EX-TENSIONS

Apologies, apologies & more apologies!! I know dashboard has been out since a long time. Thanks to the recession and economic slowdown, I had to keep a keen watch on the placements at my BSchool. Now that the dirt is settled, DASHBOARD is back. Also would like to thank the avid followers of the blog. Although not of the magnitude of a PIL, I did get requests, threats and even blackmails from my friends and fellow bloggers to continue writing. Thanks and am sorry to disappoint you!
But if you have noted, in the past month or so, there haven’t been any path breaking marketing campaigns, repositioning or anything. Credit goes to the pessimistic sentiment of the market, most of the brands have delayed new product launches, ofcourse they wanna play safe!

Ok, but we can’t stop because of that right! So here I am, just sharing my views on extensions! The brand in discussion is SET WET by PARAS PHARMA. I’ll jot down the reasons why this is a peculiar example.

Before that, we all know about the 4 types of extensions. Ref: Fig
1. Brand Extension
2. Line Extension
3. Product Development
4. Multiple Branding

To brief about the brand, PARAS started the brand SET WET as a Hair Gel in 2005. The brand had an appeal in the growing market for hair gels. The urban youth liked the brand which showed raunchy campaigns where women went gaga over the jazzy hair-dos! The hair gel market was at a premature stage and the entry was logical with only a few players in it, namely Brylcream and a host of gray market gels.

Going by the website the customer profiling says: SET WET caters to men who want more than just the ordinary. What I could make out of the brand’s mission statement :- to meet the styling needs of the modern Indian man, to make every man very very sexy and to drive women wild!

Now, ofcourse PARAS leveraged on the equity of the brand name SET WET since they catered to the same segment of demography which used the Hair Gel! Pure case of BRAND EXTENSION. Like Dettol launched Dettol Soaps after the antiseptic liquid. One of the first articles I ever read about branding spoke volumes of choosing a right brand name keeping future extensions in mind. Well, just think of it. SET WET Deo. A Deo is supposed to work as an anti-perspiration and well...keep you dry (technically) and fresh. This is where you find a mismatch!

A pity really this is a dilemma brand managers faces in the long run, whether to leverage on the equity of an existing brand (BRAND EXTENSION) or give it a new brand name (NPD).

Well theoretically let us try matching this case with the four constructs of FIT for brand extensions:-
1. RELEVANCE: The extent to which the core brand attributes are relevant or important to the brand extension category.
The core brand attributes are of brand SET WET are APPEAL APPEAL and APPEAL. You have the same blondes (teacher, colleague, stranger) going crazy over the guy who comes with a deo. So there is a certain degree of relevance.

2. RECOGNITION: The extent to which consumers understand the reasoning as well as the logic of the brand extension.
This is one construct which looks weak. The extent of logical fit between the hair gel and deo is something that can only be explained because PARAS wanted to create an umbrella brand which catered to the men’s cosmetic category.

3. CREDIBILITY: The extent to which the core brand has attributes which are credible and acceptable to conduct and sell the brand extension.
The core brand did have certain credibility attached to it since the product inherently was good and did sell a lot because of the right timing of launch. So yes, there was credibility.

4. TRANSFER: The perceived ability of a brand to transfer their skills and experience to the brand extension.
The perceived ability of brand SET WET to transfer the appeal that it had created for hair gels to the deos was also prevailing. So it did transfer the skills of satisfying an urban male who could in turn satisfy a woman.

So my friends, theory claims to support the decision of a brand extension (3/4) thats upto 75% but then still there should be times that the parent company should trust the brand managers to recreate the magic they did with their earlier brands.

DISCLAIMER: THE ABOVE CONTENT COMES FROM THE GRAY CELLS OF AN ORDINARY GUY. PLEASE DONOT INCREASE OR DECREASE THE EQUITY OF THE BRAND BASED ON THE ABOVE!!! LOL ...COMMENTS WELCOME!!