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Extending Brands & Barriers to Product Adoption
Coca~Cola BlaK
I'm almost always skeptical about brand extensions. Coca~Cola's new cola-coffee concoction BlaK is no exception. Why, I wonder, would anyone want the implied caffeine infusion that this beverage seems like it would deliver? Anybody, except Red Bull-drinkers, that is. (For a comprehensive chart comparing caffeine content of beverages, foods, pills, etc., go here.)
I ask myself, "Who is the target consumer group? How will the brand be repurposed without eroding the parent?" These are all tough questions for those who launch a brand extension.
Well, the brand managers at Coke are famous for their extensions. Good-famous and Bad-famous. We all remember New Coke. Coke Classic is now just coke. Well, if wisdom is a function of experience, and experience is a function of erring - and then learning from it - Coke's brand managers must have chops.
BlaK's France website underscores Coke's brand management skills. It is cool like only the French can be cool. A completely different visual language set and color palette. Take a look, it makes me want to buy this stuff and drink it just so I have a shot at living inside their advertising gestalt.
Advertising: Marcel République. Web Design: Publicis Net
Barriers to Innovation
The current issue of Harvard Business Review includes a must-read article by John T. Gourville, Eager Sellers and Stony Buyers: Understanding the Psychology of New Product Adoption.
The article lays out research findings that elucidate why so many product and service innovations are doomed to failure. Gourville explains that consumers over-value what they have by a factor of three, and that sellers over-value their innovations by the same factor (x3). Success in introducing products, Gourville posits, requires a perceived improvement factor of ten times or more. Obviously, this is a high threshold.
Gourville refocuses and clarifies consumer change-aversion. While most marketers think of consumers as risk-averse, Gourville explains that they are, in fact, loss-averse. They simply do not want to lose the benefits and features of a product they already know and value, even when a case is made that the new product is demonstrably better - according to their own standards!
Posted on June 27, 2006 09:00 AM | Permalink
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Comments
The ad does make me want to buy a case, that's for sure.
The text, I believe, positions this drink as an "experience" more than just an over-caffeinated beverage. It does attract another set of expectations and curiosity; it does not make any mention of great taste, refreshment or anything else that sodas use in their advertising.
Because of this, the target audience is likely the crowd that is attracted to Red Bull, where the marketing is more about experience than taste ("Red Bull gives you wings", and not "Red Bull, the citrus taste with punch").
Then again, I could be wrong.
In any case, put me down for two!