Page 289 - Marketing Management

266 PART 4 BUILDING STRONG BRANDS

TABLE 9.5 Brand Extendibility Scorecard

Allocate points according to how well the new product concept rates on the specific dimensions
in the following areas:
Consumer Perspectives: Desirability
10 pts. _____ Product category appeal (size, growth potential)
10 pts. _____ Equity transfer (perceived brand fit)
5 pts. _____ Perceived consumer target fit
Company Perspectives: Deliverability
10 pts. _____ Asset leverage (product technology, organizational skills, marketing effectiveness
via channels and communications)
10 pts. _____ Profit potential
5 pts. _____ Launch feasibility
Competitive Perspectives: Differentiability
10 pts. _____ Comparative appeal (many advantages; few disadvantages)
10 pts. _____ Competitive response (likelihood; immunity or invulnerability from)
5 pts. _____ Legal/regulatory/institutional barriers
Brand Perspectives: Equity Feedback
10 pts. _____ Strengthens parent brand equity
10 pts. _____ Facilitates additional brand extension opportunities
5 pts. _____ Improves asset base
TOTAL _____ pts.

TABLE 9.6 Research Insights on Brand Extensions

• Successful brand extensions occur when the parent brand is seen as having favorable associations
and there is a perception of fit between the parent brand and the extension product.
• There are many bases of fit: product-related attributes and benefits, as well as nonproduct-related
attributes and benefits related to common usage situations or user types.
• Depending on consumer knowledge of the categories, perceptions of fit may be based on
technical or manufacturing commonalties or more surface considerations such as necessary
or situational complementarity.
• High-quality brands stretch farther than average-quality brands, although both types of brands
have boundaries.
• A brand that is seen as prototypical of a product category can be difficult to extend outside
the category.
• Concrete attribute associations tend to be more difficult to extend than abstract benefit associations.
• Consumers may transfer associations that are positive in the original product class but become
negative in the extension context.
• Consumers may infer negative associations about an extension, perhaps even based on other
inferred positive associations.
• It can be difficult to extend into a product class that is seen as easy to make.
• A successful extension cannot only contribute to the parent brand image but also enable a
brand to be extended even farther.