Adventures in Brand Land: My Ride Through Extensions That Soared (and Some That Crashed)

Adventures in Brand Land: My Wild Ride Through Extensions That Soared (and Some That Crashed)

In my Time Inc (Media) days, juggling those market-leading brands was like being a ringmaster with multiple acts performing simultaneously. My mission? Turn those beloved brands into money-making machines beyond their usual playground.

When developing brand extensions, my approach started with a few key ingredients: brainstorming sessions(to varying degrees of success), audience surveys (where people told us what they wanted), and prototype testing (because theory is one thing, but seeing people interact with something ? That's real).

I always circled back to four key questions:

1. Did we have "permission to play" in this new space?

2. Was there actually a need, or were we just in love with our own ideas?

3. Would our audience "get it" without a PhD in marketing?

4. Could people easily jump on board without jumping through hoops?

   
   

My brand extension portfolio got pretty eclectic over time:

• A whole TV channel featuring live and recorded 7 days a week.

• A massive Excel centre event that had 1000s of people

• A holiday camp Sci Fi weekender featuring Darf Vader and an over-friendly ewok that kept chasing me around.

• Nightclub experiences that I want to forget but did make us money

• Everything from watches to socks to toiletries (nothing says brand loyalty like brushing your teeth with our logo!)

• Books, games, and even gambling machines lurking in pub corners

• An online poker room that was lucrative

  And more...

My colleagues joked that I had more ventures running simultaneously than a serial entrepreneur on their fifth espresso of the day. But here's the thing—each of these adventures had full marketing muscle behind it and generated six-figure revenues annually. Time Inc. was pretty pleased with the results, and for me, it meant that it took some of the pressure off the more traditional revenue channels.

So when I look at those famous flops – Meta's Metaverse playground that nobody showed up to, Google Glass making everyone uncomfortable in public, and Amazon's Fire Phone going up in, well, flames – I see a pattern.

These giants fell into the classic trap: they started with "look at our cool tech!" rather than "here's how we solve your problem." They jumped into markets that weren't ready yet (timing is everything, folks!), created experiences that left consumers scratching their heads, and asked for big commitments without proving the value first.

I'm not claiming brand extension superpowers here, but I learned that three "whys" matter more than anything:

• Why do this at all?

• Why would anyone care?

• Why now, not later?

Get those right, and you might avoid joining the hall of fame for brand extensions that went spectacularly sideways!