Brand stretch is one of the most tempting growth strategies for a brand. But it is incredibly hard to get right, and the risk of failure is high.
That’s why brand stretch projects are so much fun and why I loved working with the team at Grupo Bimbo UK to stretch their New York Bakery brand beyond its bagel heartland. The bagel business was in great shape, the brand was well set to extend into adjacent categories. But which adjacencies should we target and how do we stretch while strengthening the core bagel business?
Two ideas from the project have just launched and I’m delighted to say that both look fantastic and taste delicious. The NYC Subs have captured the classic New York ‘chewy on the outside, soft on the inside’ texture and the Chunky Cookies do a great job of recreating the amazing cookies that you can buy in New York cookie institutions like Levian Bakery.
In this post we share 7 principles that the team followed to set themselves up for successful brand stretching.
Post by Jon Goldstone, Managing Partner (UK & Global).
1. Select Your Adjacencies Strategically
Prior to any ideation the Grupo Bimbo team conducted a deep analysis of the UK bakery market. Adjacencies were short-listed where there was an attractive ‘size of prize’ (large market, good growth potential, low competitive intensity, etc) and a high ‘ability to win’ (good fit with owned assets, known manufacturing solution, etc).
2. Build Ideas Upon a Strong Brand Proposition
The New York Bakery brand is well established and clearly defined. This is captured in the brand proposition “A bakery that transports you straight into the heart of NYC for an authentic bite of the Big Apple”. This gave us a very clear brand North Star, anything that we developed had to feel like and authentic bite of the Big Apple. The brand also has a strong set of Distinctive Brand Assets to leverage when stretching into new categories.
3. Get Fresh Insight Fuel
Immersive time in New York helped to enrich brand understanding and provide a creative spark. We breakfasted at the best pancake places, lunched at the best hoagie places and discussed new product ideas with anyone that wanted to talk. From the founders of an up-and-coming bakery to a group of lifelong friends who had lived their whole lives in Manhattan, all were quick to offer their opinion on how a real New York brand should act.
4. Select Ideas That Both “Borrow and Build”
The best brand stretch ideas simultaneously take from the master-brand and give back to it, as we posted on last week here. The New York Bakery Subs and Chunky Cookies take several attributes from the master-brand, mainly authenticity and quality. But they also give back new attributes like daring, modernity and new occasions.
5. Never Compromise on Quality
Too many food and drink launches compromise on quality before they even launch. Cutting back on product costs to hit a price point and achieve a target margin.
This is not the case with New York Bakery Company. The products are genuinely outstanding, totally consistent with the quality offered by their bagels. Prices are a little higher than the competition, but that’s totally fine. So much better than disappointing on quality.
6. Start with Destination Architecture In Mind
Ill thought through brand stretch can lead you to a mess of a brand architecture. An unwieldy collection of formats and sub-brands that are difficult for the consumer to navigate and tough for the business to manage, with a demanding set of mouths to feed.
The New York Bakery Company avoided this trap by plotting a destination portfolio for the brand to grown into. Importantly, an early decision was made to stay relatively close to the core, avoiding the need for sub-brands. The use of on-brand format descriptors, like NYC Subs, should make the brand more efficient in the future. Allowing brand investment to benefit all formats, including the precious core bagel business.
7. Follow the Laws of “Brand Thermodynamics”
When I was a young brand manager I heard an amazing speech by the legendary planner, Jeremy Bulmore. He likened brand stretch to thermodynamics. He advised only to stretch when the core brand was at boiling point and could afford to have a little less energy applied to keep it simmering. Some energy could then be redeployed to new launches, while keeping a close eye on the temperature of the core.
This is exactly the thinking that the New York Bakery Company are deploying. They will continue to support their core bagel business, keeping it at boiling point while gently turning up the heat on the two new launches.
Beyond the pride of seeing a project that I worked on coming to market, NYC Subs and Chunky Cookies bring me pleasure because they are such a good example of brand stretch done well. The adjacencies have been strategically selected and the new launches fit perfectly with the overall brand idea and distinctive brand assets, giving back to the core and matching core product quality. Going forward the brand architecture provides space for future launches and allows a responsible extension of brand resources away from the core, while keeping the core in great shape.
I really hope that we will be reporting back on a runaway success!
