Flanker brand is the term used in the context of marketing, it refers to that strategy in which the company selling popular product will add another similar product but with modification so as to counter competition from other brands at the same time not hurting sales of current brand thus increasing the total market share of the company in the market. In order to understand this concept better one should look at the advantages and disadvantages of a flanker brand –
Flanker Brand Advantages
Increase in Sales
The biggest advantage of flanker brand is that it results in an increase in sales of the company because more the number of products of the company in market higher are the chances of increase in sales of the company which in turn will lead to higher market share as well as higher profits for the company.
Clutching Competitors Business
Another benefit of flanker brand is that due to it company is able to grab competitors business as flanker brand is primarily aimed at competitors and once you grab competitors business you will naturally have an edge over the competitors as well as the overall market in which company is operating.
Increase in Brand Awareness
In social gathering if there are two individuals one is extrovert who is not that intelligent and other is introvert who is intelligent but people will get impressed by extrovert, in the same way in marketplace brands which are visible the most are likely to be bought by the customers and through flanker brand company can increase its brand awareness because company has not one but two products to display in the market.
Flanker Brand Disadvantages
Costly Affair
The biggest disadvantage of flanker brand is that as far as company is concerned company has to make a lot of expenditure while launching a product and if the sales of the product do not happen according to company estimates that it will be a loss-making proposition because sales of product should at least be able to cover the costs associated with making and launching of product.
Brand Dilution
Flanker brand product is basically a modified product and does not offer something new to customers and when the company launches flanker brand of its popular product than there is a risk that the original brand gets diluted which will have a negative impact on the overall brand of the company. In simple words, if the company is not sure about flanker brand than it should not go ahead with it because the company cannot take brand dilution for granted as the brand is not created after many years of hard work by the company.
Lack of Diversification
When the company is putting flanker brand in the market than it is basically entering into same product segment and there is no product diversification which is necessary if the company wants to be successful in the long run. Hence instead of putting all funds in one product segment, a company will be better off if diversify its product range which is the reason why the company should think before adding flanker product range to its product portfolio.
As one can see from the above that flanker brand has advantages as well as disadvantages and that is the reason why any company thinking of launching a product as flanker brand should carefully read above points and then take the decision whether to adopt this strategy of marketing or not.