Proof yet again: Extensions don’t work!

For all of you out there, who still believe in the credibility of brand extensions and the validity of its success in the marketplace, here is some more bad news.

Proof, once more, that Brand Extensions work like communism – perfect to preach, pathetic to practice. Put simply, it’s a concept that never works – it never did; it never will!

Two blogs ago I had written about the ‘The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding’. The next blog post – i.e., the recent one - was not a continuation, in the strict sense of the word, and was titled ‘The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing’. Two blogs; yet two completely different topics and content, though the second one looks like an extension of the first.

Note, if you have not already done so, the similarity of the titles. And therein lies the problem – not to me, but to quite a few, who mailed me or called me asking me why I have not yet updated my blog.

Do you realize the problem, their problem that is? They have not seen the second post. But why? Simple. They read my blog ‘The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding’. Subsequently every time they logged back, what did they find? ‘The 22 Immutable Laws of …’ which made them believe they had read it already.

But they hadn’t. They just assumed it was the same as the one they had read earlier. The recent post’s title sounded similar to the previous one and hence ended up confusing them. Just like how brand extension confuses in the marketplace.

One more proof, if I could add in a quirky way, that Brand Extensions don’t work!