Case Assignment The Marketing Mix: Products and Brands W-40 Corp., the manufacturer of the famous WD-40 brand has acquired a number of other products. Although it has made some changes to the packaging of WD-40, it decided not to use the WD-40 brand name on the newly acquired products. Instead the acquired products have individual brand names - what is termed an "individual brand strategy". In comparison, Arm and Hammer uses a "family brand strategy" - that is, it puts its brand name on everything from baking soda, to toothpaste, to cat litter. Write a 2-3 page paper in which you respond to the following question: "If Family Branding works for firms like Arm & Hammer, was WD-40 Corp. sensible not to apply it''s WD-40 brand to its newly acquired products, or would it have been more effective to have adopted a Family Branding strategy?" Give a definite answer and justify your position. Please submit your case for grading by the end of this module. Ensure that you repeat the case question in full and verbatim on the title page of your submission. Excluding your title and reference pages, your paper should be no more than three pages long. To build CASE02, read the following article: • Bounds, Gwendolyn (2006, May 23). More Than Squeaking By: WD-40 CEO Garry Ridge Repackages a Core Product; ''No Mess'' Pen, ''Big Blast'' Can. The Wall Street Journal. Also, visit the WD-40 Corp. website and review their range of products. The following is a reminder about how to lay out your case. Introduction Begin by repeating the Case Question on the title page. Then, specify that the Case Question is asking you to tie together several issues such as: 1. What is product line management? 2. What is the purpose of branding? 3. What are the tradeoffs between individual and family branding? The Body of the Paper Analysis: Check out the background reading for information on the issues you outlined in your introduction. Now explain why firms follow these strategies. As you review the Background material, the focus of your reading should be on how brands can generate competitive advantage and how appropriate any one brand name might be for different market segments. How far can a brand name be "stretched" and what factors determine this? Conclusion Summarize your position. For example: For WD-40 Corp., family branding (defined as) is a better strategy than Individual branding (defined as) because ... or, Individual branding (defined as) is a better strategy than Family branding (defined as) for WD-40 Corp. because ....