INNOBLOG

A terrific article in today's New York Times provided a case study in how to debase a brand. Ironically, the same institution illustrates how to extend one. The institution is one we know well -- Harvard University. The NYT front-page article focuses on Harvard's Extension School, which offers a wideranging courseload accessible without review by an Admissions Department. Fine enough -- the principle of making Harvard open to the broader community is an excellent one. But the University has taken things a step too far, marketing the courses as the Harvard experience, and even going so far as to offer a BA degree from the Extension School. Sure enough, people are obtaining their BAs, which they list as being from Harvard University, at a cost far less than they would pay at Harvard College, and with no screening by Admissions. Harvard has spent over 350 years building its brand, and now it has proceeded to dull it through this short-sighted move. We have seen other organizations follow a sadly similar course. In attempting to disrupt themselves, or simply to extend their reach into the market, they have pushed their brands too far. From Yves San Laurent to Delta Express, firms have misunderstood how easily brand equity can be muddied. A brand is strong if it links tightly with a customer's job to be done, occupying a very distinct piece of mental real estate. YSL could not stretch to encompass high fashion and cheap sunglasses, just as Delta could not extend from a high-service airline to a truly no-frills operation. This is not to say that the firms shouldn't have attempted these efforts, but doing it in a way so tightly linked to their core brand risked equity built up over decades, and also created tensions about just how far the low-cost or mass market approach could be pushed. Harvard seems to be marching down this path. However, the University shows a better way through its Harvard Business School Publishing. HBSP makes the Business School's famous case studies accessible to all. I even used them to teach salespeople in Zambia about some key business principles. As Clayton Christensen and Scott Anthony have described in Seeing What's Next, this model provides a way for HBSP to become an Intel Inside for educational programs around the world. No one confuses a course elsewhere for the HBS experience, even if it is based on HBS cases. HBSP succeeds in linking Harvard's brand equity to the cases, but not to the student. In a different vein, Calvin Klein has extended its brand to CK -- CK conveys a more off-the-cuff, less elegant message than the core Calvin Klein brand, and the price points are in line with this perception. Firms with powerful brands can disrupt themselves, but they must move with care.