• Ad Age, Tuesday, October 5, 2010 10:46 AM

Al Ries has been saying this for decades: line extensions almost never work. Today's variation is about categories that are truly revolutionary. Take personal computers. AT&T, Burroughs, Dictaphone, Digital Equipment, IBM, ITT, Lanier, NCR, NEC, Siemens, Sony and Xerox all tried their hand but the market leader for years was start-up Dell and today is Hewlett-Packard.

Wait a second, you say? H-P's no entrepreneurial wunderkind? True, but it had to purchase Compaq Computer, which was No. 1 with 12.1% of the market in 2000, to get its mojo going. Then there's the smart phone category, where the BlackBerry and the iPhone controlled 68% of the market at the beginning of the year. Copious other examples follow.

The lesson is twofold: 1. "A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh/The fundamental things apply" (read the column) and 2. Ford Focus Electric, Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt, Mini E, BMW Megacity, etc., etc., just might want to rethink their branding strategies for electric vehicles.

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