Tata Virgin (Research Paper Sample)

An investigation on why brand extension strategies are successful
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List of content
1 Executive summary
2 Introduction
3 Aims and objectives of research
4 Literature review
5 Brand
1 constituents of successful brand
2 Constituents of a successful brand – brand equity, awareness, elements
3 Role of brand
6 Brand extension
4 components of brand extension
5 Role of brand extension
7 Brand equity
6 Components of brand extension
7 Role of brand equity
8 Methodology
9 Virgin brand- an example of brand extension
10 Successful and unsuccessful brand extension strategies
Contrast and comparison of virgin with other companies
8 Comparison of Virgin and Bic’s marketing success
11.1.1 Commentary on the marketing success of Virgin and Bic brands.
9 Comparison of Virgin and Godrej’s marketing success
11.2.1 Commentary on the marketing success of virgin coke and Godrej brands
10 Comparison of Virgin and Hewlett Packard’s marketing success
11.3.1 Commentary on the marketing success of virgin and Hewlett Packard
Recommendations
Conclusion
Personal reflection
1 Executive summary
Brand extension is a strategy that has been used by very many companies in the world. Most of the brand extensions have been successful while others have failed. Some of the companies that have been involved in brand extension include virgin, Godrej, Bic and hp. Virgin group had the many failures in extending the brand. These products have left a tainted image about the company. Some of the products that have not been received well from the virgin brand include virgin coke, virgin whisky and virgin jeans. The most successful service is Virgin Atlantic which has a turnover of 50% of the company’s sales (Taylor D 2007). Bic underwear has also failed in entry to the market. They introduced a product that was not related to the parents’ company. The consumers recognize Bic as a company that manufactures disposable products like bic pens and bic safety razors. The introduction of a product that is not related to the parents’ led to the failure of the brand.
Brand extension can increase the public image of a product or taint or damage the image. Products that are of good quality increase the brand image. Products of low quality reduce the image of the brand. It may reduce the sales of related products. Big brand names are not a guarantee that the product will be accepted by the consumers. It is therefore important to come up with strategies that will lead to increased sales.
This research paper discusses brand, brand equity and brand extension. It discusses the various aspects of each of the strategies in the marketing world. The roles and components of each are well elaborated. The paper discusses the successes and failures of global companies in the world. Virgin is used as the base company to compare and contrast the success of brand extension used by various companies. These successes are well laid out and the factors that led to the success are also discussed. The failures of brand extension are also contrasted with the success of the success of major multinational companies. The research paper ends with a recommendation and conclusion. The recommendation part is drawn from the lessons learnt from failures and successes of the companies that have attempted brand extension
2 Introduction
The globalization of the modern day world economy has made it apparent that most of the companies are looking to expand their product and service portfolios to other sectors. The main objective of these kinds of strategies is to make the brand sustainable and satisfy the demands and needs of the stakeholders of the organizations. The extension of the brands makes it possible for the management to cater to a greater target segment and makes it possible to survive in the market. The management can resort to other sectors if one of its products or service fails.
It has to be noted that with the globalisation of the economy, many companies are looking to move away from their home markets and expand to other countries. As a result in most of the industries the competition has increased and the customers have more choices at hands. The survival of the companies in the market has become tougher than that of the past and the companies tend to develop strategies that look to cater to the needs and demands of the customers. The satisfaction of the customers has become the prime objective of the organisations. In this context the development of a well known brand is useful for the companies. The brand name helps the companies to cater to the different segments of the market. For example, Coca Cola has been one of the biggest brands in the global soft drinks industry. The company started in the US and has gradually extended to other parts of the world. As the brand was well known the management found it easier to be successful in the new markets.
The management of the modern day organisations today have been trying to use the brand name to cater to new sectors of the economy as well. In this case new product and service portfolios are added to the existing portfolio of the company. This is called the brand extension of the product. This helps the management to use the brand name to cater to the demands of the customers in the new sectors and make the survival chances of the brand more apparent. Therefore, the companies can look to increase the customer base as well as increase the sales of the company. It has to be noted that for the brand extension strategies to be successful the management has to keep certain aspects in mind. The parent brand has to be well known and comprehensive marketing strategies are to be developed to cater to the needs of the stakeholders in the market. In the absence of these aspects the brand extension strategies may be unsuccessful. The strategies of the competitors are to be taken into account too.
The paper will look to investigate why some of the brand extension strategies are successful and others are not. In this case the Virgin brand has been taken as base and some examples from other countries will also be taken into account. Virgin has been a well known brand all over the world and the management of the company has looked to extend to various categories of the industry. Some of the brands have been successful while the others have not. Therefore, the Virgin brand provides a good source of information for the subject matter of the research and will thus help the paper to move to a suitable conclusion.
3 Aims and objectives of the research
The main aim of the research paper is to find out the successful aspects of brand extension. It has to be noted that the scope of the paper is huge and this can be fulfilled with the help of various sub objectives that are as follows:
* Constituents of a successful brand;
* The various aspects of brand development like brand equity, brand awareness etc;
* The various aspects of brand extension;
* The constituents of a successful brand extension;
* The cases of successful brand extension;
* The examples of unsuccessful brand extensions;
The sub objectives of the paper will help the research to progress and will help to provide a suitable conclusion as well as help the paper to develop recommendations for a successful brand extension strategy.
4 Literature review
The literature review of the paper will consist of various researches done in the field of brand extension and other aspects of the brand. It has to be noted that brand development strategies have been one of the most important aspects of the modern day global industry and most of the companies have been looking to find out strategies to succeed in the modern day competitive world. Therefore, the discussions in regard to the various aspects of the brand will help the research to develop outcomes that pertains to its objectives.
5 A brand
The concept of brand has been present from the historical days. The word brand comes from "brandr" that means to burn. In the older days the products of an organisation consisted of a burnt image of the producer or the organisation that developed the product. This helped the consumers to know about the quality of the product as well as the producer of the brand. Thus it helped the producer or the organisation to develop some sort of word of mouth publicity for the product. In the modern days too, the brand has been associated with the identity of the product as well as used in the marketing aspects of the product. (Rakocevic, 2011; Verma, 2009: 62).
Thus it can be said that the development of a brand has been one of the most important aspects of the modern day organizations as it helps in making the producer known to the customers in the market. As a result it helps in word of mouth publicity of the product as well as making the name of the producer known in the market. In the modern days the marketing aspects of a product or service has assumed great importance and thus various strategies are applied to make the product visible in the market. Still to make a brand successful the satisfaction of the customers has been an important constituent and this has to be fulfilled to make a brand successful in the market.
5.1 Constituents of a successful brand – brand personality
One of the important aspects of a successful brand has been making it congruent to the psychological aspects of the customers. In this context the development of brand personality is important. The brand personality is the special quality of the product or the service that can be related to the human nature. (Plessis, 2011: 98).This is the reason why most of the organizations of the world today are looking to d...