Complete 4 page APA formatted essay: Branding Master.Launching of new products is undoubtedly one of the most important events for a company. Bayus, Erickson, and Jacobson (2003) say that the launch o

Complete 4 page APA formatted essay: Branding Master.

Launching of new products is undoubtedly one of the most important events for a company. Bayus, Erickson, and Jacobson (2003) say that the launch of a fresh product drives crucial marketing activities and some giant companies like Gillette, P&G and Microsoft regard new product launch as a key to the expansion of the company's operations. Therefore, it reflects how important it is for a company to develop and adopt suitable marketing strategies in the pursuit of a new product launch. As a point of fact, introducing an unknown product in the market is a complete risk for a company, thus it becomes imperative for marketers to calculate their risks before actually taking them.

There happen to be two most significant approaches taken up by any company to make its new product a market success, one is developing an entirely new brand and the other is opting a brand extension strategy. When a new and unknown product is launched into the market, consumers look at it as a stranger and do no tend to trust it at first when they come across it in the market. Furthermore, in the presence of existing competitive brands for the same product make it pretty difficult for the marketers to drive consumer attention on a new product.

Fox et al.

Fox et al. (2001) and Aaker (1990) illustrate that brand extension refers to introduction of a new product into the market with the name of an existing brand name. They further state that it is the preferable way for a company to introduce a new product in the market with the same name that is popular among the consumers. Therefore, in order to opt a brand extension strategy, a company needs to have an already established 'brand name' associated with an existing product doing a successful business in the market. This implies that a company that has already been doing business with an existing product has to choose between the two marketing strategies when the time of new product launch comes its way.

Keller & Sood (2003) reflect that if a company already has a strong brand name, it can efficaciously save the costs on promotion and consumer awareness in launching a new product. This implies that if a company adopts brand extension strategy i.e., launch its new product under the name of an existing stronger brand, it can save a lot of pennies that are supposed to be spent on the development of a new brand name. For instance, if a company opts for the development of a new brand name and introduces its product under an entirely unfamiliar name in the market, consumers are likely to be unacquainted with the brand name at first. Therefore, it would call for subsequent brand awareness and promotional campaigns on the part of the company in order to become known in the market. Moreover there is a kind of brand loyal consumers who would be indeed reluctant to go for a new product in the presence of their beloved brands.

On the contrary, a company that prefers a brand extension strategy over developing a unique brand name for the new product's success, it is likely to face less resistance on the part of the consumers due to unfamiliarity of the name. The consumers that have been using an old brand by the same company are likely to be more convenient in using another product with the same brand name. Furthermore, the consumers that