"Aashiqui"- The Brand Extension

'Aashiqui' is a hindi word describing 'love'. Before I talk about the Brand development strategy of a recently released Bollywood Movie 'Aashiqui 2', let me ask you to just enjoy this amazing video of the song called, 'Tum hi ho' from the movie. 

Source: Youtube video of the song 'Tum hi ho' from the movie 'Aashiqui 2'

I suppose, you must have really enjoyed this romantic melody. This song has become a massive hit among different demographics in India and has topped the charts across various media platforms. It's being played everywhere, be it a local laundry shop or an expensive coffee house. Its being shared massively on Facebook and other networking sites as well. It is also one of the reasons, the movie became popular and has been declared as successful. In Bollywood, music has a great contribution in the success of a movie and this history is being repeated year after year. 

Picture: Movie Poster of the 1990 released movie 'Aashiqui'

Now, let me come to my point of discussion. 'Aashiqui 2' which was released in the year 2013 is a sequel to the 1990 released movie 'Aashiqui' which was commercially and critically successful mainly because of its popular music. There are many such movies which have released their sequels and have been really successful. Some great examples of Hollywood movies are Spiderman, Batman and Harry Potter. This is a perfect example of 'Brand Extension' where the existing brand name of the movie is extended to a new and modified product (its sequel or a completely new story). In other words, the brand name 'Aashiqui' has successfully leveraged its already established brand name to launch another movie with a completely different story  but the essence of 'good music' still being intact. Here, the biggest advantage is that the cost of expenditure in advertising and making the audience aware of their core competency can be reduced. 

Picture: Movie Poster of the 2013 released movie 'Aashiqui 2'

Brand Extension can sometimes be really very risky and can cannibalise the brand name. Like in this case, when the audience heard about 'Aashiqui', the first thing they remembered was the music of the Original movie. A perception was created in their minds about the good and appealing music which the brand will carry with it to 'Aashiqui 2'. This perception was carefully preserved by the movie makers and it delivered its promise with good music and it was a success. 

Now, if the producers of the movie use 'Aashiqui' as a brand name to make more movies to extend their brand and suddenly decide to drop all songs from them and make it a thriller without any melodious music, it can create a confusion in the minds of their audience because, then they can no longer associate good music with the brand name 'Aashiqui'. 

Some brand extensions in Bollywood and Hollywood have been really very successful but some have even failed miserably, but this hasn't stopped movie makers on using this formula of brand development strategy. Its a great and perfect formula for movie makers if they really wish to reduce their expenditure on creating a brand name but 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' review by the audience is difficult to predict due to changing demands and expectations of different market segments in domestic and international markets. 

Let us keep a look out on how movie makers can leverage the brand value of their original flicks to create new movies, with innovative ideas.