Brand Update : Kent transforms to a multi-product brand

 Kent or rather Kent RO System is known for its RO based water purifiers but not anymore. From 2016 onwards, the brand has been on its way to becoming a consumer durable brand. Slowly and steadily, the brand has been launching products in the small appliances category leveraging on the success of its water purifier product range. Kent RO based water purifier was launched in 1999 challenging the UV based water purifier products which were ruling the market. Although expensive compared to UV based purifiers, RO based purifiers slowly gained acceptance due to its superior purifying ability and also backed by powerful promotions from the brand owners.

Now Kent has a number of product lines which are very diverse. The product line consists of water purifiers, vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, water softeners, kitchen appliances, security camera systems, and attendance systems. Kent brand is built on the positioning platform of purity. The founder of the company, Mr Mahesh Gupta calls the company's core as House of Purity. While the initial launches were in line with the " House of Purity" platform, later the firm began to launch unrelated extensions like a security camera and niche small appliances. 

Mr Mahesh Gupta in an interview talks about the logic of concentrating on niche product categories. One advantage of niche is that there is not much competition. The niche products also will help Kent to display its innovative side to the consumers. If the brand is able to come out with innovative products, it will enhance the brand image and thus help brand launch mainstream products in the future. 

As with all brand extensions, Kent also faces the problem of equity stretch. When a brand launches its extensions, the new products rely heavily on the parent brand's equity. Unrelated products create a lot of pressure on the core brand equity because there will be a disconnect between the core brand's positioning and the unrelated product's positioning. The solution is to identify a core brand positioning which allows for multiple brand extensions across diverse categories. For example, House of Purity positioning of Kent may not support a product like a mixer grinder of a camera security systems.