The First Brand Extensions

Abstract

While traditional marketing plans typically call for allowing a brand to grow and attain a stronghold within its market before extending that brand into new categories, in the 1950s, Hugh Hefner had no knowledge of how traditional marketing plans worked. When he saw opportunities to extend the Playboy brand, he seized them. It could be argued that this was a direct result of his undaunting view of the Playboy lifestyle and Playboy magazine. However, he did follow some of the rules of branding by ensuring that each brand extension accurately represented the Playboy image and promise. In essence, Hefner was following the three primary steps of branding from the moment Playboy was born.

The business aspects of the company never really interested me as long as we had the money to do the things I wanted to do. For me, the magazine was always the heart of what my life was all about, and the other half was living the life.

Hugh Hefner, December 2008 Interview with Askmen.com