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Broadening the focus, widening the appeal and extending the line are all popular marketing strategies for growth. But do they really achieve growth? Sure they may increase sales in the short term but in the long term they usually undermine the power of the brand and as a result decrease sales. Al and Laura Ries in their insightful book titled The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding state that “conventional marketing is based on selling when it should be based on branding. Marketing is not selling. Marketing is building a brand in the mind of the prospect.”

So, if it is all about branding, what do we know about building a successful brand? We know that a brand needs to be very clear on its offering. And very clear on who they are for. If the waters get muddied so to speak, the offering becomes too broad and unclear and it is really hard for consumers to make sense of a brand. They can no longer create definition in their mind, categorise and create order. Almost everything we see, hear or touch contains details that our brain processes. Without realising it, our brain is looking for what is new, what is different, and what has changed. New information is matched to a category that already exists in our mind. When we categorise we are making our minds up about the meaning of things. So if we are confused by a brand then it is impossible to create a strong bond and emotional connection.

Imagine if the dog food brand Pedigree suddenly introduced a cat food range and proclaimed to the world ‘hey we are now all about cats too.’ Yes perhaps initially they might grow sales by the introduction of a new line, but quickly the brand would be jeopardised because their millions of very loyal dog loving customers will start to question if they really are experts in dogs. And if they don’t believe they are experts in dogs then before you know it they will move on to another brand that they believe are experts in dogs. It’s a slippery slope.

You might ask ‘Well Coca-Cola and Google have extended their lines successfully?” And yes this is true but they were huge global market leaders to begin with. Expanding a strong brand like Google will weaken the brand, but the Google brand itself is so strong that the differences are going to be hard to measure.

So until you are a category leader, stay truly focused, stay narrow and build a really strong brand.

Written by: Emma Scott
Published: November 29, 2016