How “Brand Tourists” Can Grow Sales

Growing an exclusive brand by moving down market can be tricky: Such efforts often dilute the symbolic value for core customers. Consider what happened after Burberry brought its iconic plaid to a host of new products (including dog leashes) in the early 2000s. Sales soared—but soon the brand’s ubiquity drew media ridicule (and a slew of counterfeits). To restore its cachet, Burberry reserved the plaid for use in linings and other discreet places. Tiffany, Gucci, and Pierre Cardin have learned similar hard lessons. New research we conducted, however, counters the notion that downward extensions always tarnish the brand. Under certain conditions, noncore consumers can actually intensify a brand’s prestige. Imagine that brands are like countries. An influx of immigrants might generate a backlash among a nation’s citizens (its “core customers”), who are apt to see them as threats. But the presence of tourists—visitors who admire the locale though they’re not looking to stay—generally raises a country’s status. So, too, with brands. We call this effect “brand tourism.” In six studies of brands ranging from Prada to the elite endurance race known as Tough Mudder, we found that core customers’ perceptions were influenced by the way in which noncore users were presented. In one study, for instance, we told owners of Prada purses that anyone who visited a boutique was given a high-quality paper shopping bag bearing the Prada logo (whether or not she bought anything). We told one group of owners that bag recipients saw themselves as part of the Prada community (making them, in effect, brand immigrants), and told a second group that the recipients carried the bags to show their admiration for the brand (making them brand tourists). The first group felt that the free bags diminished the brand, while the second reported feelings of greater pride in being a Prada owner. For each brand we studied, positioning noncore customers as brand tourists created positive feelings among core customers. Similarly, we found that advertising noncore products as a sample of, rather than a substitute for, the core offering generated the brand tourism effect. Our findings suggest several strategies for companies that want to extend a brand but are concerned about alienating core customers. First, firms can manage the extent to which noncore users can claim membership in the brand community. A university, for example, might reserve the right to use the school’s logo on business cards for its full-time students. Tough Mudder sells an array of merchandise, but its “finisher only” line is available solely to participants who complete the race. Firms can also differentiate core products and brand extensions by using special packaging or separate distribution channels. They can target a consumer segment whose members wouldn’t realistically be mistaken as belonging to the “in group” (babies wearing Lululemon apparel, for instance). Or they can follow the lead of Bulgari, which donated proceeds from a less-expensive jewelry line to charity, casting new buyers in a positive light. Creating an exclusive brand shouldn’t be about erecting barriers to keep consumers out; indeed, growth requires the welcoming of new faces. Even luxury brands now tout the number of Facebook fans and Twitter followers they have. Some go a step further, building museums dedicated to the history of the brand, such as Florence’s Gucci Museo. Brand tourism strategies typically won’t be quite so literal as that—but they’re clearly effective.

How “Brand Tourists” Can Grow Sales

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