Branding 101 – The Law of Expansion

Published on Jan 25, 2008   //  Marketing Tips
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Branding 101Last week we talked about the Law of Expansion and how it dilutes your brand. The Law of Expansion says you should not expand out of your current market place because it dilutes your brand and is detrimental to your long term success of your business.

Recently Cheerios launched a new breakfast cereal called Fruity Cheerios. When the commercial came on my 2 kids immediately said look Dad it’s Froot Loops. This is an example of how you should not expand your brand and it appears that Cheerios has been making this mistake for awhile. This will be the 9th Cheerios cereal released. Can you name the other 8 without searching?

Cheerios branding of new products is failing because they keep trying to hold on to their master brand Cheerios. If they really wanted to compete against Froot Loops they should have created a new brand. You see this happen a lot today and is a sign that the owner or board of directors are in charge of the marketing instead of the marketing department.

What brandable name could have Cheerios picked for the new product?

5 Comments to “Branding 101 – The Law of Expansion”

  • Matt
    January 25, 2008 8:29 pm

    I thought the same thing, “hmm… a fruit loops commercial without Tucan Sam…).

    The cereals look the same to… I wonder if they taste the same.

  • Simlock verwijderen
    January 26, 2008 1:41 pm

    That’s viral marketing. If your kids are saying he there is Fruity Cheerios, that’s mean the commercial has impressed them, they want to buy it , they gonna tell all of their friends => more money.

  • blogadmin
    January 27, 2008 7:10 pm

    Actually they said look it’s Froot Loops. So their branding is failing in a market completely owned by Froot Loops.

  • Matt
    January 27, 2008 9:48 pm

    Apparently, according to WikiPedia, they’ve been out since 2006… So their marketing has really failed, if no ones even heard of them…

    If they make them cheaper than Fruit Loops, I’m sure a few people will buy them instead. Or, if the person isn’t paying attention and just grabs a box with Fruit Loops-looking cereal on it.

  • Matt
    January 27, 2008 9:50 pm

    At least they didn’t try to market it under Pillsbury. :P

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