As known by many, Marlboro cowboy's clothes are very popular. But fewer people have heard that BMW has also expanded its brand from cars to clothes. The first exclusive BMW clothes store opened in Beijing Oriental Plaza, selling men and women formal clothes, sports and casual wears and clothes ornaments. The reason why BMW has entered the clothes market is that it wants to represent not only the most advanced car-making technologies and techniques but also an "unrestrained, graceful, fashionable, easy and relaxed" life style. BMW considers both cars and clothes as conveying its core values.

As for outer appearances, BMW aims to apply to its clothes the same style as its cars'. BMW clothes are brightly multi-hued whilst giving out an air of steadiness. They are also characterized by streamlined design, like that of BMW cars. BMW has enlarged its brand consumer groups by entering the clothes market. At the same time, it hopes to enhance the understanding of young customers for its brand so that these young people will become potential customers of BMW cars. For those who have just finished college, it is impossible to afford a BMW car, but they can afford a piece of BMW clothing through which they are able to experience the BMW lifestyle. In this way, the trust and faith in BMW are earlier cultivated. When young people make achievement in their careers and have enough money to buy expensive cars, they will first choose BMW. Therefore selling clothes is BMW's strategy to exploit potential markets and seize business opportunities to come.

The case of BWM tells us that the success in expansion of a brand depends on the compatibility of brand's core value. It is very common that high compatibility of a brand's core brand leads to success of another type of products, which seems to have no connection with the original product type under the same brand. The reason why Marlboro has succeeded in expanding the brand from cigarettes to cowboy clothes, jeans, caps and waistbands is that these clothes share some values with cigarettes, that is, valiancy, a sense of adventure and optimism. However Marlboro does not expand the brand to suits gentlemanliness characteristics, as these have little in common with its core values.

By People's Daily Online