Publishing Brand Extension Possibilities

Lecturer: Andrius Suminas, PhD, Head of Media Research Lab, the Faculty of Communication, Vilnius University, Lithuania

The lecture presents theoretical and practical possibilities of publishing brand extensions – a method of launching a new products by using an existing publishing brand name on a new products in a different category.

Launching a new product is not only time-consuming but also needs a big budget to create brand awareness and to promote a product's benefits. Brand extension is one of the new product development strategies which can reduce financial risk by using the parent brand name to enhance consumers' perception due to the core brand equity.

Children's book brands can be perfect material for brand extension launching a new products in different product categories. Detail case study of Lithuanian children's book brand „Kake Make“ extension will be presented.

The first Kake Make book "Kake Make and the Elf of Mess” was published in 2010. This creative and naughty character didn’t take long to win over hearts of children. Right away critics of children literature gave the book favourable evaluation - in 2010 IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) declared it to be the best book of the year for the youngest readers.

The popularity of Kake Make was growing with every new book, so the number of books published increased rapidly: Kake Make found her way into action books, encyclopaedias and toy books of different size. Now there are over 30 different publications about Kake Make.

Today Kake Make is popular not only in Lithuania - other countries are getting more and more familiar with this character (copyrights of these books have already been purchased in Denmark, Latvia, Russia, South Korea, China, Israel, Poland, Greece, Estonia). Since 2015 Kake Make brand has been rapidly spreading into many other product categories - food, drinks, hygiene, textile products and office supplies.