Abstract:
The past century was marked by the birth of nearly every
brand we know and consume today. In the 21st century, on
the other hand, brands will multiply their portfolio into
different products and services. It is going to be the
era of brand extensions!
With 80 percent of marketing executives considering brand
extension as the most popular means of brand growth and
with 50 percent of all brand extensions failing (Brand
gym, 2007), this thesis will look into the appropriate
use of brand extension. Many marketing professional are
using brand extension for the launch of new products in
different categories without realizing the risks involved
in it. Some of them just emphasize on brand extension and
forget the basic functionality of the product where as
others ignore the fit and leverage of the new product
that is essential for brand extension.
There is a thin line between successful and unsuccessful
brand extension. This study will describe both aspects of
brand extension and will describes means through which
brand extension can be made an effective tool for
launching new products. It’s quite important to have both
the consumer and company’s perspective about brand
extension yet in this study I have decided to stick to
company’s viewpoint of brand stretching.
