Most advertisers in the 90s no longer look at their brands using only socio-demo- graphic and classic imagery measurement tools. As marketing researchers, we experience more and more their urgent need to understand the very personal relationship that exists between "user" and "brand"; the brand with all its possible expressive values within the marketing-mix components; the user with his rationally and emotionally driven motivations, explicit and implicit emotions. For these purposes we have been developing, during the last seven years, a brand personality modelling system based on personality structure theories which find their origin in clinical psychology. Using this model, we have analysed more than 80 brands within different product fields all over Europe. Our main clients in this field of research, with whom this experience was generated, are internationally organised marketing driven companies. Trying to understand a brand starts with a basic analysis of the brand and the competitive brands within the same product field. Analysis of central values of the product/product field, independent from brands Centra values and personality of the main brands within the product field Understanding the function of each of the main marketing-mix components (packaging, advertising, etc) of these different brands. More and more we are also confronted with marketing practitioners that are looking for brand-extension opportunities for their brands. Not only does a brand-extension analysis include the basic analysis as mentioned above, but also the same analysis for the market segments or product fields and their respective brands into which the mother-brand wants to move. Only after this two- steps-analysis a qualitative estimate of possible success and profound guidance for development of the brand can be given.
This paper deals with brand extensions. It looks at one of the largest brands in the UK and how it has been extended in four separate ways. It looks at the rationale for each extension and the problems that each one faced. Using the research conducted at the time, and the subsequent results in the market place the paper tries to draw some conclusions about the conditions necessary for successful extensions. It also examines the impact that such extensions can have for the parent brand.
The paradigmatic concept of a brand is a name standing for a "virtual individual". Within this traditional approach, a multi-brand product carrying more than one brand is an antinomy, standing against the idea that a loyal consumer can trust the brand without further investigation of the product. All the same, multi-brand products exist. In many cases a "guest" brand is featured on a "host" brand in order to communicate specific aspects or in order to support a brand extension. Whenever a manufacturer considers using a "guest" brand on one of his products, an objective and mutually agreed assessment of a brand's value gets pivotal. This paper suggest to use Conjoint Analysis as a "lean" and straightforward approach to estimate the value of a "guest" brand relative to the "host" brand and to a price premium. The methodology is put forward using a research project on the NutraSweet logo in the French table top sweetener market.