For decades, leading companies have focused on brand extensions that build upon the heritage of their most popular brands. So, the question is: Can clean slate brands (new brands) succeed in the face of all of these brand extensions?
According to Trendwatching.com: “the consumer arena has never been more fixated on the ‘new’. Thanks to the democratization and globalization of innovation (not to mention the celebration of entrepreneurship), brands and individuals from all corners of the world are now working around the clock to dream up and launch endless new products and services, that are truly better and more exciting than current offerings. And to underscore the ‘for and by’ element of the democratization of innovation, new players are by default more nimble and laser-focused on what consumers want now (as opposed to yesterday) than the bigger legacy-laden brands they compete with. So from being something that was pushed to consumers by businesses (‘new and improved’), the ‘new’ is now subject to an increasingly strong pull from consumers. Excited by positive experiences of a ‘new’ that is genuinely ‘better’, consumers are hungry for more.”
Click the image to learn more about clean slate brands.
A new brand could get customer’s attention easily. However, it might be hard for companies to turn this enthusiastic into profits. In my opinion, the most effective way to promote a new product would be built consumer’s trust. According to the article, almost 92% of consumers will trust the recommendations from their friends and family since 2007. Therefore, the positive opinions from other people or even the social media website are important for launching a product.
Now, innovation is essential to a ambitious company in the competitive strongly markets. but the innovators always face the big challenge come from the consumers high expectation. For example, when Iphone4 made a splash in the smartphone market, it at the same time raised the consumers’ expectation to Apple. So, the undistinguished Iphone5 is hard to satisfy the consumers’ higher needs. The challenges are the same to many innovative company like Samsung. You can retain your current consumers unless your products wow them who have accustomed to the annual leaps in the new products.
The interesting comparison between trust in big companies between developed countries (around only 30% trust big business) such as UK, Japan, Australia, U.S. and emerging countries such as China, Brazil and turkey points out the different strategy a company should use as introduction of brand extension. In China, brand name is a major factor for consumer trust and trial for a new product so that the new product should keep the brand name on while in developed economies, new product should adopt separate names.
Although I can see how some clean slate brands may perform well in some areas, I do not really see how they can compete against big companies in other areas. If a new company wanted to introduce a phone or a television, I can not see them making enough sales to profit off of. Many companies definitely need to build a name for themselves first, and not just expect to sell well because they are a new brand. The new brand also needs to make sure their product is of high quality and compares to its competitors in both price and quality.
Consumers are turning to “clean slate” brands because they know they are going to work hard and deliver the best product possible because they need to earn trust. And I am not surprised by the higher trust in big name companies in emerging markets because they are newer to the consumer process that the West are accustomed to. China is a huge market many big brands are entering, hence the higher consumer trust level. Once new companies gain the trust of a few, they gain the trust of their friends. Then bring in the consumer reviews and they gain a following.
For fast moving consumer products, I think new product will be more attractive. Usually consumers want to try something new on this area. But for the field of durable goods. New products or brands need to spend more money and time to expand sales.
The fast Moving Consumer products industry is highly competitive, so the promotion is really important for the new products. Choosing right primary target audience is significant for developing effective communications plans. They may influence their family numbers and friends try the products.
I believe that consumers are turning to “clean slate” brands because they know, or maybe they think, that they are probably more focused on developing a good product in order to do well in the market place. Other established companies may be viewed as having too many products to actually to give alot of focus to each.
When i dissatisfied with old brand and well-known brand or when those brand existed severe defects, i would change the brand loyalty and then select new brand, that is,clean slate brand. Changing to new brand that i am not familiar with is risky for me, because i am not a risk-loving person. However, i would like to trust new brand that my friend recommend, since i think that my friends’ experience is believable than advertising on TV or on internet.