So even though mono brands are expensive to establish and entail sacrificing the synergies and economies of scale that result from leveraging a brand across multiple lines and segments, they do allow a company to dominate those segments individually through tightly focused branded offerings. Mono brands permit the creation of a more single-minded meaning and ownership of a particular associa-tion, as with Pantene and its healthy hair proposition. They also offer the corresponding benefit of providing a means of avoiding undesir-able associations. Prelaunch research indicated that any association between the new Saturn brand and General Motors could have an adverse effect on the former, so the company deliberately avoided any link between the two brands (“Saturn. A different kind of company, a different kind of car.”). Before the launch of Old Navy, management were considering branding the concept as the Gap Warehouse but pulled back from the idea, given the potential for irreparable damage to be done to the Gap brand through an association with lower-priced clothing as well as the obvious risk of cannibalization. Similarly, Volkswagen could negatively affect the images of Porsche and Audi if the brands were connected, and, equally importantly, Volkswagen’s own strong brand meaning would be distorted. The other major benefit of a mono brand is its use in announcing and embodying a truly breakthrough new product with distinct new advantages. The impact may be diminished if the new product is introduced under an existing brand