Looking for more revenue?
If you’re a restaurant, it’s easy to expand your menu.
If you’re a law firm, it’s easy to add new areas of practice to your list.
If you’re an automaker, it’s easy to add another car to the lineup.
If you’re a home construction company, it’s easy to dig pools too.
The problem with all these easy solutions is that they don’t work. More stuff for the sake of more revenue is a dumb idea. Often, these extensions are the seeds of brand dilution–the erosion of what you stand for in the minds of people.
Now, I’m not advocating for you to play it lazy and safe by saying you shouldn’t build. Rather, build smart and build often when doing so will strengthen your position as the best and most remarkable in your world.
But until then, stop eroding your brand.
2 Comments
October 8, 2008 at 4:26 pm
You mean I should try to increase market share instead of flooding the market?
Or do you mean I should make a better Hyundai instead of a bigger one?
October 8, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Well, I suppose it depends on what you mean by flooding the market. But, I’d say, in general that’s a bad idea and tends to make me think of short-term strategies that may score a quick buck at the cost of the overall brand.
And it’s okay to make a bigger car if that’s your brand’s mission–if that’s what makes your business remarkable. Think Hummer–who ironically screwed up when they tried to go smaller.
Above all, if you’ve found your niche, push it rather than trying to straddle a bunch of random areas.
Too often, businesses of all sizes look to extending their offerings in ways that don’t align with their brand as a means of bringing in more revenue. It confuses customers and often draws the company outside of its expertise, resulting in poor products and services.
But what do you think? Am I overlooking someone who has done a great job of introducing an extension that many thought had nothing to do with the brand?
Certainly possible.
Thanks for the comment.