Cases on marketing strategies

: Sagres Bohemia : from spotlight to a mere extension

Abstract

The following dissertation accesses a common practice in the market, the parent brands’ use of extensions. This work studies the relation between a parent brand, Sagres, and a line extension based on the case of Sagres Bohemia, a premium beer introduced in the Portuguese market in 2005. This case is worth of studying because it stresses not only this relationship but also how it can evolve. It also displays how a product that had such good acceptance in its introduction weakened so much few years after. More recently, Sagres developed a strategy towards brand standardization, which is affecting all the extensions under this brand, and this point is also interesting of study. The information provided in the case study, together with a survey ran to confirm consumers’ perceptions about extension and parent brand, will support the key research questions of this dissertation. From this analysis it was deduced that Bohemia’s decline coincides with the decrease in both its communication and product development. The survey shows that parent brand association was not one of the characteristics consumers value the most in Bohemia and there are many consumers that do not associate Bohemia to Sagres. With Sagres’ new strategy, explained further in this dissertation, it will be more difficult to enhance the extension’s differentiation. Nevertheless, parent brand should be of major concern for the company and extensions should adapt to it.

Date of Award	Jun 2012
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Pedro Celeste (Supervisor)