Brand Extension: Molson Coors Brewing Company

Brand extension is a useful way to introduce promising products that will revive the brand name in hopes of retaining its loyal customers. Take a company of the magnitude as Molson Coors Brewing Company, established in 1873, whereby producing its famously known beer (Coors, 2017). There were several flavor offerings for the bottled sparkling water such as original, lemon-lime, and cherry (Time, 2009).

One highly visible quandary with this promotion was that the new product carried the brand name of Coors, which remained a popular brand name that purely associated its product line with beer. Second, it carried the Coors logo on the front of each bottle, identical to the can or bottled brewed beer, suggesting too close a tie to the original brand product. Another visible problem was its water (i.e., H2O) product that could not resonant with brand loyalties, which were their target audience. In the end, sales plummet and affected market shares.

According to Aaker (1990), two-thirds of the food product found on store shelves, are brand extension, which suggest the competitiveness of the business. It becomes imperative that marketers stay abreast of the shifts: who purchase the products; focus on the ideal target or segments; involve band loyalties on planning,

The target segments needed expansion to include healthier and natural ties such as gym, yoga, sports goers, hospitals, health food stores or markets, existing in the early 1990’s, which had a better chance of appealing on a grander stand. Uggla (2015) critically scrutinize the views (i.e., pros, cons) of brand positioning and it relevance on brand product extensions. One view where Uggla examines denotes that the strength of brand positioning towards another product other than brand, severances its connectivity to its parent brand and weaken the product