CBS is on the verge of announcing that Katie Couric may be replaced on the CBS Evening News. It was a 75 million dollar experiment that floundered and may fail. The result is a marketing lesson we can all learn from. It was assumed that many people who watched and enjoyed Couric in the morning would follow her to CBS, it didnt happen.
In marketing I call this, “Weber’s Flawed Law of Line Extension.” Conventional marketing believes that if you have a product that is doing well, (The Today Show with its features and fluff) take one of those ingredients, (Katie Couric) and create a different product and image using that familiar name. Then success is sure to follow? Not so fast, remember “New Coke?”
The TV audience sampled Couric and then left her in droves. They failed to her as a news authority and now CBS may move her to Sixty Minutes. Will the audiences perception of her change? Probably not, however if you were to place Katie on a show like “The View” she would most likely do well. You may scream sexist, however whether its right or wrong, it’s the public’s perception of her and that wont change.
The marketing lesson we can all learn from CBS’s mistake is this. If your thinking of expanding your segment of a market and it involves the very savvy 50 plus senior market, consider this. Don’t assume that the senior’s will accept your new product simply because of your past name brand recognition.
You have to woo them, not wow them!
Posted by clarkweber 