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Introduction
The brand represents one of the most important aspects of a business, which is developed through the purposeful activity of managers and teams. A holistic image is a set of associations transferred to a product or service (Wu et al. 734). Companies decide to expand their brand as technology, media, and social opportunities evolve. This decision is valid, but if the conditions are not met, the success of this campaign will not be achieved (Longinos et al.). For example, companies choose new business categories far from the mainstream, do not look for original, thoughtful ideas, and try to expand to universality. As a result, there is a problem of unsuccessful attempts to expand the brand, which leads to a decrease in the perception of the appearance of the business. It becomes stressed, and as a consequence, sales drop, the media image collapses, and the target audience reject new products. All these consequences are harmful and can destroy the business, so it is necessary to trace how the conditions affect the brands expansion. The essay will examine the main causes that can lead to failed brand expansion attempts and the consequences.
Failed Brand Expansion Attempts
Reasons
The first step is to establish what factors are the most common causes of failed brand expansion attempts. One such factor is companies desire to reach as many audiences as possible. Reaching an audience is complicated and costly, but it is not always necessary. Organizations try to create a universally appealing brand to get the maximum target audience. This attempt sometimes ends with the business losing its identity, and instead of solid communication, it starts to broadcast stamps that do not resonate with customers (Longinos et al.). By making the brand universal, the company does not worry about personal individuality, and as a result, the expansion fails (Hesse et al. 13). Brand universality is a necessity for companies that produce socially significant mass consumption goods. In other cases, the promotion of the brand as universal as possible leads to a lack of segmentation of the audience. Consumers become uninterested in the brand because it is now publicly available and does not represent uniqueness. Consequently, the desire to make the brand universal can lead to the problem of a failed attempt to expand the brand.
Second, if an organization wants to expand its brand, then attention must be paid to what categories will be used. For example, Colgate is known for producing toothpaste and mouthwashes. In its media guise, the brand is known for these product categories and has been quite successful. In 1982, however, the company decided to expand and produce Colgate Kitchen Entress products. The companys leitmotif was that consumers would buy toothpaste from the same manufacturer after purchasing food products (Barnett). As a result, both product lines ceased to be successful in the marketplace. Consequently, switching to another product category is a complex business that can kill a brand because consumers will not make the association (Shang et al.). If the brand is associated with electronics, the audience will not buy home products or furniture from the same manufacturer. When a company offers a new product to the consumer, it must ensure that it relates to the core business ideas. Otherwise, the brand extension is expected to be unsuccessful because the new product will not meet the expectations of the target audience and will not meet the essential criteria of the brand image.
The third necessary condition for a successful brand extension should be the idea behind the extension. The concept of brand extension results from analyzing the possible income level from innovation, studying and estimating the state of the market, and finding the optimal time for an introduction. As a rule, to avoid implementing ill-conceived and unnecessary ideas, it is necessary to look at them from the consumer side and conduct focus groups or in-depth interviews (Longinos et al.). In their absence, the result of implementing ill-conceived and empty ideas will be a failed attempt at brand expansion. For example, at the end of the 20th century, the Coca-Cola Company decided to change the products brand name and nutritional map. The product was called New Coke and failed in the market because consumers could not perceive it as part of the leading brand (The Coca-Cola Company). Consequently, the lack of analysis when introducing an idea can lead to a loss of interest in the company and unsuccessful brand expansion.
Consequences
A company implemented an ill-conceived idea, moved into a different category, or expanded its product so much that it lost its identity. The company has made an unsuccessful attempt to expand the brand, which has become an ongoing problem. It is needed to look at what consequences to expect for a company that has taken a rash approach to brand expansion. The first thing to consider is the financial aspect of such a problem. Consumers are no longer interested in the company, and they stop buying old brand products as well as new ones (Wu et al. 740). The business loses revenue by continuing to produce an uninteresting product that will not pay off. In addition, organizations spend money on marketing and advertising that will not pay off because the product has not interested the primary target audience. The number of customers will decrease significantly, and new customers may not be as solvent and less interested in the product. A drop in sales is the main consequence of unsuccessful brand expansion, because of which economic stability will suffer.
Now we should move on to a discussion of the loss of personality, which is a direct result of failed brand expansion. Would a customer waste their time on a product that costs more but is not different from others in the same category in terms of exterior and interior performance? (Longinos et al.) Likely, the customer will not continue to buy that product even though they liked the brand before. The loss of identity can be expressed in a change in packaging design or a new formulation (Shang et al.). For example, a company was producing high-quality tea with a unique approach to processing raw materials. After the brand expansion, the tea remained in the high price category, but with new packaging and traditional production. The customer no longer recognizes the brand by either appearance or taste. Consequently, one of the critical consequences of a failed brand extension may be the loss of uniqueness as a product criterion.
Conclusion
Thus, unsuccessful brand extensions have a severe impact on the continued operation of a business. The environment in which a brand plans to expand is a success factor, so organizations must pay attention to where they plan to grow, what strategies are used, and whether it is worth it. Going into new product categories, versatility, and audience expansion, an ill-conceived idea can lead to unsuccessful expansion. Having an analytical approach and visualizing the potential outcome of a brand expansion is an opportunity to prevent financial decline and loss of brand uniqueness.
Works Cited
Barnett, Engrid. The Truth Behind The Failure Of Colgate Beef Lasagna . Lethbridge News, 2021.
Hesse, Andreas, et al. Practices of Brand Extensions And How Consumers Respond To FMCG Giants Greening Attempts . Journal of Brand Management, 2022. doi: 10.1057/s41262-022-00274-w
Longinos, Marin, et al. The Role of Identification in Consumers Evaluations of Brand Extensions . Frontiers in Psychology, 2018. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02582
Shang, Qian, et al. Logo Effects on Brand Extension Evaluations from the Electrophysiological Perspective . Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2017. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00113
The Coca-Cola Company. The Story of One of the Most Memorable Marketing Blunders Ever . Coca-Cola Company.
Wu, Zhulen, et al. The Strategy Of International Brand Expansion Of It Enterprises: A Case Study Based On Huawei . Procedia Computer Science, vol. 183, 2021, pp. 733-744. doi: 10.1016/j.procs.2021.02.122
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