Advice needed on our products rebrand

[Paul David]

We've been selling a brand of power products over the last couple of years which is the same as our company name. However would like to explore the possibility in the future of other companies selling our products so we have decided to rebrand them.

The advice i require is, do i introduce the same products with the new brand in addition to the current products i'm selling or do i discontinue them when sold and just have the range of products with the new brand?

I'm made a list of pro's and con's and it seems to be 50/50 really. The new brand of products will be a slightly different design and would cost us more. They are however better quality.

If i wanted to rebrand the whole the range i would need to change thousands of product titles on our website, Ebay and Amazon from the old brand to the new one and also the product images.(there is a way it can be done in bulk though). I would also have to increase prices of them.

As a pro to having just one brand I would then have more buying power as i wouldn't be spreading the purchasing between 2 suppliers if i keep the two.

I am however concerned how the sales will go if we put prices up on our products as generally Ebay and Amazon can be a race to the bottom in terms of prices.

I feel this is an important decision for the long term future of the business.

 

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[AllenCrawley]

However would like to explore the possibility in the future of other companies selling our products so we have decided to rebrand them.

Why can't other companies sell your products now? I'm not sure I understand your reasoning here.

Also, for clarification, are you talking about rebranding your product names or company name?

The advice i require is, do i introduce the same products with the new brand in addition to the current products i'm selling or do i discontinue them when sold and just have the range of products with the new brand?

I'm made a list of pro's and con's and it seems to be 50/50 really. The new brand of products will be a slightly different design and would cost us more. They are however better quality.

Why not have two products lines? Your new line would be the higher quality line. Your existing line would be the economical line. Again, I'm not sure if you're talking about rebranding/renaming your company or just the product line.

 

[Paul David]

HI Allen

Thanks for your reply. I just don't think it's ideal having my company name as our brand and then competing against other sellers via our website etc. Most other companies I've looked into using this method in our industry have a separate brand to their company name.

Having two different lines with one being higher priced and better quality has certainly got its benefits, the only concerns I have is that my initial purchases would be lower qty as i wouldn't be having to buy stock to cover sales of existing lines.


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[AllenCrawley]

Would going with a new brand and dumping the old create confusion with existing customers? Do you have repeat customers that would be looking for your products should they want additional or replacement products.

 

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[Paul David]

Would going with a new brand and dumping the old create confusion with existing customers? Do you have repeat customers that would be looking for your products should they want additional or replacement products.

As we sell things like chargers and power adapters generally it's one off purchases but i suppose there is small amount who purchase more than once but i don't know if they find us by company name rather than product. Another option would be to keep the brand as is but replace the old versions with the new product models when they run out of stock. That way i'd only need to update the product images and possibly the prices depending on cost.

 

[MitchC]

For what it's worth it's basically an unwritten rule that you cannot brand up. You can brand down, but not up. I would keep both lines. Like Toyota and Lexus, Honda and Acura etc. Also don't be afraid to "cannibalise" your own sales or someone else will.

 

[AllenCrawley]

For what it's worth it's basically an unwritten rule that you cannot brand up. You can brand down, but not up.

I don't totally agree. Any examples of this?

 

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[Paul David]

For information purposes were probably talking about 150 products and around 30,000 Amazon listing and 30000 eBay listings between those products.

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[MitchC]

I don't totally agree. Any examples of this?

I listed 2 examples? Can you name a company that has done it? I'm interested to see how it was done.

There's a video going around at the moment which touches on it, a TED talk comparing physics to marketing, and my marketing lecturer went on about it while I was at uni. This is a coupe of places off the top I've my head that I've heard it being said, I'm not saying these are reliable sources but they do have good point. Anyway, I'd be interested to see how it's done successfully

 

[healthstatus]

I listed 2 examples?

Honda existed before Acura, Toyota before Lexus, Nissan before Infiniti, all these branded up not down.

 

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[MitchC]

Honda existed before Acura, Toyota before Lexus, Nissan before Infiniti, all these branded up not down.

That was my point. They created a new brand instead of an expensive Toyota or Honda. No one would have bought a luxury Toyota, but a new car brand called Lexus they did.

 

[AllenCrawley]

Exactly...those companies had to create new brands for the higher-end products -- they couldn't efficiently be marketed under the same brand.

Can you name a company that has done it? I'm interested to see how it was done.

We can look at Toyota and see this very thing. Specifically the Land Cruiser. The Land Cruiser is the premium/luxury offering from Toyota. It starts at $83,000. The comparable Lexus SUV starts at $88,000. Not really that much different in price and I'd argue not any difference in quality or premium features.

The Land Cruiser did not start out as the premium product it is today.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

We can look at Toyota and see this very thing. Specifically the Land Cruiser. The Land Cruiser is the premium/luxury offering from Toyota. It starts at $83,000. The comparable Lexus SUV starts at $88,000. Not really that much different in price and I'd argue not any difference in quality or premium features.

The Land Cruiser did not start out as the premium product it is today.

Totally agree, but I think the argument is that the "Land Cruiser" is a premium offering in the Toyota brand which known for practicality and reliability.

Lexus is known as a premium brand -- so all the offerings, even the entry-levels, will be considered premium.

So one is a premium offering within the brand of reliability, while one is considered premium across the board.

I think it is sorta like Budweiser -- they can offer something premium under their label, but it still will be synonymous with the brand's top level personality, AKA, "cheap beer."

 

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[AllenCrawley]

Totally agree, but I think the argument is that the "Land Cruiser" is a premium offering in the Toyota brand which known for practicality and reliability.

Lexus is known as a premium brand -- so all the offerings, even the entry-levels, will be considered premium.

So one is a premium offering within the brand of reliability, while one is considered premium across the board.

I think it is sorta like Budweiser -- they can offer something premium under their label, but it still will be synonymous with the brand's top level personality, AKA, "cheap beer."

Agreed. I think my point is more about the OP's ability to have a premium offering without having to create a whole new brand.