When The Brand Does Not Fit The Product

Summer is here and it is hot. All supermarkets are shrinking their frozen category shelves and groceries are putting their small freezers in front of everything else to welcome the ice cream season where sales will pick up because of the hot summers we have in Lebanon.

Lebanese consumers are very familiar with ice cream brands, for me and since i was a kid, still remember mainly Gelati Cortina and Bonjus, then many local brands came along like Gelati Dolsi and last year we had a new player Cornelli. This post is not about international ice cream brands, but most of them are also on the Lebanese market.

Bonjus ice cream is a brand extension to the original juice product that is 46 years old and to a certain extend it fits and serves the global brand positioning among other players. Well managed brand extensions not only provide new sources of revenue, they can also reinforce brand meaning and help to build brand equity.

But sometimes the brand extension and stretching can hurt and damage the parent brand.

Taanayel Les Fermes ice cream is not the right brand extension for a typical dairy products brand.
No matter how juicy and succulent the advertising campaign is and will be, my first thought will always be the dairy products because of the brand name in first place.

Surely milk is used in both lines (dairy and ice cream) but for me, the brand does not fit the product.