A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well. Brands have nowadays become associated with high status, high prices and no more than 1._ quality. For that reason, many customers feel there isn’t much good in them. However, what motivated companies to establish such functions as brand management was the 2. of putting an 3._ high value on products that did not cost much to develop. It seems that the times when this function was looked 4. upon are long gone.
The reasons are obvious: a well-established brand with a favourable image will allow companies to put more than generous 5._ on their products. A little more investment into maintaining this brand 6. and there seems to be nothing in the way to long-lived business prosperity. What is more, experts on branding have noticed that a strong brand name can be successfully used to launch a new product. By association with a name that has become synonymous with quality and class, a new product will 7._ a better chance of gaining a 8. on the market with a minimum of marketing expenses.
This practice of brand stretching has become widespread in fashion industry where one brand is frequently stretched to include a heterogeneous product range from clothes and accessories to perfumes, toiletries and soft drinks. It is therefore no wonder that brands have become a very valuable asset in their own 9._. Companies should, nonetheless, 10._ caution in applying this method to avoid the destiny of the most famous brand stretching example, that of the Virgin Group.
