An article titled ‘When Brands Go Off-Label: From KitKat Crackers to Gandhi Cigarettes’ by Sathyanarayanan R, Sundram Fasteners Associate Professor, Marketing, IFMR GSB has been published in ET Brand Equity from The Economic Times.
From the shocking Mahatma Gandhi Cigarettes to Facebook Flowerpots to Chiranjeevi Dhabas, celebrity and leading brand names have long served as powerful attention magnets. Some uses are authorized. Some are not.
Sathyanarayanan’s article explores what such cases mean for brand managers. When to tolerate, when to intervene, and how brands such as Netflix, FedEx, and Rolls-Royce have responded to similar situations. It also draws on academic research on the possible benefits of open branding.
