Back in February we wrote a blog about the new Tesco ‘Venture brand’ Chokablok (courtesy of Liana) – the idea behind the venture brands strategy is for Tesco to develop exclusive brands and products that don’t carry the Tesco name. It seems logical – Tesco are struggling to get more customers into the store so the alternative is to try and occupy more of their customers spend when they do visit.

The latest addition to the venture brand strategy is the snack brand called Llama’s – a baked bite in the shape of a Llama and the brand execution centres on the personality of a South American llama character. As we saw with Chokablok, these venture brands are designed to be really innovative to give shoppers a good reason to buy them over competitors … and Llama’s certainly delivers on that!

The brand is quirky, different and a bit silly, apparently targeted at men because it is ‘big on taste, and low on patience’. Visiting the website I’m presented with a Llama asking me: ‘What is it with you British and boring snacks? Where I come from in South America, nibbles have some big kahunas!’ and asked to ‘join the heard’ on Facebook. At the moment the Facebook page boasts a measly 74 likes (and one of those is me) but word of mouth through social media feels like a great way to go to build brand presence (a la Kit Kat chunky flavour campaign) – The brand has great potential so let’s hope its social media activity gains momentum and rids the world of boring snacks!

Many brands have successfully extended their brands. It’s the thinking man’s choice for low risk and potentially high returns innovation. However, there have been some brand extensions that have gone a step too far. Here are my top 5 worst brand extensions!

5. COSMOPOLITAN YOGURT
Cosmopolitan is the international magazine for women it has 58 international editions, is published in over 35 languages and is distributed in more than 100 countries. It is a magazine brand, a very successful magazine brand it is not an FMCG brand. So why it thought it could simply extend into yogurt was anyone’s guess. From the time of its release, the yogurt was supposedly off of the shelves in 18 months.

4. COLGATE KITCHEN ENTREES
This is one of the most bizarre brand extensions ever!! Colgate decided to use its name on a range of food products called Colgate’s Kitchen Entrees. Colgate is not a brand that say’s yummy, delicious food. Chewing gum maybe but not savoury food.

3. FRITO LEMONADE
Frito Lay Lemonade might seem like a good idea: Eating salty corn chips makes you thirsty, and lemonade can cure that thirst. Unfortunately, when people think Fritos, “thirst-quenching” is not an adjective that comes to mind. Therefore, Frito Lay’s “logical” brand extension turned out to not be so logical after all.

2. BIC UNDERWEAR
Bic has built its brand on the convenience of disposable products. Disposable razors? Disposable lighters? Convenient and affordable. Disposable underwear? Just plain weird. Other than the disposability factor, consumers could not find a link between the underwear and Bic’s other products. Without a unifying factor, people were just confused. In addition, the idea of buying intimate attire from a company that also produces pens apparently does not appeal to most consumers.

1.HARLEY DAVIDSON PERFUME
Harley-Davidson fans are known as very loyal customers. However, even the beloved motorcycle brand can go too far. T-shirts and cigarette lighters were one thing, but when the company started to make aftershave and perfume, fans were not impressed. As the saying goes, less is more, and Harley-Davidson had spread itself too thin. Or maybe people just weren’t too keen on the idea of smelling like a motorcycle.

What would make your top list of brand extension failures and why?

I am really excited to see the launch of a new Cadbury variant of Philadelphia; described as “a blend of cool, creamy, Light Philadelphia with delicious Cadbury milk chocolate”. Kraft have been generating a lot of buzz on Facebook asking consumers to ‘Tell us what you think’ and share what they’ve been spreading it on. As well as this, the interactive recipe tool on the Philadelphia website now includes the Cadbury variety, giving consumers plenty of ideas on how to get started trying the chocolate version. Building on the versatility message for Philadelphia, it encourages consumers to “Spread it; dip it; cook with it”.

Previous product launches by Kraft, utilising brands within their portfolio include Philadelphia and Ritz snackpots and Milka Philadelphia which has been available across Europe for some time. However, this is an example of Kraft taking the opportunity to leverage two of their strongest brands, since acquiring Cadbury two years ago. I predict this could be a real success due to the iconic status of both the brands.

Reading through the comments on Facebook it appears some consumers have approached the chocolate blend with some trepidation. However, Kraft have played up to this perfectly with a great TV campaign featuring Jennifer Saunders who appears to be outraged at this chocolate and cheese “monstrosity” before discovering it to be rather yummy. I love the tone of voice of this ad; which reminds me of the frivolity and irreverent humour of the old Philadelphia Angels commercials.

I’m certainly intrigued and will be definitely be indulging my sweet tooth!

Those of you based in the UK may have seen news this month of the launch of DSG’s latest brand extension: KnowHow Movies. Arriving to a (fairly muted) fanfare from the media, KnowHow Movies is the group’s on-demand live streaming service, offering pay-per-view films and TV programming.

For those of use who still associate DSG with high street stalwarts Dixons, Curry’s and PC World, video on demand is not an obvious choice for a new brand platform. Look a little closer, however, and the rationale becomes clearer.

The service is an extension of the group’s existing KnowHow service – the equivalent of Best Buy’s much-publicised Geek Squad. The original site offers a mixture of free advice, one-off and subscription-based support services for those  less confident in their use of technology that ranges from cameras, TVs and fridge-freezers to iPods, netbooks and desktops.

It isn’t a service for the digital generation, or indeed for those of us who’ve grown  up working on the basis that we’ll ‘give it a go and see what happens’. Instead, it’s targeting the sizeable population of novice silver surfers, harassed parents who’ve acceded to their children’s pleas, and time-pressed workers looking for a ‘walk out working’ service à la Carphone Warehouse. It’s just unfortunate – perhaps deliberately so – that the service launched at a time when the market leading brands from the US (Netflix) and the UK (Lovefilm) were going head  to head with ad campaigns, promotional offers and free trials. Or is it?

The beauty of KnowHow Movies is that it has a ready-made audience at its fingertips, many of whom will enjoy the idea of a film service at their fingertips. Unlike its competitors, KnowHow has entered the market with a pay-per-view premise, allowing hesitant potential customers to trial the service with no commitment – something that remains more appealing for many than a longer free trial that subsequently requires cancellation.

Is it a brand for everyone? Certainly not. If you’re a devotee of the iPad or a frequent traveller, chances are you’ve already got a service you’re happy with. To kick off the Olympic analogies, this is a brand for those looking to dip a toe into the waters of VOD, not for long-distance swimmers.

As many of you will know, here at The Value Engineers we pride ourselves on out-thinking – asking the right questions, challenging the status quo, and coming up with inspiring solutions.

So, we were delighted to be able to share a bit of our out-thinking on Wednesday 14th March as Giles Lury, our Chairman, presented a webinar on the topic of Repositioning Positioning – a challenge to the incumbent brand frameworks, and a fresh perspective on what the future of positioning might be.

If you weren’t able to join us, or if you’d like to listen again, then just click below  - and let us know what you think!