Influx

Stretching brands beyond their core market is a trend that’s been around since the dawn of marketing. Packaged goods were the first to do this, now everyone is playing the game. These days it seems to be easier than ever to push your brand into new categories for a host of reasons. Below we list some of the reasons and some recent examples. All are illustrative of the fact that brands still matter and continue to be used as intangible assets with tremendous financial value.

lower costs of entry

When manufacturing is outsourced, set-up and development costs are lowered.

Casio stretches its G-Shock watch brand into the wireless handset category

brand stretching as media

Increasingly brand owners are seeing brand stretching as an opportunity to give their main brand additional exposure. The entry into a product category becomes a chance to expose the brand to different audiences, in new environment and at different occasions.

Westin Hotels moves into the bed business

media fragmentation as opportunity

If media is fragmenting and evolving with technology then the brand needs to stretch in these new media to remain relevant. Services, media and entertainment brands are re-configuring their offerings to be relevant across these different media- especially internet and wireless.

Disney creates a virtual Magic Kingdom

non-brand companies(oem and private label) desperately want brands

For the low-cost private label and OEM manufactuers, brand is often the only way out of the low-margin spiral, so they are desperate to license anything that can give themselves an edge.

Yahoo electronics

increased willingness and desire to collaborate

Brand owners are now much more interested in leveraging their brand through partnership. These can be two strong brands from different categories working together to create a new offering. Or a brand owner who brings its brand name and the opportunity for exposure to a non-branded partner who brings category expertise.

Song airlines moves into the music biz with Artemis Records