14 THE LAW OF SUBBRANDS What branding builds, subbranding Management tends to invent terminology in order to give legitimacy to the branding moves it wants to make. * Holiday Inn, the leading hotel/motel operator, wanted to get into the upscale hotel segment. * Cadillac, the leading upscale domestic automobile brand, wanted to introduce a smaller car. * Waterford, the leading Irish crystal maker, wanted to market a less expensive line. * Donna Karan, a top designer, wanted to market less costly and more casual clothes. Typical line-extension strategies would have produced brand names like Holiday Inn Deluxe, Cadillac Light, Bud- get Waterford, and Kasual Karan, Even the most callow marketing people would have found these brand names dif- ficult to swallow. What to do? Invent a subbrand. So we have Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, Cadillac Catera, Marquis by Waterford, and DKNY. Now we can have our cake and eat i our well-known core brand at the same time a , too. We can use we launch sec- ondary or subbrands to move into new territory. can destroy. Holiday Inn has becorr megabrand with the launch of subbrands like Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Select, Holiday Inn SunSpree Resorts, and Holiday Inn Garden Court This subbranding is eroding the power of the core brand. 7374 After twenty years of trying to establish a brand called Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza the company finally gave up and now calls its upscale hotel chain just “Crowne Plaza. THE 22 IMMUTABLE LAWS OF BRANDING But what sounds right in the boardroom often doesn't make sense in the marketplace. * Did anybody ever walk into a Holiday Inn and ask the clerk at the front desk: “Don't you have a more expensive hotel I can stay at?’ * Did anybody ever walk into a Cadillac dealership and ask: “Don't you have any smaller Cadillacs?” (Bigger maybe, but not smaller.) * Did anybody ever walk into Bloomingdale's and ask the salesperson: “Don't you have any cheap Waterford * Did anybody ever walk into a Donna Karan showroom ‘The suil and as| are lovely, but where can I buy her sweatpants?” The marketing world is awash in conceptual thinking that has no relationship to the real world. Subbranding is one of those concepts. Customer research at Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza produced ice hotel, but it’s a little expensive for a Holiday Inn.” The company finally got the what you might have expected: “It’s a message and is in the process of cutting the megabrand con- nection. From now on, the hotels will be known as Crowne Plaza, period A Cadillac dealership is the last place in the world where you would look for a small car. First they tried Cimarron, which went nowhere and was eventually dropped. Natural ‘adillac didn’t give up. Its latest small-car incarnation is called the Cadillac Catera On the other hand, Marquis by Waterford is a big suc- cess, but partially at the expense of the high-priced line. You have to wonder if there is a Gresham's law of marketing, too. Sooner or later, we expect the Marquis line to seriously erode the regular Waterford productTHE LAW OF SUBBRANDS Donna Karan has gone off in way too many directions. In addition to the basic line, there is Donna Karan DKNY, DKNY menswear, and DKNY kids. The company has also gotten into intimate apparel and beauty menswe: products. Recently, the company sold out to LVMH. Subbrand Customers have a cornucopia of choic assume otherwise. Why would a customer expect Holiday Inn to have an upscale hotel? Wouldn't the customer more likely try Hilton, Hyatt, or Marriott first? Why spend all that money and still stay at a Holiday Inn! The thinki ing gis, If Lam for out the big bucks, I want to stay with a top hotel brand. Subbranding is an ‘inside-out branding strategy that tries to push the core brand into new directions. It captures management's attention because of what it promises, not necessarily because of what it delivers, In spite of the subbranding setback at Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, the company has moved into Holiday Inn Express, Hol- iday Inn Select, Holiday Inn SunSpree Resorts, and Holiday Inn Garden Court. You used to know exactly what you would find in a Holi- day Inn. In fact, that was the theme of its long-running advertising What’ and be surprised. ampaign: “The best surprise is no surpri ? Go ahead. Book a room a Holiday Inn Sele« Subbranding has taken its share of criticism, so the mar- keting establishment is rethinking the concept. Leading- edge practitioners today are more likely to call the concept a masterbr: in the automotive field. nd or megabrand strategy. It’s especially prevalent Ford is not our brand. Our brands are: Aspire, Contour, Crown Victor derbird.” What's a Ford then? “A Ford is a megabrand “Dodge is not our brand. Our brands are: Avenger, Intre- pid, Neon Stealth, Stratus, and Viper.” What's a Dodge then? “A Dodge is a megabrand.” a, Escort, Mustang, Probe, Taurus, and Thun- 78 a Sg EXPRESS Holiday Inn Express has one of the most memorable television advertising campaigns. (*I'm not an orthopedic surgeon, but | stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.) But what's a Holiday Inn Express ‘and how does it differ from Holiday Inn Select? Who knows.76 Many automobile companies make a serious error by promoting just their model names on the most road: visible part of their cars, the rear end. If you see a good: looking car called an STS in front of you, where do you go to buy one? (Hint: The Seville STS is made by the Cadillac Division of General Motors.) THE 22 IMMUTABLE LAWS OF BRANDING You can’t apply your own branding system to a market that sees things differently, What the manufacturer sees as a brand, the customer sees as a model. What the manufac- turer sees as a meg: abrand, the customer sees as a brand (Customers don’t understand the megabrand concept at all.) Even Keith Crain, publisher of Aufomotive News, the industry's bible, is dubious of what car marketing people are to do. “A lot of folks out there tell you that individual models, not the nameplates, tryin re the brands. I don't know of any models that have ads in the Yellow Pages.” an a brand be marketed in more than one model? Sure, as long as those models don't detract from the essence of the brand, that s ingular idea or concept that sets it apart from all other brands. When you feel the need to create subbrands, you are chasing the market, you are not building the brand. The essence of a brand is some idea or attribute or mar- ket segment you can own in the mind. Subbranding is a concept that takes the brand in exactly the opposite dire tion, Subbranding destroys what branding builds Branding concepts that are not driven by the market- place are going to go nowhere. Subbranding, masterbrand- ing, and megabranding are not customer-driven concepts They have no meaning in the minds of most consumers. Think simple. Think like a customer and your brand will become more successful