Flanker Brand

A flanker brand is a new brand introduced into the market by a company that already has an established brand in the same product category. The new brand is designed to compete in the category without damaging the existing item’s market share by targeting a different group of consumers. This strategy, also called fighter branding or multibranding, is used to achieve a larger total market share than one product could garner alone. Some examples of flanker brands are:

• Wheel detergent by HUL was a flanker brand to counter the attack by Nirma
• Nihar is a flanker brand for Parachute as it allows Marico to cater to a new consumer segment

(source: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/html/c5-51.html)