Virgin Galactic---a Stretch Too Far?

VIRGIN GALACTIC... A STRETCH TOO FAR?

Introduction

In now a day marketing studies, brand became more and more important. A strong brand can greatly influence customers’ purchase behavior and level brand equity and loyalty across different market sectors. However, excessive brand extension maybe damages the main brand and its credibility. This article explains the role of branding in marketing, and then introduces brand equity and customers’ loyalty, after that the article discuses the way brand extension and possible dangers during the extension by using virgin galactic as an example.

Role of branding in marketing

Before we discuss the role of branding in marketing, we have to know what is brand.

A brand is a combination of a name, words, designs, and symbols that identify a service and its provider(s) and differentiate the service from its competitors.

Sally J. Schmidt (2004)

Also David and Karl (2003) refer:

A brand is a perception or emotion, maintained by a buyer or a prospective buyer, describing the experience related to doing business with an organization or consuming its products or services.

No doubt a brand is a unique symbol, image and design etc. to define a product or service to difference with its competitors’, and also a brand visualizes a company or a group to their target market sector to influence the buyers’ purchase behaviors. So building a strong brand is very important for a company or a group. A strong brand directly relates a company’s profit and its market share.

Brand equity and customer loyalty

Brand equity refers to the marketing effects or outcomes that accrue to a product with its brand name compared with those that would accrue if the same product did not have the brand name. And, at the root of these marketing effects is consumers' knowledge. In other words, consumers' knowledge about a brand makes manufacturers/advertisers respond differently or adopt appropriately adept measures for the marketing of...