Stretching a Brand: 7 Brand Extensions Examples

When something is impossible to ignore, it either succeeds dramatically or fails miserably – there is no middle ground.

That is why brand extensions either have long periods of success or immediate, mind blowing failures.

This article offers seven unique brand extension examples that worked, and a few that failed, along with explanations to why they succeeded or not. Let’s make sure your extension flies instead of flops by understanding effective brand extension strategies.

What are brand extensions?

A brand extension, or brand stretching, is when a known brand uses its name to transfer its products to a new industry or transform a product in a unique way. A strong parent brand can leverage its existing market recognition and customer loyalty to successfully introduce new products, attracting consumers’ trust and familiarity. This strategy, often referred to as a brand extension strategy, is high risk, high reward, though a strong enough brand image can keep the risk in check.

In order to get a good feel for this concept, let’s look at some examples.

Types of Brand Extensions

Brand extensions come in various forms, each with its own set of advantages and challenges. Understanding these different types can help companies choose the right strategy to expand their brand successfully. Here are some common types of brand extensions:

1. Line Extensions: Introducing new products that are closely related to the existing product line, catering to different consumer preferences or offering new variations.
2. Brand Lifestyle Extensions: Expanding product or service offerings to fit with the brand’s portrayed values or distinct way of living, creating a more comprehensive brand experience.
3. Complementary Product Extensions: Launching new products that complement the existing ones, enhancing the overall brand offering.
4. Company Authority Extensions: Leveraging the company’s established authority in a particular field to introduce new products or services in related areas.

Each type of extension has its own unique benefits and potential pitfalls, and the choice of extension depends on the company’s goals and target audience.

Line Extension

A line extension is a strategic move where a company introduces a new product or service that is closely related to its existing product line. This approach allows companies to cater to different consumer preferences or offer new variations of an existing product. For instance, a shampoo brand might introduce a new line specifically designed for different hair types, such as dry, oily, or curly hair.

Why it works: Line extensions can be highly effective because they leverage the existing brand equity and customer base. By offering a wider range of products, companies can increase their market share and revenue. Existing customers are more likely to try new products from a brand they already trust, making it easier to achieve success with a line extension.

Brand Lifestyle Extension

A brand lifestyle extension involves expanding a company’s product or service offerings to align with its brand’s values or distinct way of living. This type of extension aims to create a more comprehensive and immersive brand experience for consumers. For example, an outdoor gear company might extend its product line to include clothing and accessories that fit with its brand’s outdoor lifestyle.

Why it works: Brand lifestyle extensions can significantly boost brand awareness and customer loyalty. By offering products that resonate with the brand’s core values and lifestyle, companies can create a deeper connection with their audience. This strategy not only enhances the overall brand image but also encourages consumers to fully embrace the brand’s lifestyle, leading to increased engagement and sales.

By understanding and strategically implementing these types of brand extensions, companies can effectively stretch their brand and achieve long-term success.

Benefits and Risks of Brand Extensions

Brand extensions can be a powerful tool for businesses looking to expand their product offerings and reach new customers. However, like any business strategy, there are both benefits and risks to consider.

Successful Brand Extension Strategy

A successful brand extension strategy requires careful planning and execution. Here are some key considerations to keep in mind:

Creative examples of successful brand extensions

The following brand extension examples are interesting ways that brands have attempted to stretch their brand further. Take note of what worked and why.

• Complementary Product Extensions: Launching new products that complement the existing ones, enhancing the overall brand offering, is known as a complementary product extension. For instance, Nike’s introduction of sports accessories alongside their footwear and Colgate’s launch of toothbrushes to complement their toothpaste are prime examples. These extensions enhance customer loyalty and generate new revenue streams by offering additional value alongside existing products.

1. Arnold Schwarzenegger Supplements

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the famous bodybuilder and actor, took his talents, his name and his muscles to the sports supplement industry with a line of signature products that everyone could use, giving them a chance to take the same muscle-exploding nutrition as him.

Why it worked: This brand extension had a leg up on other extensions because it not only played on Arnold’s celebrity status but also aligned with his core brand as a champion bodybuilder. It made use of his expertise, making it easy for Arnold to extend to the supplement industry, creating a product that people could identify by his name and image.

2. Harley Davidson T-Shirts

The Harley Davidson brand is known for having the market of luxury motorcycles cornered, since they’re the only ones who can make the bigger models function and sell. Putting their logo onto other merchandise seemed like a no-brainer brand extension.

Why it worked: The thing about Harley Davidson is it’s a cult brand, with many followers willing to buy exclusively Harley for the rest of their riding lives. This loyalty made an extension completely natural, and it worked on t-shirts because Harley Davidson is an established brand with a strong reputation. Now the brand’s riders and fanatics could show their Harley support while riding their bikes.

3. Snickers Ice Cream Bars

Snickers candy bars have essentially stayed the same throughout the years, both in the recipe and their size and shape. Sure, there are slight variations (fun-size for Halloween), but for the most part, it is a stable, unchanging product. That is, until they attempted an extension to ice cream bars.

Why it worked: Snickers was able to move into the freezer section with a similar but different product, making it one of the most successful brand extensions in the candy industry. While its classic candy bar remained a hit at the cash register, people who wanted the same great flavors they were used to in an ice cream bar form surely enjoyed this extension.

4. Pokemon Toys

Pokemon was an extremely popular kids television program, an animated show featuring creatures each with their own special unique powers. Like many popular kids shows, it seemed only natural to offer toys that the fans could buy and collect.

Why it worked: The Pokemon TV show is about collecting many different characters, so it would make sense that the toys would be so sought after for fan collections. The action figures were nearly endless thanks to the show’s many different characters available. There was almost no limit to the amount of merchandise in toys the Pokemon brand could come up with.

5. Tide Stain Remover Pen

The Tide Stain Remover Pen was a brand extension that took the main benefit of Tide products and put their efficacy to use in a new item, giving people an on-the-go way to clean their clothes without having to do laundry.

Why it worked: When a brand has cemented itself as something, it becomes easier for brand extensions to be effective. In this case, Tide had become very well-known as an effective laundry detergent, making it easier to extend the same brand name to a different item, the pen.

6. George Foreman Grill

The George Foreman Grill is one of the better selling products in the realm of ‘as seen on TV’ items, since it’s so convenient, has a celebrity brand attached to it and is effective as a grill. It touched on the idea of convenience before it had become a consumer hit.

Why it worked: Similar to the Arnold Schwarzenegger supplement line, the George Foreman grill relies on celebrity status to extend a brand. However, unlike in the case of the Arnold muscle-building products, George Foreman isn’t showcasing his proficiency. Instead, he’s showcasing his name and popularity. People recognize the George Foreman brand thanks to his celebrity status as a boxer, making this a successful brand extension. This helped up the perceived quality of the grill.

7. Reese’s Puffs Cereal

Similar to the Snickers Ice Cream Bar, the Reese’s Puffs cereal essentially modified the physical being of a product. It banked on the fact that it could take an extreme idea and modify it to a reasonable medium.

Why it worked: The marketing campaigns Reese’s ran almost wrote themselves, with commercials that showed shocked consumers seeing this brand extension. The reason this extension worked is it managed to bring a candy product to life in a cereal, showcasing a successful brand extension strategy by leveraging brand recognition and strategic planning to achieve favorable outcomes without overwhelming the consumer with the sweetness expected.

Now that we’ve seen some extensions that worked, let’s take a look at some that didn’t.

Flops and failures in brand extension strategy

The following brand extensions ended up flopping, unlike the successful brand extensions we discussed earlier. Use these as a cautionary tale to avoid mistakes.

Heinz Purple Ketchup and Pepsi Crystal

These two are basically the same brand extensions from different brands, so I grouped them together. Pepsi is a brown color, Heinz Ketchup is red. Those are facts of life like the color of the sky, at least in terms of the customer’s mind. However, one day both these brands changed the texture of their product, creating a purple ketchup (Heinz) and a clear soda (Pepsi).

What went wrong: Customers are often able to enjoy a brand extension because it serves a purpose other than novelty. There is no purpose to either of these extensions other than flash and noise, and as such, they failed.

LifeSavers Soda

What went wrong: This one seems puzzling on the surface, especially when we consider that Reese’s Puffs cereal is a similar brand extension that was successful. However, there are some minor differences we must take into consideration. First, in the case of Reese’s to breakfast cereal, chocolate breakfast cereals weren’t unheard of at this time (Cocoa Puffs, etc.) making the jump much more stable. Soda on the other hand isn’t meant to taste all that sweet, at least not to the point where you’re drinking candy.

When it came to Lifesavers soda, it might have done okay if customers got to try before they buy, but as it was, they just couldn’t stomach the idea of drinking what they perceived to be an overly-sweet soda.

Final thoughts

As you can tell from the examples above, successful brand extensions are like an elaborate maze with tons of traps and dead ends.

On one hand, brand extensions are risky. On the other, there are plenty of brands that are able to make them work. If you’re willing to put in the right effort and plan ahead, you might be able to pull it off. Good luck!

If you want more information about branding, check out my complete branding guide.