It certainly sounds delicious to the makers of Saffola Oil. Most of us are aware that Saffola stands for oil for the health conscious. Full marks to that.
Smelling success with Saffola brand, the management now plans to introduce a range of soup. Full marks to that too.
The brand for the soup will be Saffola. Zero marks to that.
Saffola Soup? With that brand they want to give Knorr Soups a tough time. Exactly the opposite would happen. Saffola team would be wasting their resources in trying to connect Saffola with soup. They would be better off with a different brand. Even if they can make a dent in the marketplace with Saffola Soup, I am worried that they would be putting their Oil in the Soup. Pun intended.
Good to remember that Kingfisher was a beer and not an airline.
That Nirma was a washing powder and not a bathing soap.
That Anchor are switches and not toothpaste.
I can go on and on with failures of brand extensions. There might be a few success stories… more as an exception than a rule. Especially people with deep pockets can get away with experiments. Marketers with average pocket money should never take a chance.
Well, there are mistakes businesses make. And there are antidotes. I have listed 101 of them in my book, ‘Your Enterprise Isn’t Dead. Yet.’ Can be downloaded at prakashbang.com