Page 29 - Branding Yourself and Your Business

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BEWARE OF SUBBRANDING

Trying to build upon your brand by launching subbrands can
be a trick proposition. Just because consumers are
buying your brand does not mean they are looking for
more options from it. For example, Best Western Hotels have
different varieties of hotels, yet the name Best Western is displayed
prominently on all of their different class of hotels. What brought
Best Western to be successful is they were a good hotel at a
reason-able price. The challenge that faces Best Western is they
are going to have to change the view of the company in the eyes of
the consumer. Consumers might think that they are paying too
much to stay at a Best Western even though it is supposed to be a
luxury Best Western; consumers will still equate the name Best
Western with a better valued hotel.

The category that has used subbranding the most is the auto
industry. Just by watching television you are bound to notice the
plethora of models that are available from all of the car manufactur-
ers, foreign and domestic. This was one of the problems that lead
to the failure of the big three automakers in the United States.
Consumers no longer equated the names Ford, Chevrolet, or
Chrysler with the product with so many choices the models became