Marketing experts believe that it is not worth expanding a brand into product categories if there are already strong competing established brands. This can lead to failure and high promotion costs. In such a case, it is better to create a new product that will be independent and focused on a specific market. If a company still decides indonesian numbers to use an umbrella brand, a possible technology may look like this:
Matching visual elements
To turn a brand into an umbrella brand, its name and graphic design must correspond to it. For example, “33 Cows” cannot be extended to other products, as this name is associated only with dairy products.
Directions
It is recommended to register a trademark in different product categories to avoid situations where other companies can use a well-known brand to promote their products. For example, the Baltika beer company was forced to go to court against the Metatabak company, which wanted to release cigarettes under the name Baltika. It is now known that Baltika has registered its trademark in the Condoms category, and the British company Virgin has patented its brand in the Coffins group.
The right moment
The brand should be expanded when it has already achieved a strong position in the market. It is desirable that the brand recognition indicator among the target audience be at least 50%.
The essence of an umbrella brand
But a brand that is too strong, a core brand that is associated with a specific product category (Xerox with copiers and Coca Cola with soft drinks), is unlikely to be suitable for use as an umbrella. Any expansion of the brand will weaken its position.
Xerox is a classic negative example. It produced copying equipment and was a leader in this, but decided to produce computers, despite strong brands in this category (IBM, etc.). With this, Xerox significantly weakened its position, and had to restore its reputation. Now it is presented only as a "document company". It is interesting that at one time IBM tried to enter the copying equipment market, but this plan was also unsuccessful.
Limits of expansion
It is necessary to determine what products can be released in addition to the main ones. To do this, it is necessary to conduct research, to find out how different products are divided into groups in the minds of buyers. For these purposes, marketers can use, for example, cluster analysis, which allows determining how close products are to consumers. Research shows that ketchup can be closer to tkemali sauce than to mayonnaise, and chocolate-covered wafers are more similar to chocolate than to cookies. An example from one of the Western authors: a toilet paper manufacturer began to produce paper napkins under its own brand. But this led to a loss of position in both markets.
Before a company starts releasing a new product, it must master the manufacturing technology and develop a packaging design, which does not necessarily have to be the same for all products; it is important that it corresponds to a single style.
PR
This is another important point in organizing an umbrella brand. There are several ways to promote it: promoting the brand as a whole, increasing the recognition of individual products, or advertising the strongest position. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages, and the choice of the most effective method depends on various factors, such as the target audience and competition. The most effective way is to promote the best-selling product in the line. It is necessary to take into account that consumers often ignore advertising that does not contain indications that the product is worth buying. Therefore, when promoting umbrella brands, various marketing strategies and communication channels are used for maximum effect and customer attraction.
However, even if everything was done correctly, the result may be unexpected. The success of a brand is not related to its type (umbrella or independent), but depends on the quality of the product and other factors such as positioning, advertising strategy, packaging. It is possible that the PR was wrong or just unlucky.