1. Black and Decker:
Household Products Groups: Brand Transition

2. Introduction
 Till 1984 three innovative housewares products
 Dustbuster
 Spotliter
 Scrub Brusher
 Black and Decker Corp. Acquires GE Housewares Division
 Primary Objective: To gain access to house ware buyers
 Resolve to develop a family of products that could address wide spectrum of
housewares needs
 B&D to use GE Brand Name only for 3 years
 Competitors Responded aggressively by increasing marketing budgets and
introducing new products
 New product development critical in growth of Housewares market

3. Objectives
 To identify the most effective way of Brand transition
 To Design Integrated Marketing Communication for Brand transition

4. Choices
1) Quick Name change across the product line
2) To delay the name transfer till three years
3) Gradual transfer of Brand name to GE appliances
4) Transition of premium products first and lower priced products later
5) Transition to be linked to new product development

5. 3) Gradual transfer
 Advantages
 Gives opportunity to the consumer to adapt to the transition
 Due to small incremental transition its is easier to gauge the market response
 Dealers will be more willing to partner that change
 Disadvantage
 Peoples association with GE and its innovative products may continue despite
of our continued efforts

6. 4) Transition of premium products first
 Advantages
 B&D label could be used to charge premium straight away
 It will also help push the Brand Equity
 Disadvantage
 Loss of revenue due to failed transition
 Possible disconnect regarding the pricing associated with the Brand

7. 5) Transition to be linked to new product
development
 First B&D should introduce new products for different
categories and then put their brand B&D on that similar
product category previously under the GE Brand
 This will align the B&D Brand to the innovation image of
the GE brand and thus facilitate a smoother transition
 Create a new brand identity of Being a innovator just like
GE or even better than GE