With 38 SKUs Crest enjoyed 36% market share, with 50 SKUs it lost leadership to Colgate..know how

Crest is among many other brands who have fallen into the trap of brand extension. Power of brand is inversely proportional to its scope. As soon as a brand becomes successful, marketers tend to expand the brand in need of more sales. No doubt the brand expansion works to keep the counter clicking, but what happens to the brand in the long run? Does it keeps as strong as it was before it was expanded.

Once a market leader, Procter and Gamble’s Crest toothpaste lost its leadership to Colgate. With 38 SKUs only for Crest the toothpaste enjoyed 35% of the market share, when the number reached to more than 50 SKUs Crest slipped to 25% market share, weakening its self and giving a way to Colgate.

What Crest did in the toothpaste category, Chevrolet did with cars. Chevrolet was the leading selling brand in America. Soon the brand Chevrolet was put on to many car models, cheap, costly, small, big even truck. The brand became weak and the leader was replaced with Ford. Along with line extension marketers use various other methods to milk their brands and they are successful, but it only remains for short term In the long run brand expansion diminishes the brand power and weakens the brand image.
The answer to a healthy brand lives not in its extension but in narrowing. 

Digital Marketing by two big brands.

Big names, branded merchandise, action figures and A-listers spread across TV, print, and perhaps even the drive-through window at a local fast food restaurant.

But what about online? Below are two brands that implemented targeted and integrated digital strategies, using social media, mobile advertising, search engine marketing and online video.

TOY STORY 3 Promotion. To launch the third installment of their successful Toy Story franchise, Pixar used a combination of online channels to encourage viral sharing and ultimately produce big numbers at the box office. They utilized promoted trending topics on Twitter.com/Disney Pixar and Google video ads featuring the movie trailer which linked to the movie’s facebook page. Customers were also invited to purchase tickets directly through custom applications on mobile and social media platforms.

OLD SPICE Commercial. A non-traditional summer blockbuster has been the re-emergence of Old Spice and the “Old Spice Guy”, Isaiah Mustafa. This campaign illustrates the perfect mix of humor and seasonal messaging in a targeted online video experiment, resulting in tremendous viral awareness. Old Spice capitalized on the campaign’s popularity by filming real time video responses to questions and comments posted on facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

 Blockbuster Marketing Lessons You Can Apply Today:

   1. Make it easy to view and share your content online.Pixar’s multichannel approach placed movie trailers within search ads on Google, promoted tweets, and facebook creating a large footprint reaching their target audience in relevant places online. Old Spice utilized YouTube as their video platform to leverage the many sharing options and widespread familiarity of the site to make it easy for viewers to share each video.
   2. Have a call-to-action. Pixar’s ticketing facebook application was the perfect opportunity to test whether facebook users would engage in purchase behavior when prompted and presented with a unique and well-executed call-to-action. Old Spice’s call-to-action invited consumers to submit questions to the “Old Spice Guy” via twitter resulting in recorded responses being published via YouTube, fueling further sharing and brand engagement.
   3. Match your message to the online medium. Old Spice considered the benefits that social networking provided and capitalized on them to engage customers and create brand loyalty in a whole new way. Their online content, messaging, and calls-to-action were unique and effective; while avoiding the common mistake of simply re-purposing tradtionial creative.

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Brands worth more money than Products

According to the American Marketing Association, a Brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service from those of other sellers. The word ‘brand’ comes from the Norwegian brandr meaning to burn, as in branding cattle.

                A product is something created by labour that can be marketed or sold as a commodity. A brand is created when you take that product and give it special meaning through names, logos or any form of identifi cation that separates one seller’s goods or services from their competition.
               Why do we create brands? Quite simply, we create them because brands are worth more money than products.