Samsonite & the Danger of Brand Over-Extension
A classic warning in Al Ries’ The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is — don’t fall into the trap of over-extending your brand. It looks like Samsonite may be on the path to breaking that rule.
As Dannielle Blumenthal notes on Blumenthal on Branding, the Samsonite brand has long been known for its durability, so it came as a surprise when the Wall Street Journal reported that Samsonite is trying to capitalize on the growing luxury products market. Earlier this year, for example, Samsonite launched its Black Label upscale travel collections from top designers like Alexander McQueen.
Of course, diversifying and extending your brand is an important part of the growth of your company, but when you start to over-extend your brand and launch products that run counter to your core brand image, you might do more damage to your brand overall than good.
It takes a long time to create a brand image that consumers understand and trust. Samsonite has been on the luggage scene for nearly a century, and for generations the brand has been synonomous with durability. Suddenly, they’re doing an about-face and focusing becoming a trendy, high-end brand that can compete with well-known luxury brands like Coach (NYSE: COH) or Louis Vuitton.
Not only is Samsonite over-extending its brand, but they are also chasing sevearl brands that are already well established in the high-end luggage category. Now, they’re breaking two of Al Ries’ laws.
By the way, this post includes pictures of several items from Samsonite’s luxury Black Label collection. What do you think? Has Samsonite missed the mark in terms of strategy and execution?
Tags: Black-Label, brand, Branding, Coach, diversification, Louis-Vuitton, luggage, Marketing, SamsoniteRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Brand Extension
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