Child versus Parent

As any parent knows we all like to see our babies grow up and go on to flourish. The same goes for large companies and their offspring of product brands. But is it the strength of the product brand that influences me to brand loyalty and quality assurance, or of the brand of the parent company? Can the product brand stand alone or must it be part of a company brand?

Lets look at ice-cream as an example, and the Peters brand.

Peters Ice-cream produce a myriad of household name ice cream confectionery brands including ice cream in take home tubs; Choc Wedge; Drumstick; Connoisseur and Billabong.

Before researching this blog I have to admit that apart from the self titled Peters ice cream tubs I didn’t know who made these brands. I thought Connoisseur was an independent and I didn’t know if Nestle, Peters or Streets made a Billabong. What I did know is the Billabong brand utilises the Kookaburra bird.

So do I get a sense of reassurance and quality knowing that it is made by Peters brand? No! How could I when I was unaware who produced Billabong anyway and still happily purchased them?

Now that I am aware do I feel more loyalty and assurance of quality because it is produced by Peters Ice cream? No, because Peters was bought out by Fonterra and then in 2009 was sold to Societe de Produits Nestle SA . Societe de Produits Nestle SA as it stands is the logical owner since Peters outside of Western Australia is owned by them already.

This means that a Billabong was made within Australia by different companies anyway, therefore purchasing one here in WA or NSW was about allegiance to the Billabong brand itself, not the parent brand.

And to cause even more confusion in the parent company brand, look at the example used in various ice cream packaging below:

Both Nestle and Peters are used together on the packaging brand. Who as a consumer am I loyal to here, Peters or Nestle? Neither, it is the actual product brand!

The same goes for the yoghurt brand Ski. Ski yoghurt is a Nestle brand yet it is produced, marketed and sold by Fonterra in Australia. Previously Ski was licensed to Dairy Farmers, which itself was purchased by National Foods Ltd. National Foods Ltd now manufacture and market under license Yoplait. Yoplait is sold in 68 countries around the world and produced under license by various manufacturers.

Therefore as a consumer of these dairy brands why should I be loyal to the parent brands when they are happy to move production and control around to all sorts of operations to suit themselves?

The one constant: the name, be it Billabong or Yoplait and the brand be it a Kookaburra or flower – that’s the strength, not the parent company!