New Brand Extensions

Abstract

As 1990 began, Hugh Hefner had removed himself completely from daily business operations at Playboy Enterprises. While he still participated in major strategic decisions, his business role in the 1990s was dedicated to editing Playboy magazine, although he still retained control of major decision-making, despite his absence. Christie Hefner was given the monumental task to lead the company back to profitability. Throughout the decade, Playboy Enterprises would be rebuilt, but it would never reach the size, strength or profitability that it achieved 20 years earlier. Christie Hefner continued on the strategic path she started in the 1980s wherein Playboy Enterprises worked to refocus the brand on its core competencies and strongest businesses. Primary areas of concentration in the 1990s would be television, merchandising, and the Internet.

We started with the idea that the possibilities were too intriguing for us not to be involved in the online world. We didn’t pretend that we knew what the business model was going to be, but we saw a medium with unique properties of interactivity and global reach.

Christie Hefner, Winter 1999 Interview in ContextMag