COTTON ON BODY - brand extension case study

It is usually difficult to judge whether a branding strategy is right or not in the early stages of a launch.

But in the case of COTTON ON BODY,  there are several no-nos -

a.  The main brand COTTON ON is st risk of being eroded.

b.  With all the money to launch a new product, they squandered the opportunity to develop a truly independent brand or product line.   They could have called it BODY by COTTON ON and over time be ready to cut the apron string by dropping "by COTTON ON".

c.  COTTON ON has not clearly thought out a independent brand when this brand extension is re-jigged into BODY by COTTON ON.    Any trade mark lawyer worth his salt would advise that BODY is too generic that is capable of protection - no trade should be given exclusive use over a word like BODY.  Just for discussion sake, a stronger spin off brand could be BODY LINE by COTTON ON.  Or may be something riskier like BODY ON by COTTON ON.

d.  The emphasis given to an unprotected element BODY in this design is going to haunt COTTON ON in the future -

A competitor wanting a free ride on the investment of COTTON ON BODY could come up with a look alike - replacing COTTON ON with BUTTON UP.  This is a real possibility in neighbouring Indonesia country where trade dress protection is non existent.