Can A Premium B2B Brand Introduce A Lesser Brand?

Branding Strategy Insider helps marketing oriented leaders and professionals like you build strong brands. Readers know, we regularly answer questions from marketers everywhere. Today we hear from Deron, a VP of Marketing from Chattanooga, Tennessee who has this question about building a B2B brand.

Good afternoon. I was on Branding Strategy Insider looking for some B2B industrial marketing case studies where companies that had a premium brand introduced a “lesser” brand and were: (1) successful; and (2) unsuccessful.  If you know of any such case studies, I would appreciate that information — thanks!

Deron, thanks for writing. While it is generally difficult for a brand to move some of its products or services upscale or downscale successfully without repositioning or detracting from the original brand, most examples of this (successful and not so successful) are in the consumer products realm. I know of no B2B case studies on this topic. Stay tuned to BSI — perhaps one of the marketers in our audience can help? I also suggest checking with the Harvard Business School Press to see if they have a case study or two on this topic.

Have a question related to branding? Just Ask The Blake Project…

The Blake Project Can Help: The Brand Positioning Workshop

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers

Brad VanAuken The Blake Project

2 comments

  • David Koopmans

    June 15, 2010 at 11:51 pm

    Maybe you could elaborate a little on the typical risks that you see associated with moving products downscale? The typical scenario of premium brand trying to capture the volume market? In Australia we have an example (B2C) where Qantas introduced a low budget airline (Jetstar) to compete with Virgin, and was able to communicate the positives of the association (reliability and safety) but still clearly creating a different brand (and therefore expectations of service etc).

    What I think is critical in that is the fact that they have not gone for “Qantas Budget” or something similar, but for a distinct, separate brand.

  • Petra

    June 18, 2010 at 11:01 am

    You also have an example of Yves Saint Laurent taking its brand to H&M and selling it at much lower price. There is also the eternal example of Toyota and Lexus, both owned by the same company.

Comments are closed.

Connect With Us