Answer
Jun 30, 2018 - 09:53 PM
In marketing vernacular this is known as "line extension" and is actually quite difficult to pull off. Some companies have done it successfully but the path to this is littered with tombstones.
https://www.amazon.ca/Positioning-Battle-Your-Al-R...
In Positioning Jack Trout and Al Reis argue that most products that succeed, do so because they occupy one of a few positions in people's minds. There are only four positions: first, most, only (and I forget the fourth one). And since attention and mindshare is limited, each position can hold at most two players. The first usually gets the lions marketshare, the second does okay and everyone else fights for scraps--if that.
This strangehold on a position in people's minds in a market does not usually carry over to new products marketed under the same brand.
Examples:
Coke was the first cola. Pepsi has done okay. Can you name anyone else? But no one else has. Virgin cola was a spectacular failure inspite of Richard Branson's marketing genius.
Windows had a lock on desktop operating systems. They spent billions trying to be the preeminent mobile OS but they barely register in market share. There is a joke about this that goes something like:
A man walks in to a bar and announces to his friends that he can no longer, in good conscience, continue to be a member of the occupy movement. "Why", they ask? "You've got the strongest social conscience among us" one intones. "We'll, I just joined the 1%" he offers. "I'd feel like a hypocrite. You see, I just got a Windows phone :)"
Counter Examples (companies that have done this successfully).
Caterpillar: Known for excavators that symbolize rugged strength and reliability, they have licensed their brand to a successful line of boots.
https://www.amazon.ca/Positioning-Battle-Your-Al-R...
In Positioning Jack Trout and Al Reis argue that most products that succeed, do so because they occupy one of a few positions in people's minds. There are only four positions: first, most, only (and I forget the fourth one). And since attention and mindshare is limited, each position can hold at most two players. The first usually gets the lions marketshare, the second does okay and everyone else fights for scraps--if that.
This strangehold on a position in people's minds in a market does not usually carry over to new products marketed under the same brand.
Examples:
Coke was the first cola. Pepsi has done okay. Can you name anyone else? But no one else has. Virgin cola was a spectacular failure inspite of Richard Branson's marketing genius.
Windows had a lock on desktop operating systems. They spent billions trying to be the preeminent mobile OS but they barely register in market share. There is a joke about this that goes something like:
A man walks in to a bar and announces to his friends that he can no longer, in good conscience, continue to be a member of the occupy movement. "Why", they ask? "You've got the strongest social conscience among us" one intones. "We'll, I just joined the 1%" he offers. "I'd feel like a hypocrite. You see, I just got a Windows phone :)"
Counter Examples (companies that have done this successfully).
Caterpillar: Known for excavators that symbolize rugged strength and reliability, they have licensed their brand to a successful line of boots.
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