OPEN EYE STRETCH Beautiful Thinking No
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OPEN EYE STRETCH beautiful thinking No. 27 | June 2016 As with many good things in life, it started with a beer. More specifically, it started last summer with a discussion about the launch of Beer Beauty, a range of Carlsberg beer-infused personal care products for men, followed up by the brand’s Beer’d Beauty male facial grooming range. FOR Would we buy it? Did we like it? Would it work? If not, why not? Even if beer is full of Vitamin B and silicium, both commonly found as actives in beauty products, do we believe it? Did it make sense? And then we noticed Beer Beauty was just one in a stream of new products and collaborations crossing our desks with ever greater frequency. From the weird to the truly wonderful, brands are extending themselves in ever more ways. If it isn’t stalwart confectionery brand Kit Kat partnering with YouTube and Google in a series of technology/ chocolate mashups, it's Ferrari Land Europe, and let’s not get started on the Kardashian/Jenner clan output… With ever more products, services, collaborations, E-W and ranges on virtual and actual shelves, what does it take to meaningfully extend your brand in a connected, omnichannel world? How can brands do it? And why would they want to? Beyond that, just what does it take to be a truly stretchy brand? What brands can leap over their product line and category to transform themselves into something else entirely? ORD Join us for a look over the horizon... beautiful thinking CHAPTER 01 MIGRATION DO BRANDS TRAVEL WELL? Businesses love to grow. Whether corporate giant or individual entrepreneur, it’s natural to want to take products or services on a journey. The journey often involves venturing into new geographies, or exploring horizontal and vertical line extension (think different product varieties, or travelling up and down the premium/mass product offer). But increasingly, the journey is about migrating the brand into a different category entirely. MIGRATION and, after novelty, equal second with affordability in succeed, regardless of how they are branded. There has to 04 the USA. This, together with the fact that between be an offering over and above the brand fit. Heinz Cleaning 40-50% of all new products fail (although some estimates Vinegar is a case in point. At first glance, it seems great: put it as high as 80%!)2, choosing the path of least quality, reliability, and in line with its place in the kitchens resistance is understandably tempting! of the world. But cleaning vinegar is a budget conscious, eco-friendly solution to cleaning needs. Consumers simply Given the potential upside, why wouldn’t brands want don’t need an expensive branded solution when they can to migrate? The answer, perhaps, lies in the myriad get the same result from normal (and cheaper) vinegar. “Even if it fits and your extension failures that haunt (former) marketing It’s migration to a cold, barren wasteland. executives’ nightmares. There’s a good chance it will brand theoretically fail and possibly damage the core brand in the process. What does the migration bring to the party in the long term? Does it actually provide a meaningful Some of the worst brand extensions seem so obviously business prospect? Will it open up new roads or enables you to do it, wrong that it’s hard to see how they even got off the does it lead to a cul-de-sac? ground: Cosmopolitan Yogurt, Colgate frozen ready meals, Bic disposable underwear, Tango Shower Gel, Ze Frank, a leading digital/cultural entrepreneur in the migration still has McDonald’s McPizza (and hotels for that matter!), USA, summed up brand as “the emotional aftertaste of Cheetos Lip Balm, Harley Davidson Fragrance, Levis a series of experiences.” In the case of migration, spreading formal suits, Virgin Brides… a brand into too many places at once can certainly dilute to offer a meaningful the taste. This is most immediately evident for designer What’s clear from these examples is the failure to ask some and celebrity brands. Burberry’s disastrous forays into simple, but deeply important questions before starting. branded goods in the early noughties took the better part benefit to the customer.” of a decade from which to rebound. It confused customers What’s the fit like for a possible migration? and it cast negative downmarket associations on to what Does it make logical sense? had previously been an exclusive, refined brand. At its heart, this is about knowing what business The direction of travel also matters. A bath smoothie you’re in, and what your brand is actually known for or fruity facemask route could be entirely possible for by the consumer, the retailer, and the wider world. fruit drink brand Innocent in terms of fit and offer. But It’s not about what you think. Whether it’s a long-held in business terms, it would be moving into the highly Done well, migration is excellent business sense. proposition or something that needs to be uncovered by competitive and complex beauty market. And this might When a brand has already done the work to be recognised market research, understanding the elemental truths about prevent the brand from a future entry into the lucrative as a meaningful and bankable asset, it’s easier, quicker, your brand is a must. and growing area of wellness products. and – critically – cheaper to grow via extension. Distribution is simpler as existing retailer relationships can be leveraged, It seems simple, but so many brands are utterly The migration location matters too. It’s a global world, but there’s less need to raise consumer awareness, and mistaken about this. Chewits – a leading UK brand local appetites differ. Germ-killing brand Dettol successfully consumer trust in the original brand reduces risk aversion of highly flavoured, chewy sweets – brought out a range offers body and face wipes in the Indian Subcontinent, to trying something new. Extending a brand still takes of liquid hand soap. The brand’s proposition may well but this is a step too far for the UK market. The underlying work, but building an entirely new one is always harder. have associations with flavour and fragrance, but at its cultural norms of how a product is used and how it is heart Chewits is all about chewiness and taste: who on perceived can be the difference between success and failure. As a result, the vast majority of ‘new’ products launched earth would want to eat soap? every year are actually a form of extension rather than It may well be cheaper, but migration needs as much ‘new manufacturer’ or ‘new brands’. Nielsen estimates Does the brand migration offer meaningful benefit strategic consideration, if not more, as that of an that extensions are around three to four times more to the customer? entirely new product. Not such a simple journey common than the other two combined.1 The same survey after all. found that 59% of global respondents preferred to buy new Even if it fits and your brand theoretically enables you to products from familiar brands. Brand recognition was the do it, migration still has to offer a meaningful benefit to the top reason for purchasing a new product in Latin America customer. Research shows that ‘me-too’ products seldom 1 | NIELSEN GLOBAL NEW PRODUCT INNOVATION SURVEY, Q1 2015 2 | MYTHS ABOUT NEW PRODUCT FAILURE RATES: GEORGE CASTELLION, STEPHEN K. beautiful thinking MARKHAM, NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY, 2013 Plus two new categories MIGRATION from the original list 05 CELEBRITY Migration can take many forms, categorised as early as From the humble acorn of Elizabeth 1 Taylor’s first celebrity fragrance has 1979 by Ed Tauber, legendary professor of marketing . sprung the mighty oak of celebrity brands – Dr Dre Beats, George Foreman grills, everything Kardashian, Brand Beckham, Elle MacPherson, Jamie Oliver. The sky (or nadir) certainly seems to be the limit. COMPANION These are brand extensions that are the BENEFIT/ATTRIBUTE natural companion to the original product. If a brand really owns a particular benefit Doritos tortilla chips and salsa. Gillette or attribute, it can be migrated. Dettol razors and shaving foam. has gone from a germ-killing cleaning product into laundry care, personal care, FORMAT and health. In the USA, Arm & Hammer’s CHANNEL HOPPING A similar product in a different form from ‘freshening’ attribute has taken it from a When brands created in one channel the original, such as Mars ice cream bars. baking product to smell-repellent cat litter, move to a completely different one. made. laundry care, toothpaste, and beyond. com and Amazon now have actual ‘bricks EXPERTISE & mortar’ stores, and online shopping portals like Net-a-porter have magazines. When brands gain a reputation for a particular technical expertise in a given DISTINCTIVE FLAVOUR/ area, it can be migrated into a different area INGREDIENT/COMPONENT where it’s useful. Examples include Dyson’s march across consumer durables, Nike’s It could be tea, it could be peanut butter sprint into sport tech and Uber’s race into CUSTOMER BASE – a brand that credibly ‘owns’ something anything involving door-to-door delivery. can take it into entirely new categories. Selling complimentary products to a nicely Think Dairy Milk desserts, biscuits, drinks, targeted customer base. Saga started with and otherwise, ditto Reese’s Peanut Butter hotels for retired people and is now a and Lurpak butter. behemoth of insurance, travel, retirement DESIGNER homes, magazine publishing, and healthcare provision for the over 50s. Designer brands lead the way in stretch, conveying a certain lifestyle, image, and status.