Virgin - Brand Extension or Brand Dilution?

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"I believe there is almost no limit to what a brand can do. You can ignore those who go on about brand stretching."¹

- Richard Branson, Chairman & CEO, Virgin Group, in October 1998.

"Virgin's attitude is, 'Oh, we will just get Richard to do a personal appearance. He will do something cartoonish and it will help the brand."²

- Jim Smith, Co-founder of Ground Zero, a US-based advertising agency involved in the US launch of Virgin Cola, commenting on Virgin's branding strategy, in July 2000.

"There are times that a brand just has to say 'no' to a brand extension. Weak brand extensions weaken the entire brand, and that is a terrible thing to do to a strong brand name."³

- John L. Mariotti, President & CEO, The Enterprise Group, commenting on Virgin's brand extension strategies, in July 2002.

The story of Virgin, one of the United Kingdom's (UK) most globally popular brands, evolving into the "most stretched brand ever" in the history of the corporate world, had become a part of marketing folklore by the end of the 1990s. The issue of the role played by the man behind the brand, Richard Branson (Branson), in building it through unconventional publicity stunts, has also been done to death. The amount of media coverage that the Virgin group and Branson have generated is indeed impressive. In fact, Virgin is often cited as THE answer to silence those who claim that no brand can be everything to everyone.

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1] 'Making Brand Extensions Work,' Sales & Marketing, October 1998.

2] 'Red Baron,' Forbes, July 03, 2000.

3] 'Brands'Broken Promises,'http://mworld.mce.be.

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