U2 & Brand Extension | Chapter 2
Lessons Learnt from the book: Brand Like a Rockstar
In the first chapter “AC/DC & Art of Consistency” we understood the importance of a singular focus and constantly delivering the customer’s expectations of you.
But, how do you find out your brand identity and what it represents to your audience? How do you test out new products and not tarnish the existing brand image? Simply slapping your existing brand name on your product that doesn’t live up to your customer's expectations is a recipe for failure.
Let’s look at a few examples.
Experimentation leads to discovery.
Have you heard of the band called Passengers? Probably not. Have you heard of U2? Hell, yeah! Guess what, both have the same members!
Well, U2 made their American debut in October 1980. During the next ten years, they sold more than thirty-four million albums, including more than 12 million copies of the 1987 alum that many rank as one of the rock’s greatest albums, “The Joshua Tree”. After a very successful “Achtung Baby” in 1991, U2 started experimenting with electronic and industrial sounds.
With “Zooropa” the band stretched their creative wings beyond what people traditionally thought of as U2 music. They experimented with industrial and alternative sounds and pushed the technological limits of the studios of the day. Though it was critically acclaimed it never made any money.
U2 had two options
- Follow their creative hunch and lose their audience.
- Stifle their creativity, record the songs their fans expected to hear.
But Wait!
U2 found out a 3 way out and succeeded. They pursued their creative experiments under a different name passengers. In 1995, they released an album called Original Soundtracks under the pseudonym — Passengers. They didn't put the name U2 on it and did not promote it even though they had a huge brand presence, which could have been leveraged. By and large the album was ignored.
However, the brilliance of this strategy was the band wasn’t stigmatized because they had an album flop. Nothing is worse than a high-profile band than a poor-selling album. It din’t matter that passengers went un-noticed, the boys din’t need the money. It was just a creative vent. As they say, Artists need to create!
In a way, U2 has a lot in common with Hyundai, Toyota & Nissan. These Japanese companies faced a problem in the 1980s. The Japanese government issued a voluntary export restraint (VERs) on the auto industry to appease the US government, which was concerned with the Japanese flooding the market with cheaper and more fuel-efficient cars.
These restrictions prevented them from sending more Honda, Toyota, and Nissan to America. So they looked at other strategies. All 3 companies started developing luxury model cars, much larger and much expensive than their traditional ones.
- Honda launched Acura
- Toyota unveiled Lexus
- Nissan launched Infiniti.
Although the government export regulation necessitated that these cars be sold under different names, it became a blessing in disguise for these companies.
Look at how P&G, Coke, Pepsi, and the likes have used this multi-brand strategy to change and evolve with the market demands.
Lessons from this chapter
- Know what your fans (customers) expect from you
- Never stretch your brand beyond customer expectations
- New products need new brands
- Each New brand deserves its own marketing
- If you get off track, you can always go back
This article first appeared on MadAboutMarketing at U2 & Brand Extension | Chapter 2