongs. The research should focus on uncovering the key associations customers link to the brand and competitive brands in the categories (e.g., product or service features, functional, emotional, and self-expressive benefits, and personality). Specific exercises and lines of questioning for this phase of research are fairly similar in nature to the types used during standard brand positioning research. What are the things you like most about the brand? What benefits does the brand provide you? What are the first three things that come to mind when you think about the brand? How would you describe the brand as though it were a person? What benefits does this brand provide you that others cannot? How does this brand make you feel? These questions should be asked for both the brand and those of a few key competitors, helps define the associations as well as the higher-order benefits that matter most to the brand and the competition. The output of this step is the identification of approximately six to eight key associations that define the brand and the category. These associations represent the most closely held beliefs customers have with the brand and the overall category and provide the basis for thinking logically about extending the brand with future new product or service offerings. The figure below illustrates the key associations customers have with a national, prepared convenience food brand, as well as the overall category. The output clearly delineates how customers define the category where this brand currently resides on each association and therefore provides the basis for how to test the boundaries of future brand extendibility. It is necessary to complete an assessment for each potential new category the brand is considering. For instance, if the prepared convenience food brand was also considering new product or service offerings in the

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food service industry, the company would have to assess that category and determine its key customer associations and the degree to which the category and brand are a logical fit. Key brand and category associations
Association Cuisine Description The types of food most often associated with the category (prepared convenience food) and the brand The meal and snack occasions that we most closely associate with the category and the brand The methods of food preparation most often associated with the category and the brand The temperature state the product is sold in that is most closely associated with the category and the brand The types of functional benefits that we inherently associate with the category and the brand The types of emotional benefits that we inherently associate with the category and the brand Brand X (Currently) Comfort foods; Family favorites

Eating occasions Preparation mode Temperature state

Primarily dinner Heat & eat Frozen

Functional benefits Emotional benefits

Convenient (First cook time) I know my family is eating nutritious

Even if relatively current brand research exists for the brand and competitive brands, it pays to conduct at least some additional research to supplement those insights. Its imperative that these brand and category associations be determined with an eye toward future brand extendibility. Step 2: Develop proxies. Once the six to eight key associations have been identified for the brand and category, proxies should be carefully chosen for each one. To accomplish this, turn each association into a continuum of attributes and benefits that range from close in to far out relative to where customers perceive the brand to be today. For example, the prepared convenience food brand referenced earlier may select the following proxies to complete a cuisine continuum: family favorites, Americanized ethnic, spicy/seasoned,

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ethnic, and exotic. This continuum begins with a proxy thats relatively close in (family favorites) and ends with one that is a significant stretch from how customers perceive the brand today (exotic), with several points in between. Its important to remember that these proxies were strategically chosen to represent distinct points on a continuum. For example, two variations on ethnic food were intentionally selected as proxies to differentiate between familiar ethnic food (e.g., Italian and Mexican) and less common ethnic food (e.g., Indian and Thai).The reason these continuums and proxies are so important is that they will eventually represent the stimuli used in Step 3 research to determine the guidelines customers use to judge the boundaries of extendibility. Since its difficult for them to articulate these guidelines on an unaided basis, the proxies serve as a basis for in-depth conversations as to what type of extendibility is in bounds vs. out of bounds for the brand and, more importantly, the reasons why. The proxies chosen may or may not represent good new product opportunities for the brand (i.e., customer unmet needs). Whats more important at this point is that they provide the basis for rich conversations with customers as to how the brand can and cannot be extended in the future (i.e., brand relevance). Step 3: Conduct research. Once brand and category associations have been determined and representative proxies selected, it is imperative to go back to customers to solicit their input. As is true for Step 1, qualitative research formats are ideal for Step 3 research. A variety of stimuli can be used for the chosen proxies to facilitate brand extendibility research discussions, including white paper concepts, representative images, and actual products or prototypes. During focus groups and in-depth interviews, customers should be systematically presented with the proxies identified in the previous step and asked for their opinion as to how well each product, service, feature, or benefit fits with the brand in question. Once again, its important to remember that we are mostly interested in understanding customer rationales for why something does or does not fit with the brand. These explanations will help the brand manager develop the guidelines and bounds of the brands extendibility in Step 4. As such, for any given proxy, its imperative to probe deeply into the explanations customers offer relative to fit and understand the thought

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process they go through to arrive at their conclusions. One effective technique for this phase of research is to separate focus group participants into teams of two or three people and ask them to divide all proxies within a given continuum into two buckets: fits with brand and does not fit with brand. Once theyve done this, have each team present their recommendations to the entire group, along with their rationale. The ensuing discussions will shed significant light on how customers think about the bounds of extendibility for your brand. Another useful technique is to compare and contrast different proxies within a continuum. For example, if the prepared convenience food brand has an occasions continuum that includes breakfast and dinner as two of its proxies, and dinner is considered a strong fit with the brand while breakfast is not, then it would be important to understand the reasons why dinner works with the brand while breakfast does not. The figure below illustrates the final output of Step 3 for the prepared convenience food brand. It is a complete set of continuums and proxies, with boundaries drawn based on how well customers perceive different proxies to fit with their impressions of the brand. As the exhibit demonstrates, its helpful to make distinctions between proxies that are a strong fit with the brand vs. those that are only a moderate or slight fit. Any proxy outside the latter should be considered inconsistent with the brands current identity and therefore off limits for near-term brand extendibility.

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Step 4: Create guidelines. The final step of this approach is to take the insights obtained in the previous steps customer research and develop guidelines detailing how the brand can and cannot be effectively extended. There are a couple of rules of thumb to get you started down the right path. First, its crucial to conduct thorough analysis of Step 3 research data. Specifically, the customer feedback (i.e., which proxies are in, which are out, and the reasons why) needs to be interpreted and translated into guidelines for extendibility. In some cases, the guidelines will be readily apparent based on customer feedback and your knowledge of the brand and category. In other cases, more sophisticated interpretation will be required. The development of guidelines will certainly require that some hypotheses be made where conclusions are less clear cut. Once an adequate number of guidelines (i.e., roughly a half dozen) has been established, its helpful to prioritize them because they wont all be of equal importance. One way to think about this is to establish several guidelines that are imperatives (i.e., go/no-go screens). What this means is that unless a potential new product or service opportunity satisfies these guidelines, it should not be considered for marketplace introduction. Other guidelines would be deemed important but not mandatory. In other words, if a potential new product or service opportunity satisfies this guideline, it should be considered favorable. The figure below illustrates the guidelines that were developed for the prepared convenience food brand illustrated throughout this article. As the exhibit demonstrates, there are three imperatives that any new product opportunity being considered for the brand must satisfy. It must be a familiar family favorite, require minimal preparation and cook time, and help Mom demonstrate she cares about her family. The imperatives in this case were deliberately chosen to represent one product feature, one functional benefit, and one emotional benefit, respectively. In addition, a potential new product opportunity must receive a high fit rating on at least one of three other important attributes: the protein it contains (high fit = chicken), the extent to which its a complete meal (high fit = complete meal), and its temperature state (high fit = frozen). These guidelines provide an effective screening mechanism for potential new product opportunities. It will

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undoubtedly help management evaluate the extent to which new product opportunities fit with and even enhance the current brand equities.

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The Virgin Group of Companies incorporates travel, mobile, financial services, leisure, retail, space tourism and music businesses. Operating across 5 continents, its total group value has been estimated to be over US $ 7.2 billion. Approximately 70% of Virgins value and 75% of our employees are based in the UK. Taken as a whole, Virgin is a success both in sales and imagery terms, the brand is rated as Britains third most admired, behind Marks & Spencer and Tesco. The Virgin Group is a group of separately run companies that each use Virgin brand of British celebrity business tycoon Sir Richard Branson. Although Branson retains complete ownership and control of the Virgin Brand, the commercial setup of companies using it is varied and complex. The group is sometimes perceived as a conglomerate, but this is not in fact the case. All the companies operating under the Virgin brand are separate entities, with some being wholly owned by Branson, while he holds minority or majority stakes in others. The brand has become a disparate and sprawling mass of more than 200 companies selling everything from lingerie to life insurance across the world. Some of these extensions are shining stars, although there are just as many howling dogs. To understand the reasons for this we need to look at what made Virgin famous in the first place and then see how the company all too often forgot this when extending. What brand Virgin stands for? Richard Branson set out with these principles in mind in the 1970s these define what Virgin is all about. Most companies in the world have a set of brand values, which in a lot of cases can be completely meaningless. Virgin believes that the most important thing is the way those values are delivered and brought to life. Here are some examples of the ways that Virgin delivers its brand values:Value for Money Simple, honest & transparent pricing not necessarily the cheapest on the market. E.g. Virgin Express and Virgin Blue Australia low cost airlines with transparent pricing - you only pay for the basics Good quality High standards, attention to detail, being honest and delivering on promises. 42

E.g.:-Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Suite limousine service, lounge, large flat bed on board, freedom menu etc. Brilliant Customer Service: Friendly, human & relaxed; professional but uncorporate. E.g. Virgin Mobile UK which has won awards for its customer service, Innovation: Challenging convention with big and little product / service ideas; innovative, modern and stylish design. E.g. Virgin Trains new pendolino fast tilting train with shop, radio, digital seat reservations & new sleek design rolling out across the network now. Competitively challenging Sticking two fingers up to the establishment and fighting the big boys usually with a bit of humour. E.g. Virgin Atlantic successfully captured the public spirit by taking on BA's dirty tricks openly and winning. Fun Every company in the world takes itself seriously so we think it's important that we provide the public and our customers with a bit of entertainment as well as making Virgin a nice place for our people to work. E.g. Virgin Mobile's V Festival every year, over 150,000 people enjoy the world's best bands at nice festival sites in Essex and Staffordshire

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How it all Start? It all started with the first issue of student magazine in 1968. For the first 20 of its 30 years, Virgin focused on building two businesses that created the core of the brand. One half of this core is the brands birthplace of music when Richard started selling records by mail-order. Later the first Virgin record store being opened on Londons Oxford Street in 1971. The company subsequently extended into an area with a direct link to this business by creating a record label in 1973. The first of many PR coups was hiring the then unknown Mike Oldfield, whose Tubular Bells album went on to become one of the biggest sellers of all time. These roots in the music business are where the brand acquires its youthful, fun-loving and slightly rock n roll personality traits.

The second part of the core is the Virgin Atlantic airline, which alone now accounts for about 40 per cent of the brands turnover. The launch of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Cargo in 1984 gave an important second set of values: that of a challenger brand fighting for superior value against the big boys like British Airways. In the 1990s, Virgin Atlantic jets were painted with the words "No-Way BA/AA" in opposition to the attempted merger between British Airways and American Airlines. In 1997, following British Airways' announcement that it was to remove the Union Jack from its tailfins in favour of world images, Virgin took advantage of the controversy provoked by introducing a union flag design on the winglets of its aircraft, and changed the red dress on the "Scarlet Lady" on

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the nose of its aircraft to the union flag also, with the tag line "Britain's Flag Carrier" to tongue-in-cheek challenge BA's traditional spot in this role. Virgin Atlantic offered its business class complimentary limousine pick-up and drop-off at the airport, and at their destination. There was virginity in almost everything they did from clubhouse lounges to massage services in them. Virgin also pioneered seat-back personal TVs in all classes, and have begun upgrading their aircraft to an Audio/Video on Demand (AVOD) system called V:Port. The V:Port system offered a choice of approximately 50 full length feature films, 60 audio CDs, and around 200 hours of television shows. Also featured are video games, some of which can be played against other passengers. By 1985 Virgin Communications were distributing film and video in Europe, the USA, Australia and the Far East. They needed a break, so they started Virgin Holidays. It's now one of the UK's largest long-haul tour operations, specialising in East and West coast USA. Later Virgin Hotels came into being in 1988 with 3 properties: Norton House Hotel in Edinburgh, Crathorn Hall hotel in North Yorkshire, and Rhinefield House Hotel in Hampshire.

The 1990s saw the launch of Virgins many extensions, which we have now come to associate with the brand. The year1990 saw the arrival of Virgin Megastores in Japan. Later Virgin Books was formed. The Virgin Music Group was sold to THORN EMI in 1992 in a US$1billion deal. In 1994 Virgin Trading Company and William Grant & Sons announced a commercial agreement to market Virgin Vodka in the UK. Virgin Group

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announced the formation of The Virgin Cola Company Ltd. Virgin Cola produced, marketed and distributed drinks under the Virgin brand name to a select number of markets around the world. The company initially concentrated on the development and sale of premium quality cola beverages. The late 90s saw a number of extensions of the virgin brand into different markets. Virgin Direct Personal Financial Service launched in March 1995. The company was established to sell financial services by telephone at a significantly lower cost than traditional financial services companies. Virgin Rail Group Ltd was awarded the CrossCountry Trains Ltd passenger rail franchise in 1996. It operated InterCity and Express services linking over 130 stations across England, Scotland and Wales. Virgin Mobile, Virgin's first consumer telecommunications venture launched in November 1999 as a joint venture with One2One, which later became TMobile. Virgin Mobile really shook up the telecoms industry, and was the first to introduce free voicemail retrieval and one simple, decreasing tariff.

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The 00s: A new decade in a new century. Virgin launched a series of new businesses including Virgin Cars, Virgin Bikes, Virgin Wines, Virgin Student, Virgin Money, Virgin Energy and Virgin Travelstore.com. Virgin Money launched a new credit card company in 2002. Virgin also took its existing businesses to many countries like Nigeria ,USA, Canada, Australia, Fiji. Virgin announces the launch of Virgin Galactic in 2004, to undertake the challenge of developing space tourism for everybody. with many more in 2005. V Festival line up includes; Scissor Sisters, Franz Ferdinand, Chemical Brother's, and the Prodigy,

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Brand Ego Tripping of Virgin: Most companies have caught the brand stretching bug, seeing it as a cheaper and less risky way of launching innovation than creating new brands. In reality the benefits are less cut and dried, with the majority of extensions dying an early death. This poor performance is caused by brand ego tripping: an inward focus on the needs of the business, rather than an outward focus on the consumer and competition. Virgin is one of the best examples of this ego tripping. This leads to misplaced complacency about a brands ability to stretch profitably into new areas. To avoid falling into the same trap, one needs a ruthless focus on adding value for consumers. Virgin has fallen in love with oneself and constantly looks for ways to take advantage of their presumably all-powerful brand name. Brand ego tripping has led Virgin to lose sight of what made them famous in the first place, what helped them deliver differentiation, relevance and value. They ended up focusing internally on the needs of the business and its management rather than externally on the needs of the consumer. Virgin is still a strong, recognizable brand, but much of its meaning has been diluted. Simply adding the logo to a product will not make people want to buy it. As with other consumer brands, Virgin lacks the badge values to achieve this. This is the domain of brands such as Gucci, where a highly aspirational and rich brand world ties together, and adds value to, a very wide and functionally unrelated 360 set of extensions. Virgin's brands dont really make for a comfortable fit, visually or culturally, with each other. It seems that simply adding the word Virgin to a multitude of businesses doesnt necessarily make the Virgin brand any stronger. A measure of a brands strength can lie in answering the question what do you do? in as short a sentence as possible. For example, ask someone this question about Ferrari and the answer could be they make cool and fast cars, the reply for Google could be they give you great answers. Ask the question about Virgin and the answer could run into several paragraphs. Virgin does have a consistent visual element to its brandthe founder himself. Richard Branson has never been shy of launching a new Virgin business in a hot air balloon or a wedding dress. But attaching this great brand icon also has its drawbacks. If Branson 48

should want to sell one of his businesses, what is the business worth if the biggest brand element, Branson himself, is no longer associated with promoting it? The mixed bag of business identities is reflected in the brands visual styles of the various sub-brands. The consistent elements of the color red and the original Virgin hand-drawn text are there, and these are still powerful visual devices. But from a strategic perspective, many of the sub-brands seem poorly thought out; place them side by side and they dont make sense as a single message anymore. While this doesnt make the individual brands less recognizable, it does weaken the consistency of the overall brand message. Virgin extensions have worked well only when the brand has translated the umbrella concept of being an irreverent, fun, value fighter into compelling and competitive products and services. Virgin Atlantics success is not down to people flying on it because they buy into a philosophy, but because its a very good product at a competitive price. A multitude of features such as on-board massages, free ice creams and high-tech video games deliver relevant differentiation. In contrast, Virgin Vodka crashed and burnt because it lacked any brand added value. Where was the challenge? Where was the irreverent fun? The only thing it had going for it was cheapness, following desperate price cuts. Virgin Vodka is far from being the only failed product extension. Virgin Coke in fact achieved only a 3 per cent share in the UK, despite a price 1520 per cent below Coke. It used to have the image of being the rebel, of siding with the consumer in the face of bureaucracy and monopoly, but with Virgin Trains and the Virgin Credit Card it doesnt have that image anymore. It used to be a brand that catered to young audiences, those living the lifestyle of the young and rebellious, but with Virgin Cars and Virgin Atlantic it doesnt really have that image either. And have you seen many young hipsters chucking out their Levis or Diesel jeans in favour of Virgin? As a general rule, Virgins Robin Hood-like mission of taking on the over-charging and under-delivering bully boys has worked much better in services. There have been (and remain) many good targets to attack. Beyond airlines, Virgin has made good inroads into the mobile phone market in the UK and USA. Its irreverent personality is a refreshing contrast to the conservative communications of Vodafone, T-Mobile and

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O2. But this is backed up with real service differentiation such as low-frills phones, webbased ways of buying more airtime and no long-term contracts. This problem can work against Virgin as well. Take Virgin Records or Britains Virgin Radio as examples. Virgin Radio was sold to SMG and is, therefore, no longer part of the Virgin group. While it could be seen as a benefit to have Virgins brand retained to promote the rest of the Virgin companies, what would happen if a scandal were to occur with Virgin Radio that was nothing to do with Virgin as a whole? In other words, a high profile part of the Virgin brand is now controlled by a company that has nothing to do with Virgin at all, a situation that could leave Virgin open to difficulties down the road. Virgin isnt a leading brand in any of its businesses. Whether it is flights, electricity or music, Virgin is simply one of the market players but never the market leader. Virgin may be an internationally recognized brand, but Virgin Cosmetics isnt, nor is Virgin Cola, Virgin Active or Virgin Cars. The problem is that the company doesnt innovate the way that Apple or Samsung have been doing. Instead it takes an existing service or product and undercuts prices, or offers a variation on the business model. Virgin Megastores followed HMV Megastores; Apples I Tunes Music Store was followed by Virgins own less expensive version. This is great business thinking, and a welcome alternative to the competition when it is done well, but this is not the same thing as good branding. While nobody doubts Virgins credentials as a strong global business, a strong business is not the same as a strong brand. A really powerful brand is made not when a business is merely better, but when it is different, when it stands for something simple and powerful in peoples minds.

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Lessons to learn from Virgins brand ego trip: Neglecting the core: One would have to wonder whether Virgin would have been even bigger and stronger if the company had spent more time on developing and nurturing the core areas of travel and entertainment. Instead, Virgin actually sold off its record business in 1992 to Thorn EMI to help fund the brand ego trip of the 1990s. Only time will tell if Virgins cash cows can continue to supply the nourishment for its stable of failures. Forgetting what made you famous: A considerable part of Virgins success is down to Bransons admirable bravery at taking on the big boys. With airlines and financial services, he rightly spotted competitors that were over-pricing and under-performing and did us all a favour by delivering something better. Emotional values were underpinned by a strong functional point of difference. However, with cola, vodka and jeans Virgin failed to develop a product that was faithful to the brands promise: these extensions were all sizzle and no sausage.

Failing to understand consumers and markets: The lack of real success in jeans, cola and vodka also reflects a failure to understand the needs in these markets. As discussed earlier, consumers mostly want aspirational, fashionable badge values (e.g. Diesel, Armani) and/or strong heritage (e.g. Levis). Virgin had neither of these and was left with only one option: price cutting. However,

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even here the brand could not compete effectively, as it lacked the critical mass needed to achieve economies of scale and so drive down prices. Retail competitors such as WalMart/Asda were much better positioned to produce low-cost, me-too vodkas, colas and jeans and still make good profits. Scatter-gun stretching: This led to a fragmentation of financial and human resources. Selective extension into new areas faithful to the Virgin promise could perhaps have delivered a better return on investment. Branson is of course in a very different position to most people reading this book, in that he has no shareholders to please and lots of his own hard-earned cash to play with. Neglecting execution: This can lead to poor product performance and even brand damage, as was the case with the mis-selling scandal at Virgin Energy. The door-to-door salespeople employed by venture partner London Electricity hadnt read Virgins customer service charter. They used dodgy deals and hard selling to flog their wares and watchdog Energy watch received many complaints. Some consumers even had their electricity accounts charged after signing up for information about cheap Virgin CDs and airline tickets.

Conclusion: Promise something relevant to the consumer and deliver the goods and you will build both brand and business. Fail to do this and no amount of marketing support or brand philosophy will save your bacon.

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Barbie says a lot about the world. I cant think of any other icon that I more widely distributed or so accepted as an image of femininity. When archeologists dig into the ruins of our world they will find the Venus DiMilo of the 20th century: BARBIE --- Kate Moss

When an icon carries this much in a society, it becomes so present, so commonplace that it becomes almost invisible, taken for granted. It becomes a part of the collective consciousness. Since her creation in 1959 as a paper doll inspired friend, the Barbie doll has firmly established herself as the most popular fashion doll ever. The brand has ossified in the public mind to such an extent that Barbie is called the collective subconscious of America. The Barbie doll is now a $ 1.9 billion a year industry. Mattel, the company which created it claims that approximately three Barbie dolls are sold every second. The Barbie has spawned has an unexpected industry, which deconstructs the meaning of this pint-sized piece of pink plastic. Students can enroll in sociology courses in the US with such title as From Barbie to Superman: images of gender in popular culture. There are shelf loads of books and essays about the toy doll, full of insights. Such is the long journey from Barbie, a doll, to Barbie, a Brand.

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Conceiving Barbie She took the world by storm, surprising skeptical toy critics at New York's Toy Fair in 1959. With her good looks, charm, and charisma, she won audiences over in record time. Soon, little girls across America, and later, the world, were singing her praises. In the coming years, both adults and children would collect her in record numbers. Today she remains one of the hottest selling toy brands in the world. Her name is Barbie. This is her story. She began like any other great invention does - as an idea in a visionary's head. Ruth Handler, co-founder of Mattel Toys, was watching her daughter Barbara play with paper dolls and imagine them in grown-up roles when the idea hit her - why not make a teenage doll that little girls could play and dream about the future with? Ruth recognized the value of helping children realize their dreams and goals through play. After researching the current doll market, Ruth confirmed that while there were plenty of baby dolls available, there were no three-dimensional teenage dolls. She then resolved to create such a doll through her own company, which she co-founded with her husband Elliott Handler. During a trip to Germany with her daughter, Handler discovered a German doll called the Bild Lilli doll in a shop window. The Lilli doll was based on a popular character appearing in a comic strip drawn by Reinhard Beuthin for the newspaper Die BildZeitung. Lilli was a fashionable "society girl" who knew what she wanted and wasn't above using men to get it. The adult-figured Lilli doll was exactly what Handler had in mind, so she purchased three of them. She gave one to her daughter and took the others back to Mattel. Back home Handler reworked the design of the doll (with help from engineer Jack Ryan), the concept was revamped, and the doll was given a new name: Barbie, after Handler's daughter, Barbara. The doll made its debut at the New York International American Toy Fair on March 9, 1959 a date that became Barbie's official birthday later. Initially, toy buyers were skeptical. Never before had anyone seen a doll so small, yet so sophisticated.

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As a teenager, Barbie was completely unlike any of the baby or toddler dolls popular at the time. Critics posed the question - Would anyone buy her? Undaunted by skepticism, Mattel stood firmly behind the first Barbie doll, launching an innovative television ad campaign. Barbie quickly caught the attention of little girls across the country. She soon became a worldwide sensation, and remains as popular as ever today.

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Four decades of Barbie To begin with, Barbie arrived in a market which was dominated by baby dolls designed for girls to cradle, by contrast was a go getting, independent young woman. By creating a doll with adult features, Mattel insisted that it enabled girls to become anything they want. But its marketing had to fight the ground reality of making inroads in an established market. Barbie did all those things that teenage girls dreamt of. Barbie's fictional biography has developed with her continued sales. She has been given the full name Barbara Millicent Roberts, and a family and friends have been manufactured for her, starting with her boyfriend Ken (1961). Additions to the family tree include Skipper (debut 1964), twins Tutti and Todd, Stacie (1992), Kelly (1995), and baby Krissy (1999). After a long estrangement, Barbie was reunited with her best friend Midge in the early nineties. Other longstanding friends in Barbie's ethnically diverse social circle include Hispanic Teresa, Afro-American Christie and Steven and the ethnically-ambiguous Kayla. As a teenage fashion model, Barbie has worn many fabulous fashions. Beginning with her trademark black and white striped swimsuit and swirled ponytail, Barbie has followed style trends as well as blazed her own fashion trail. Over the years, as fashion and teenage lifestyle trends have shifted, so has Barbie. In the early 1960s, she began wearing designer outfits such as Gay Parisienne, and "Easter Parade," both modeled after Parisian couture fashions. As the 1960s progressed, Barbie took on the style and sophistication of the decade's most famous trendsetter - Jackie Kennedy, wearing such stunning fashions as Silken Flame, and Fashion Luncheon. As the 1960s gave way to the "British Invasion", Barbie again became a trendsetter. Not only did she get a fashion makeover, but her body style, hair, face sculpting and makeup changed but also she spoke for the first time in 1966. In addition to wearing the popular mod fashions, Barbie doll's body underwent dramatic changes including a new Twist 'N Turn waist, and a more youthful face with rooted eyelashes. As hair play became an important aspect of the Barbie doll experience, Barbie began wearing her hair long and straight, and in varying colors perfect for little girls to brush and style. In the early 1970s, Barbie became more poseable than ever before, with bendable wrists, elbows, and ankles. Barbie has often been used to

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promote gender equality as an example that women can "be anything". She has taken up many occupations over the years some of them like Olympic athlete, , Paleontologist, Doctor, dentist, nurse, Firefighter veterinarian and many more. An astronaut suit was sold for Barbie around the same time the first woman to do so, Valentina Tereshkova, entered space. Barbie ran for President of the United States in 1992, 2000 and again in 2004. Barbie wore fashions that mirrored the funky trends found on dance floors across the country, as well as chic designer looks that came in vogue in the late 1970s. As always, Barbie had her finger on the pulse of Americana. In the 1980s, Barbie collecting became more than a childhood pastime. With Barbie doll's original fans now in their twenties and thirties, Barbie collecting began attracting adult women as well as little girls. For many of these women, Barbie symbolized the innocence of their youth; she was a part of them that was timeless, ageless - and they wanted to reconnect with their favorite fashion doll. To tap this new group of sophisticated adult collectors, Mattel issued Blue Rhapsody Barbie in 1986. Then in 1988 came Happy Holidays Barbie doll. Although she was not specifically targeted to the collector market, Barbie fans loved her and she sold out almost instantly at retail (only 300,000 were made). This event ignited the adult collecting boom and marked a turning point in Barbie doll history. In the 1990s, some of the world's most famous designers began creating fashions for Barbie including Bob Mackie, Nolan Miller, Vera Wang, and Christian Dior just to name a few. Their intricately designed doll fashions generated a great deal of excitement in the doll collecting community. In 1996, Mattel launched www.barbie.com, the official Barbie website. In 1998, My Design was introduced on the site, allowing girls and collectors to decide what their Barbie doll friend would look like by choosing her hair/eye/makeup colors, fashions, accessories, and personality traits. In 2000, Barbie.com, dedicated to the play-line Barbie dolls, is now a place where girls can play interactive games, make up stories online, and engage in numerous exciting interactive activities.Barbiecollector.com dedicated to the adult Barbie doll collector, this site features a comprehensive searchable doll showcase that contains all collector dolls back to 1980.

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360 Degree Marketing Mattel employed innovative marketing strategies to retain premier position in the global markets. The company has also been employing what is known as 360 marketing. Print, danglers, television, radio, internet, magazines, outdoor advertising you name it and it has been used. The secret of Barbies eternal appeal as brand is reinvention. Books about Barbie first emerged in the 1960s. In the mid-1990s, a new line of novels about Barbie appeared. This new series showcased Barbie's adventurous exploits. In the late 1980s, Barbie had two videos, Barbie and the Rockers and Barbie and the Sensations. By the late-1990s, Mattel had moved to featuring her in interactive 3D video games for both gaming consoles and personal computers. Mattel has dedicated itself to promoting Barbie as a lifestyle not just a toy. Mattels exceptionally innovative strategy was to license Barbie in 30 different product cateogories, from furniture to make up. Today, a girl can sleep in Barbie pyjamas, under a Barbie duvet-cover, her head on a Barbie pillowcase, surrounded by wallpaper and so-on. In recent years, she has taken the computer animated movie industry by storm, guest appearing in the Disney & Pixar film Toy Story 2, and later her own direct-to-video movies, Barbie in the Nutcracker, Barbie as Rapunzel, Barbie of Swan Lake, Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper, Barbie: Fairytopia, The Barbie Diaries, Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus, Barbie: Mermaidia (a sequel to the previous Fairytopia video), and the latest Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses all of which were accompanied by small product lines, including dolls. Mattel has also created real life events around here like the Barbie conventions, fan clubs, magazines, websites, and collectors events. Mattel company is soon going to launch a Barbie car.

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Some Extensions of the Barbie Brand

The Fragrance

Barbie pillow

Acrylic tumblers & trays

T-shirts

DVD

Suitcase

Gift Wrap

Watch

Make-up Kit

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Erosion of the Brand Image The big brand Barbie is a plaything a toy meant for children, It has changed the paradigm of what can be termed as a plaything and the extent of influence it can have on ones entire life. Barbie is often looked upon as an icon of Western childhood. Her popularity ensures that her effect on the play of Western children attracts a high degree of scrutiny. The criticisms leveled at her are often based around the idea of children considering Barbie a role model and attempting to emulate her. Barbie syndrome is a term used to loosely describe the desire to have a physical appearance and a lifestyle representative of the famous Barbie doll. It is most often associated with pre-teen and adolescent females but is applicable to any age group. It is criticised that Barbie doll promotes style over substance. They argue that the images and messages of "beauty" she presents are unrealistic. Barbie has problematic measurements: she stands a "too perfect to be real" body shape. A lot of young girls may expect themselves to have the same figure as Barbie's and to push themselves to lose weight in order to be as thin as possible, ignorant of the fact that Barbie's proportions are unattainable. The enormous range of available accessories relating to clothes, hair, makeup, parties and looking pretty gave rise to the accusation that Barbie encourages young girls to focus on shallow trivia. Her accessories reflect a lifestyle that is unobtainable for most of the girls who play with her. The Middle Eastern country of Saudi Arabia outlawed the sale of Barbie dolls on September 10, 2003 for not conforming to the ideals of Islam, thus she was replaced with the Egyptian doll Fulla. "Barbie" is sometimes used as a derogatory slang term for a person, particularly a girl or woman, who is considered stupid, as evidenced by the song "Barbie Girl". Teen Talk Barbie, a talking version of the doll. It spoke a number of phrases. Each doll was programmed to say four out of 270 possible phrases, so chances were good that no two dolls owned by a girl or her friends would be exactly the same. Although only about 1.5% of all the dolls sold said the phrase, it caused public outcry. 60

Conclusion Sweeping all the criticism aside, cult-like, Barbie draws her flock with a heady mix of marketing magic and the colour pink. This doll captivates a girls mind by offering a chance of fantasy, role-playing and dressing up. Creating childrens classics that endure and turning them to profitable franchises, is the holy grail of the toy business. Until now, Barbie has been able to topple spider-man and Action-man with one swing of her dainty handbag. How this lady doll gears up to fight competition only future generations of powerpuff girls will tell.

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Samsung: Another Rising Asian Tiger

The Samsung Group is composed of numerous South Korean business sectors including Samsung Electronics, Samsung Petrochemicals, Samsung Life Insurance and many more. At the core of it all, the Samsung Group is helmed by its chairman Kun-hee Lee. Samsung (meaning "three stars" or "tristar" in Sino-Korean) was founded by Lee ByungChul. Samsung Group now produces a full range of items, from digital media and digital appliances to semiconductors, telecommunications products and displays. As of 2004, global operations included 27 production subsidiaries, 37 sales subsidiaries, 2 logistics subsidiaries, and 11 research centers. The Company employs 123,000 people, including more than 80,000 at Korean operations and 43,000 overseas. Samsung Group is the number one business group in South Korea edging out Hyundai Group. Total sales for 2004 were reported at won 146,052 billion (US$ 116.8B; 110.4B). In terms of export that directly contributes to the Korean economy, Samsung took up 18.1% of the national export amount with USD 31.2 billion in 2000 and 20.7% with USD 52.7 billion in 2004. In addition, the amount of tax that Samsung paid to the Korean government in 2003 was KRW 6.5 trillion, which took up 6.3% of the national tax. The market value of Samsung in 1997 reached KRW 7.3 trillion, which amounted to 10.3% of the Korean market but this figure increased to KRW 90.8 trillion taking up 22.4% in 2004. Moreover, the annual net profit of Samsung marked KRW 5.8 trillion in 2001, KRW 11.7 trillion in 2002, KRW 7.4 trillion in 2003, and KRW 15.7 trillion in 2004, showing forth a steady increase. Liabilities of Samsung that prove the strong foothold of the company have been continuously dropping from 104% in 2000, 78% in 2001, 68% in 2002, 56% in 2003, and 51% in 2004. Samsung Electronics has achieved excellent performance results during the past three years. To ensure future growth, the Company continues to diversify operations, upgrade marketing activities, elevate brand value and invest in advance.

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The Beginning On March 1, 1938, founding chairman Byung-Chull Lee started a business in Taegu, Korea with 30,000 won. At first, Mr. Lee's little business was primarily in trade export, selling dried Korean fish, vegetables, and fruit to Manchuria and Beijing. But in just over a decade, Samsung had its own flour mills and confectionery machines, its own manufacturing and sales operations, and ultimately become the roots of the modern global corporation that still bears the same brand name today. Throughout the 1970s, Samsung laid the strategic foundations for its future growth by investing in the heavy, chemical, and petrochemical industries. The company's second "Five-Year Management Plan," announced in August 1973, targeted these industries and also introduced Samsung to the shipbuilding industry. During this time, the company also took steps to enhance its competitive position in the world's textile industry, integrating its manufacturing processes from raw materials to end products. As a result, many new companies were created including Samsung Heavy Industries Company in 1974, and Samsung Shipbuilding Company (created when Samsung acquired Daesung Heavy Industry Company) and Samsung Precision Company (now Samsung Techwin) in 1977. Another burst of growth for Samsung came from the burgeoning home electronics business. Samsung Electronics, already a major manufacturer in the Korean market, began to export its products for the first time during this period. Another significant development was Samsung's 1974 acquisition of a 50 percent stake in Korea Semiconductor, further consolidating Samsung Electronics' reign as a leader in semiconductor manufacturing. The late 70s and early 80s represented a time of increasing diversification and global growth for Samsungs core technology businesses. In 1978, Samsung Semiconductor and Samsung Electronics became separate entities as new products were introduced to the global market. Samsung only produced semiconductors for the domestic market until the successful development of a 64K DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) VLSI chip in December 1983, when it became a world leader in semiconductor products.

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Samsung Precision Company (established in 1977) laid the foundation in another hightech industry - aerospace. Renamed Samsung Aerospace Industries in February 1987 (now known as Samsung Techwin), Samsung has been developing its aerospace capabilities with unprecedented speed ever since. Future plans include the development of future space stations - and even space facilities for the Moon and Mars in the early 21st century. The mid-80s also saw Samsung entering the systems development business, establishing Samsung Data Systems in 1985 (now known as Samsung SDS) as a leader in Information Technology services including systems integration, systems management, consulting, and networking services. Samsung's increasing focus on technology led to another key development in the mid-80s with the creation of the company's two Research & Development institutes, Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI) in 1986 and Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) in 1987. Together, these two pioneering R&D organizations have helped Samsung expand its reach even further into electronics, semiconductors, high polymer chemicals, genetic engineering, optical telecommunications, aerospace and new fields of technology innovation from nanotechnology to advanced network architectures. On November 19, 1987, Samsungs founding Chairman Byung-Chull Lee passed away after almost fifty years at the helm of the company. His son, Kun-Hee Lee succeeded him as the new Chairman. On the 50th anniversary of Samsungs founding in 1988, he announced the "Second Foundation" of the company, directing Samsungs growth towards becoming a world-class 21st century corporation. For this "Second Foundation," Samsung challenged itself to restructure old businesses and enter new ones with the aim of becoming one of the world's top five electronics companies. The merger of Samsung Electronics and Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications was undoubtedly a key strategic moment in the progress towards this goal. For the first time in the group's history, Samsung was now in a position to maximize its technological resources and develop value-added products. The integration of overlapping projects also reduced costs and efficiently utilized capital and labor. By the late 80s, Samsungs efforts to create

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consolidation of its electronics and heavy companies started to pay off with a wellregarded reputation matching the high-tech products the company was now known for. The early 1990s presented tremendous challenges for high-tech businesses. Mergers, coalitions, and buy-outs were common while competition and consolidation flourished. Companies were pressed to rethink their technology and services offerings. Business began to flow across borders between countries and companies. Samsungs response to these opportunities was its New Management program in 1993. New Management is more than a mere re-engineering of Samsung but rather an entire revolution dedicated to making world-class products to ensure market leadership and build premium brand recognition to establish Samsung Electronics as flagship brand in the world, providing total customer satisfaction, and being a good corporate citizen. In retrospect, New Management was a decisive turning point for Samsung, the moment when the entire company was repositioned on the basis of "Quality first." During this period, 17 different extensions - from semiconductors to computer monitors, TFT-LCD screens to color picture tubes - leaped into the ranks of the top five products for global market share in their respective areas. 12 others achieved top market ranking in their areas. In some areas, such as LCDs, Samsung has simply been number one from the start. Ever since entering the LCD business in 1993, Samsung has been the undisputed world leader. Another example is Samsung Heavy Industries' drill ships that captured 60% of the world market ever since their introduction. Samsung's construction branch was awarded the contract to build one of the two Petronas Towers in Malaysia in September 1993 and the Hotel Burj Al Arab Dubai in 2004, set to be tallest structure ever created by mankind.

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Subsidiaries of the Samsung Group

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Electronics industries

Engineering & construction

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electro-Mechanics Samsung SDI Samsung Corning Samsung SDS Samsung Networks Samsung Corning Precision Glass

Samsung Engineering & Construction

Entertainment

Suwon Samsung Bluewings Samsung Everland Samsung Lions Samsung Khan

Machinery and heavy industries

Samsung Heavy Industries Samsung Techwin

Others

Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology Samsung Economic Research Institute Cheil Communications (No 1. Ad agency in Korea) S-1 Renault Samsung Motors

Chemical industries

Samsung Total Petrochemicals Samsung Petrochemicals Samsung BP Chemicals Samsung Fine Chemicals Cheil Industries

Financial services

Samsung Life Insurance Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Samsung Card Samsung Securities Samsung Investment Trust Management Samsung Venture Investment

Samsung Electronics Taking Samsung to the World

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One brand of the Samsung Group that has done remarkably well in the last 5 years is Samsung Electronics. A performance that is unlikely to be missed by its competitors giving them sleepless nights. It is Samsung's electronics' arm that is perhaps most visible to the public. Samsung Electronics focuses on five business areas: Digital Media, Telecommunication Network, Digital Appliance, Semiconductor, and LCD. Less visible to the public, but comprising a large part of Samsungs revenue, is its manufacture of semiconductor chips, a highly cyclical industry. Samsung is the worlds top memory chip maker followed by Intel. As South Koreas top electronics company, Samsung Electronics is the third largest electronics maker in the world behind number one Sony and number two Matsushita which counts Panasonic, Quasar, Technics, and JVC in its brand portfolio. Both Sony and Matsushita are Japanese behemoths with over 50 years of experience in the global market. Samsung has maintained its market leadership in memory, display, and DTV by launching innovative products in a timely manner that far exceed their rivals in cost, quality, and design, building the image of an innovator. Rising brand value Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Brand value (in US billions$ ) 5.2 6.4 8.3 10.8 12.5 14.9 16.1 Rank 43 42 34 25 21 20 20

Samsung Electronics high ranking at number 20 on the list of top 100 global brands has left behind Sony the position it has basically owned for many years. But Samsungs upward rise from 43 in 2000 to 34 in 2002 to its present position at 20 indicates that the

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brand has gathered momentum against its competition. The whole possibility would have seemed unlikely to many observers just five or six years ago. At that time, Samsung was seen as a low-quality brand in a tough consumer electronic industry (Korean companies in general were associated with corporate scandal and Asia was in a financial crisis in 1997). Possibly no brand has done a better job of mining the potential of brand building principles than Samsung Electronics. Less than a decade ago it was a maker of low end consumer electronics under a handful of brand names like Wisview, Tantus and Yepp none of which meant much to consumers. Figuring that its only shot at moving up the value chain was to build a stronger identity the company ditched its other brands to put all its resources behind the Samsung name. It adopted a number of other measures to build Samsung as a global brand. Organisational structure

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The Asian economic crisis in 1998 forced a radical reappraisal of the strategy with the Korean won devalued by 40 per cent and with a significant reduction in the volume sales,

Samsung simply had to change in order to survive. Samsung decided to concentrate on profitable product features and cost. An immediate effect of the need to control their cost base was to reduce their employee numbers without any labour unrest. They increased their investment in training so that their workforce would be well equipped to face the challenges of the future. As the co. began to consider the development of Samsung as a global brand, it faced an immediate issue with its organizational structure. Like many international companies, their organization was based on nation state companies, which managed the business in particular country. The head office supported them by product teams, which developed the products, which the local business would sell. However, since the key profit centers were the individual country business, they had developed a high degree of autonomy in all aspects of marketing and selling. There was an additional cultural problem for them Asian management giving up control meant loss of authority, so any change would have to managed very carefully. Thus, as they began to develop their new strategy it was very clear that they would have to change their organizational structure.

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Single branding strategy One significant side effect of their structure was meek consistency in brand positioning around the world. Each country developed its own advertising and promotion with the result that no two countries had an identical platform for brand development. Local autonomy also led to inconsistency in marketing support levels with regular cuts in planned expenditure to bolster profits. To a certain degree, this strategy proved to be effective. However, apparent problems were detected. Global implementation of the strategy was never going to be easy, particularly given the organizational issues referred to earlier. Their starting point was to ensure that they had the one hundred per cent backing of the chief executive since if they did not, they would fail when the first country manager said he was unhappy. Having secured this, they went about a programme of demonstrating to everyone why they needed a clear global brand with consistent values. Part of this was also the implicit promise that central management would try to maintain consistent brand investment via marketing support even if times got tough. A global brand with significant and consistent marketing support was economically better for each country than their own isolated efforts. This process involved high-level meetings with senior management and the ongoing continuous involvement of as many people as possible in the brand development process. After long discussion and coordination, they launched the global brand campaign in 1999. With this campaign Samsung aimed to build one face towards their customers. The next year, they appointed as FCB as their global advertising agency to replace around 50 different agencies. As they launched the brand they also crated Brand council with representatives not from just head office marketing but from each of their key business units. The intention here is to that their brand implementation is consistent across the business and that everyone fully understands the true brand essence. Keeping consumer needs in minds

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Samsung has always developed products keeping consumers needs in mind. Instead of keeping on extending their lines they have extended their brand into a number of different categories of products which are relevant to the customers. Samsung has an ongoing R&D program that is generating innovative technologies that put the company at the forefront of the digital convergence revolution. These technologies enable the company to create products and provide services that help make people's lives more comfortable while adding greater value to life itself. Samsung Electronics' vision is to lead the digital convergence movement through the continuous development of innovative, futureoriented technologies, ultimately becoming a leader of life enhancement for all people.

Active participation in Sporting events and Trade shows All those years theyve spent much more on advertising and the visibility of Samsung is much bigger now. Samsung was a Worldwide Olympic partner in the wireless equipment sector for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, 1999 Nagano Winter Olympics and will be a Worldwide Olympic Partner in 2008 Beijing Olympics. Samsung intends to concentrate on maximizing sponsorship of the Olympics in Athens 2004 to continue the global association with popular quality events. Samsung is an active contributor to the Asian Games, Samsung Nations Cup Riding Competition, Samsung Running Festival, Samsung World Championship (a U.S. LPGA Tour), and many other sporting events around the world. Samsung signed the second biggest sponsorship deal in English soccer history

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with Premiership Champions Chelsea FC. The five-year deal is estimated to be worth 50 million. They are in the movies like The Fantastic Four in which many of the Samsung gadgets play a part. CeBIT is the worlds largest trade fair featuring digital IT and telecommunications solutions for both home and work environments. The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the world's largest annual tradeshow for multimedia consumer technology. IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung) is one of the worlds largest consumer electronic fairs connecting between buyers and sellers. Samsung sponsors all these events. All those things help to push the brand forward. Quality Products In spite of its strong position globally, whats extraordinary about Samsung Electronics is the way it has managed to reinvent itself as a brand of quality despite decades of consumer perception that it manufactured low-end, cheap knockoffs. Today, consumers appear to take Samsung seriously as a quality brand of VCRs and TVs, and even consider it a superior brand in areas like mobile phones where it competes with Nokia, Motorola and Sony-Ericsson. Director of Brand Valuation at Interbrand Jan Lindemann observes that Samsung is changing popular perceptions: In different markets, Samsung is moving up more on the premium side. For instance, they used to produce -- a couple of years ago -- middle of the range [mobile phones], now in many markets around the world [they] focus on the premium high-end phones. They tend to be among the most expensive ones you can buy in most cases.

Conclusion: Samsung for less than a decade has played a role of a leader and innovator. It has always kept the customers needs in mind. Samsung ultimately aims to contribute to society by

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cultivating genuine ways to shape new lifestyles and allowing customers to get more from life the mantra of their success.

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The Harley-Davidson Motor Company is an American manufacturer of motorcycles based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is one of the two remaining American mass-producers of motorcycles (along with Victory Motorcycles). The company emphasizes heavy bikes designed for cruising and known for their distinctive exhaust noise. Harley-Davidson motorcycles (popularly referred to as "Harleys") are distinctive in design and attract a loyal following, and hold their resale value very well compared to other vehicles. A well maintained vehicle might never drop in value at all, although regular maintenance is expected. The company supplies many domestic police forces with their motorcycle fleets. Harleys are especially noted for the tradition of heavy customization that gave rise to the chopper-style of motorcycle. It also licenses its logo, which is a profitable side business ($41 million of revenue in 2004, or almost 5% of net income). The company had revenue of $5,015 million USD in 2004 and employs 9,000 people in America.

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Company founding The company considers 1903 to be its year of founding, though the Harley-Davidson enterprise could be considered to have started in 1901 when William S. Harley, age 21, drew up plans for a small engine that displaced 7.07 cubic inches (116 cc) and had fourinch flywheels. The engine was designed for use in a regular pedal-bicycle frame.Over the next two years Harley and his boyhood friend Arthur Davidson labored on their motor-bicycle. It was finished in 1903 with the help of Arthur's brother, Walter Davidson. Upon completion the boys found their power-cycle unable to conquer Milwaukee's modest hills without pedal assistance. Will Harley and the Davidsons quickly wrote off their first motor-bicycle as a valuable learning experiment. Work was immediately begun on a new and improved machine. This first "real" HarleyDavidson motorcycle had a bigger engine of 24.74 cubic inches (405 cc) with 9-3/4 inch flywheels weighing 28 pounds. The machine's advanced loop-frame was similar to the 1903 Milwaukee Merkel motorcycle. They also got help with their new engine from outboard motor pioneer Ole Evinrude. Elder brother William A. Davidson also lent a hand. The machine was functional by 8 September 1904 when it was entered in a Milwaukee motorcycle race, the first known appearance of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. In January 1905 small advertisements were placed in the "Automobile and Cycle Trade Journal" that offered bare Harley-Davidson engines to the do-it-yourself trade. By April, complete motorcycles were in production on a very limited basis. In 1906 Harley and the Davidsons built their first factory on Chestnut Street (later Juneau Avenue). This location remains the Motor Company's corporate headquarters today. The first Juneau Avenue plant was a modest 40 by 60 foot single-story wooden structure. That year around 50 motorcycles were produced. In 1907 William S. Harley graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison with a degree in mechanical engineering. With the new facilities production increased to 150 motorcycles in 1907. That September a milestone was reached when the fledgling company was officially incorporated. They also began selling their motorcycles to police departments around this time, a tradition that continues today.

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Production in 1905 and 1906 were all single-cylinder models with 26.84 cubic inch (440 cc) engines but as early as February of 1907 a prototype model with a 45-degree V-Twin engine was displayed at the Chicago Automobile Show. Although shown and advertised, very few dual cylinder V-Twin models were built between 1907 and 1910. These first VTwins displaced 53.68 cubic inches (880 cc) and produced about 7 horsepower (5 kW). This gave about double the hill-climbing power of the first singles. Top speed was about 60 mph (97 km/h). Production jumped from 450 motorcycles in 1908 to 1,149 machines in 1909. The success of Harley-Davidson had attracted many imitators. By 1910 some 150 makes of motorcycles had already been built in the United States -- although just a handful would survive the 1911. In 1911 an improved V-Twin model with mechanically operated intake valves was introduced. Displacing 49.48 cubic inches (810 cc), the 1911 V-Twin was actually smaller than earlier twins, but gave better performance. After 1913 the majority of bikes produced by Harley-Davidson would be V-Twin models. By 1913 the yellow brick factory had been demolished and on the site a new 5-storey structure of reinforced concrete and red brick had been built. Begun in 1910, the red brick factory with its many additions would take up two blocks along Juneau Avenue and around the corner on 38th Street. Despite the competition, Harley-Davidson was already pulling ahead of Indian and would dominate motorcycle racing after 1914. Production that year swelled to 16,284 machines. World War I In 1917, the United States was drawn into World War I and the military demanded motorcycles for the war effort. Harleys had already been used by the military in border skirmishes with Pancho Villa but World War I was the first time the motorcycle had been adopted for combat service. Harley-Davidson provided over 20,000 machines to the military forces during World War I. By 1920, Harley-Davidson was the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world. Their motorcycles were sold by dealers in 67 countries. Production was 28,189 machines. In 1921, a milestone was reached in

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motorcycle racing. A Harley-Davidson machine was the very first to win a race at an average speed of over 100 mph (160 km/h). During the 1920s, several improvements were put in place, such as a new 74 cubic inch (1.2 L) V-Twin, introduced in 1922, and the gas tank still seen today, called a "Teardrop" tank, in 1925. A front brake was added in 1928. World War II One of only two American cycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression, HarleyDavidson again produced large numbers of motorcycles for the US Army in World WarII and resumed civilian production afterwards, producing a range of large V-twin motorcycles that were successful both on racetracks and for private buyers.Harley Davidson, on the eve World War II, was already supplying the Army with a militaryspecific version of its 45" WLD line, called the WLA. (The A in this case stood for "Army".) Upon the outbreak of war, the company, along with other manufacturing enterprises, shifted to war work. Over 90,000 military motorcycles, mostly WLAs and WLCs (the Canadian version) would be produced, many to be provided to allies. Shipments to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease program numbered at least 30,000. The WLAs produced during all years of war production would, unusually, have 1942 serial numbers. Production of the WLA stopped at the end of the war, though it would resume production from 1949 to 1952 due to the Korean War. The U.S. Army also asked Harley-Davidson to produce a new motorcycle with many of the features of BMW's sidevalve and shaft-driven R71. Harley largely copied the BMW engine and drive train and produced the shaft-driven 750cc 1942 Harley-Davidson XA. Due to the superior cooling of an opposed twin, Harley's XA cylinder heads ran 100 cooler than its V-twins'. The XA, though a wonderful motorcycle, never entered full production: the motorcycle by that time had been eclipsed by the Jeep as the Army's general purpose vehicle, and the WLAalready in productionwas sufficient for its limited police, escort, and courier roles. Only 1,000 were made and the XA never went into full production. It remains the only shaft-driven Harley Davidson ever made.

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Extension of Harley Bikes Since 2001, Harley-branded motorcycles have fallen into one of five families: Touring, Softail, Dyna, Sportster, and VRSC (or V-Rod). Each family can be distinguished by its engine, suspension, and other visually-identifiable characteristics. Touring The touring family includes three Road King models, and five Glide models offered in various trim. The Road Kings have a "retro cruiser" appearance and most models are equipped with a large clear windshield. Road Kings are reminiscent of big-twin models from the 1940s and '50s. Glides can be identified by their full front fairings. Most Glides sport a unique fairing referred to as the "Batwing" due to its unmistakeable shape. Harley Davidson touring models are distinguishable by their large luggage, rear coil-over air suspension and are the only models to offer full fairings with Radios/CBs. Softail These big-twin motorcycles capitalize on Harley's strong value on tradition. With the rear-wheel suspension invisible on the bottom of the frame, they are visibly similar to the "hardtail" choppers popular in the 1960s and '70s, as well as from their own earlier history. In keeping with that tradition, Harley offers Softail models with "springer" front ends and "heritage" styling that incorporate design cues from throughout their history. Dyna Dyna motorcycles feature big-twin engines and traditional styling. They can be distinguished from the Softail by the traditional coil-over suspension that connects the swingarm to the frame, and from the Sportster by their larger engines.

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Sportster Introduced in 1956, the Sportster is the longest-running model family in the HarleyDavidson lineup. They were conceived as racing motorcycles, and were popular on dirt and flat-track race courses through the 1960s and '70s. Smaller and lighter than the other Harley models, they make use of 883 or 1200cc engines and, though often modified, remain similar in appearance to their racing ancestors. VRSC Introduced in 2001, the VRSC family bears little resemblance to Harley's more traditional lineup. Competing against Japanese and American musclebikes, the "V-Rod" makes use of a new Porsche-designed engine that, for the first time in Harley history, incorporates fuel injection, overhead cams, and liquid cooling. It is visually distinctive, easily identified by the hydroformed frame members that support the round-topped fuel tank. Based on the VR-1000 racing motorcycle, it continues to be a platform around which Harley-Davidson builds drag-racing competition machines.

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Extensions in Harley Merchandise Harley-Davidson makes more than motorcycles. Infused with a sense of adventure, freedom and individualism, Harley-Davidson is about something deeper than a product. Harley embodies a way of life or an ideal for how life should be lived. It is an ideal or philosophy that is unconventional, plain-spoken, and most of all, uncompromising. This intriguing brand character is what makes Harley-Davidson so appealing to such a broad spectrum of society. Surprising for what might otherwise be considered a niche activity, the Harley-Davidson brand reaches far and wide. Sharing the same thoughts is The Harley Owners Group (H.O.G.). It is much more than just a motorcycle organization. It's one million people around the world united by a common passion: making the HarleyDavidson dream a way of life. It is this customer group that HD targets mainly for its brand extensions. The motorcycle defines Harley-Davidson, but a wide range of other products and services is available to increase the enjoyment of the experience or give newcomers a taste of HD world. A complete line of Genuine Motorcycle Parts & Accessories, apparel and branded merchandise offers the riders thousands of custom, personalized options for their bikes and themselves respecting the individuality and freedom of a person. Although a major customer segment of the HD products are the HOG a lot of that merchandise is also worn by the vast majority of people in the United States who don't even ride motorcycles. They may not ride, but they know the logo. The Harley-Davidson brand has recognition status rivaled only by the great multi-national brands like Coca-Cola. The Harley merchandise is sold in many cateogories. It is divided into 3 segments for men women and kids. It has a wide range of clothes and accessories like boots, belts, wallets, key-chains, watches, leather collection, jackets, lighter, eye wear, helmets, rain gear, chaps or pants, gloves, vests, shirts for both men and women. It also has a smaller size for kids in apparels and sells Harley Davidson sticker book and Hog Bank. It also has a line of HD cafes. Harley-Davidson Financial Services offers a variety of financing and insurance options to help make the dream of owning a motorcycle a reality.

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The Best and the Worst Licensed by Bakery Crafts, this Harley-Davidson icing kit is sold to bakeries and pastry shops to make birthday confections fit for a Hell's Angel. The idea of linking the macho motorcycle brand with the domestic pastime of cake-making and its children's-party associations, proved highly discordant with the brand's core valuesat least according to respondents to a survey of branding experts conducted by New York brand consultancy Tipping Sprung. The Harley-Davidson Cake Decorating Kit was voted "worst brand extension" in the firm's latest annual poll, published in December, 2005.

It's worth noting that HarleyDavidson won kudos the year before for its foray into footwear. The same poll recognized the company's stylish and utilitarian biker boots as the "best brand extension." Harley-Davidson made footwear for men and women distinguished by its buckles and rugged soles. These intricate details create the spirit of freedom that is the heart and sole of Harley-Davidson footwear the consumer is told. Conclusion - By sticking to its vision - even during the lean years - Harley-Davidson has remained true to itself and its loyal customers. It is this commitment that makes HarleyDavidson one of the great brands of all time.

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Bibliography Brand management Harsh V Verma Marketing Management Philip Kotler www.interbrand.com www.brandextension.org www.brandchannel.com www.samsung.com www.barbie.com www.harleydavidson.com www.virgin.com www.google.com www.wikipedia.com

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