Marketing Communications

BRAND STRATEGIES 45

Brand strategies

A brand strategy starts with the decision whether or not to put a brand name on a product.

It can be argued that, for some product categories, branding is not essential and may even be

useless. Th is is especially true for undiff erentiated and homogeneous products. Since brand-

ing is an essential element in pull marketing strategies, the products for which a push strategy

is indicated have less need of formal branding. Th e latter may be the case for industrial prod-

ucts such as steel and raw materials, or complex machinery like transmission equipment or

capacitors. However, except for generics, hardly any brandless consumer product can be

imagined, although in some consumer product categories such as fresh fruit, vegetables,

meat and bread, branded goods are the exception rather than the rule, although also in these

product categories branding is on the rise. Marketers cannot live with undiff erentiated

products and will always look for extra marketable value. A brand is an excellent vehicle by

means of which a product can be diff erentiated from the competition.

Once the decision to go for branded products has been taken, a company must decide on its

overall brand strategy. Th is strategy will also guide the branding of new product introductions.

Figure 2.2 shows the basic brand strategies. First of all, a product can be given one brand

name, or several (mostly two) brands can be used to position it. In the case of one brand name,

four diff erent strategies can be followed. Sticking to existing product categories and using the

same brand name for all new product introductions in a product category is called line extension.

Th is strategy is used very frequently. Examples are Magnum’s fl avours Temptation Chocolate

and Strawberry White, or Kellogg’s K Chocolate delight and Kellogg’s K Fruit & Yoghurt cereals.

Marketers may want to expand the variety of their off erings, try to accommodate the needs

of new consumer segments, react to successful competitive products, crowd the product

space and deter competitive entry, enhance the image of the parent brand or try to command

more shelf space from retailers. Overall, it improves the competitive position of the brand by

off ering consumers more variety, as a result of which they are not inclined to look to com-

petitive brands to satisfy their needs. Moreover, there seem to be strong spillover eff ects from

advertising the line extension on choice of the parent brand. Advertising of Yoplait non-fat

yoghurt, for example, increased sales of Yoplait yoghurt even more than advertising of Yoplait

yoghurt itself.^16 Line extension strategies have a number of obvious advantages. Th e favourable

image of the brand is carried over to the new products that are marketed with the same brand

name, and the past communications investments in the brand are more effi ciently used to

market more products. However, a line extension also has a number of disadvantages, the

Figure 2.2 Basic brand strategies

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