Brand Extension
Brand Extension
10 WAYS TO
EXTEND YOUR
BRAND
BASED ON A STUDY OF 500+ SUCCESSFUL BRAND EXTENSIONS
CONTENTS
3 INTRODUCTION 28 WAY #6 LEVERAGE YOUR CUSTOMER BASE
SAME-STORE SALES
5 WAY #1 SHIFT THE FORM SPECIAL CUSTOMERS
M ETHOD OF DELIVERY UNIQUE OFFERINGS
METHOD OF PRESERVATION CAPTIVE AUDIENCE
IN-STORE PLACEMENT
RETAIL OUTLET 32 WAY #7 LEVERAGE A LIFESTYLE
INGREDIENT PROFILE LUXURY EXPERIENCE
RUGGED WORK ETHIC
9 WAY #2 TRANSFER A COMPONENT OUTDOOR LIFESTYLE
F LAVORS GENERATIONAL WEALTH
INGREDIENTS LOVE OF LEARNING
SCENTS SPORTS FITNESS
COLORS
TRANSFER A COMPONENT THROUGH: 36 WAY #8 LEVERAGE A CELEBRITY EXPERTISE
VERTICAL BRAND EXTENSION
FOOTHOLD STRATEGY 40 WAY #9 LEVERAGE A CELEBRITY LIFESTYLE
CASE STUDY: SEQUENTIAL EXTENSIONS
44 WAY #10 CHANGE THE GAME
16 WAY #3 TRANSFER A BENEFIT
FUNCTIONAL BENEFITS 47 CONCLUSION
SAME BENEFIT, DIFFERENT CUSTOMER
CASE STUDY: BENEFIT TRANSFERS 48 ABOUT PARHAM SANTANA AND DR. EDWARD M. TAUBER
© Copyright 2011, Parham Santana Inc. May not be reproduced without written consent of publisher.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 3
THE DEFINITION OF
“BRAND EXTENSION”
TO LAUNCH A TRUE
BRAND EXTENSION,
A COMPANY MUST TAKE
A WELL-KNOWN BRAND
NAME AND USE IT TO
LAUNCH A PRODUCT
IN A DIFFERENT
CATEGORY FROM
THE PARENT BRAND.
WAY #1:
• Method of
Delivery
• Method of
Preservation
• In-Store
Placement
• Retail Outlet
Starbucks mastered shifting a Frappuccino or Doubleshot up a $704.4 million market
the form with the introduction Espresso anywhere, from the gas for the coffee giant.
of ready-to-drink beverages station to the grocery store. This
• Ingredient
in 1996. Consumers can grab convenient new package opened
Profile
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 6
Delivery Method
Highlights for Children magazine recently launched an iPhone
version of its popular Hidden Pictures game. Style guidelines
developed by Parham Santana helped Highlights extend their
brand using a new method of delivery.
Preservation Method
Many products can be preserved in more than one way,
and these different methods open up a product to new
categories and customers. Muscle Milk extended its popular
protein powder brand with the introduction of ready-to-drink
Muscle Milk nutrition shakes.
In-Store Placement
Tap into new customers by changing your product’s form
enough to sell it in multiple spots within the same store.
Jello-O pudding mix made the leap into the refrigerator
section with pudding cups, and the brand’s popular pudding
pops brought Jell-O to the freezer aisle.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 8
Retail Outlet
A slight change in product form and package can land you
in new retail outlets. Just look at all the restaurant brands
in grocery store aisles: Taco Bell Salsa, Nathan’s Famous Hot
Dogs, Friendly’s Ice Cream, T.G.I. Friday’s appetizers and
countless more.
Ingredient Profile
Changing even one ingredient in your product can extend your
brand into a new category. Based on an extension study by
Dr. Tauber, Snickers successfully replaced nougat with ice cream
to create the wildly popular Snickers Ice Cream Bars.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 9
WAY #2:
Transfer a Component
Transfer a
component
such as a:
• Flavor
• Ingredient
• Scent
• Color
to a different
product where
that component
is desirable, or
transfer it with a:
• Foothold
Strategy
Parham Santana helped Crayola
transfer a component — creative • Vertical Brand
color — from the basic crayon to
dozens of expressive products. Extension
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 10
Flavors
The Ghiradelli name is practically synonymous with chocolate,
so the brand easily extended into brownie mix by transferring
this flavor.
Ingredients
Some brands are synonymous with an ingredient. Advil, a
branded form of ibuprofen, is often taken for colds, flu or sinus
congestion. Pfizer launched brand extensions—Advil Cold &
Sinus and Congestion Relief—featuring the ingredient ibuprofen.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 12
Scents
Consumers might know your brand most with their noses.
Entenmann’s extended its brand by bringing the smell of
baked goods to “Fresh Baked” candles.
Colors
Signature colors can help a brand extend into new product
offerings. Pantone is known to professional designers who rely
on its color matching products as the world authority in color.
With Parham Santana’s help, Pantone is using its color expertise
to extend into the consumer market with housewares, paints,
and hotels.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 13
Transfer a Component
Using a Foothold Strategy
Sometimes owning a component can actually limit your
brand. One strategy to establish brand extensions is to take
a parent brand product that became successful based on a
specific differentiation and define it more broadly.
Transfer a Component
Using a Vertical Brand
Extension
This special type of component transfer works by adding to
or subtracting from the component your brand already owns.
Planning is key to any brand extension, but it’s especially Dr. Tauber provided a plan that included both short-term and
crucial if you want to launch a series of successful new long-term extensions, advocating that a household sanitizer /
products. Case in point: Clorox. cleaner product be introduced first. It had the broadest
A brand extension study conducted by Dr. Tauber confirmed appeal and helped customers adjust to Clorox moving out
that the Clorox brand was synonymous with bleach. The of the laundry room, paving the way for later extensions to
brand’s boundaries and leverage evolved from this perception. use around the house and even with “green” appeal. This is
People have a love-hate relationship with bleach: it cleans the concept of brand extension planning: A series of products
and disinfects, but it is also toxic and can damage surfaces. that can be launched in succession, each building on the last.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 16
WAY #3:
Transfer a Benefit
Take a benefit
closely associated
with your brand
and create a
different product
where that
benefit is desirable
by using:
• Functional
Benefits
• Same Benefit,
Different
Arm & Hammer leverages a successfully transfers this key Customer
functional benefit—eliminating benefit to laundry detergent,
odors—across seemingly dryer sheets, cat litter, tooth-
unrelated categories. The brand paste, and even deodorant.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 17
Functional Benefits
A functional benefit is just what it sounds like: a benefit that
actually does something. Kellogg’s successfully marketed
Special K cereal as an easy way to add whole grains to your
diet and lose weight. They’ve followed with numerous brand
extensions, all offering low-calorie, craving-satisfying treats.
Similar to Clorox, which transferred the bleach component A wider array of extensions followed, including complementary
into other cleaning products, Mr. Clean took its reputation cleaning products such as rubber gloves and cleaning pads.
as a credible cleaner into other categories. P&G launched In its most dramatic move away from household cleaners, Mr.
Mr. Clean in the 1950’s as a liquid to clean hard surfaces. Clean entered a fragmented category: carwash. Beginning
Subsequent decades saw introductions of close-in extensions with bottled carwash, it later opened carwashing locations
like toilet cleaner and surface spray. Later, the Magic Eraser in Cincinnati, Atlanta and Round Rock , Texas. Before then,
surface cleaning pad appeared, followed by a co-branded carwashes were small and local, but Mr. Clean broke into that
line with Febreze that included shower cleaner. fragmented category to create a national brand franchise.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 20
WAY #4:
Leverage a Special
Expertise
Take your
brand’s special
expertise and
create a product
in a different
category where
that expertise
is desirable.
Experts in Action
Brand: Expertise: Extension: Brand: Expertise: Extension:
American Red Cross Emergencies First Aid Kit Gold’s Gym Fitness Exercise Equipment
WAY #5:
Sell Companion
Products
Offer products
that are
frequently used
with your parent
product to
create a brand
extension in
the companion
category.
Perfect Pairings
+ +
+ +
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 26
Perfect Pairings
+ +
+ +
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 27
MUSIC
INSTRUCTION
STRINGED
INSTRUMENTS
MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS
CLASSICAL MUSIC
POLISHED
FURNITURE
WOODWORKING
Many companion products seem obvious, but others, more A smarter choice: Management decides how narrowly or
obscure. Consider Steinway. The company extended the brand broadly to define the boundaries of their business before
into furniture polish, but it could have chosen many others, launching brand extensions. While Steinway electric guitars
each leading to an entirely different set of brand extensions. may sound like a stretch, if the company had extended into
classical string instruments, the brand’s image might have
As a brand extends, it’s crucial to make a strategic decision
grown to accommodate polished black electric guitars. They
about what business you want to be in. Some brands over
chose instead to extend their brand by selling a companion
extend into too many diverse categories and damage the
product—Fine Furniture Polish—a very small category.
parent brand in the process.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 28
WAY #6:
Leverage Your
Customer Base
Sell something
to your core
customer base
where the
only leverage
is your brand’s
recognition and
reputation.
World Wrestling Entertainment matches. The brand capitalizes action figures modeled after its
(WWE) is a brand best known on every opportunity to sell to most popular characters.
for its over the top antics in its fan base by creating unique
televised professional wrestling novelty items, such as collectible
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 29
Same-Store Sales
It’s easier to leverage your existing customer base if you can
sell your brand extension at the same store as your parent
brand. Moms happily buy Fisher-Price toys for their babies
and toddlers at Toys ‘R’ Us, so it isn’t a stretch to pick up
Fisher-Price Happy Days & Nights diapers there, too.
Special Customers
Smith & Wesson is known for guns, but the company sells
those firearms to police departments and security personnel
as well as average consumers. To extend its reach into these
special customer bases, the brand sells guard booths, barriers,
fencing, and even police mountain bikes.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 31
Unique Offerings
Nickelodeon is a cable channel primarily aimed at children.
Recognizing a way to reach their customer base with a
unique product, they opened Nickelodeon Suites Resorts,
a kid-themed resort in Orlando, Florida.
Captive Audience
Motor Trend magazine’s subscribers, newsstand readers and
website visitors make up a captive audience of automotive fans.
But when the publication considered brand extensions, it needed
to avoid categories with strong national brands that were
advertisers (tires, motor oil, etc.). The brand wisely leveraged
its customer base with small accessories, such as car phone
chargers and hands-free headsets for drivers.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 32
WAY #7:
Leverage a Lifestyle
Extend to products
that reinforce a way
of living, culture,
or set of values or
interests, such as a:
• Luxury
Experience
• Rugged
Work Ethic
• Outdoor
Lifestyle
• Generational
Wealth
In times of economic uncertainty,
consumers revert to nesting.
on this renewed focus on family
life by extending its magazine
The line’s brand promise?
“Fall in love with your home
• Love of Learning
Parham Santana helped Better brand to more than 550 products all over again.”
Homes and Gardens capitalize sold exclusively at Walmart. • Sports Fitness
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 33
Luxury Experience
Originally built by George Vanderbilt, The Biltmore estate in
Asheville, North Carolina, represents a lavish lifestyle. This
sprawling historic home and estate lends its name to a range
of luxury products through licensing: wine, gourmet food,
landscaping, lighting, and many others.
Outdoor Lifestyle
Jeep represents the freedom of driving off-road, and to
capitalize on this perception, the brand has licensed its name
for a range of products: clothing, knives, tents, bicycles, baby
strollers, and more.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 35
Generational Wealth
Ralph Lauren’s style embodies the moneyed world of an
exclusive American aristocracy. By leveraging that lifestyle
to extend his brand, Ralph Lauren has built an empire that
includes updated traditional apparel and home goods sold
at every distribution for every demographic.
Love of Learning
The Discovery Channel helps the intellectually curious
discover new things. Parham Santana helped them leverage
this learning lifestyle with brand extensions that ranged
from toys to digital voice recorders. Each one helps
consumers “explore their world.”
Sports Fitness
Nike’s founder’s observation, “If you have a body, you are an
athlete,” has set the tone and direction for the brand. Originally
a line of running shoes, Nike-branded products now include
athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a
wide variety of sports and fitness activities.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 36
WAY #8:
Leverage a Celebrity
Expertise
Create a
new product
endorsed by
a celebrity who
is perceived to
have a special
expertise in that
category.
You might think of Martha with brand extensions. A noted translated this expertise to
Stewart as a domestic goddess, expert in just about everything pet supplies, mattresses, craft
but she’s also the queen of to do with the home—decorating, supplies, outdoor furniture,
leveraging her celebrity expertise cooking, crafts—she’s successfully paint, and many more.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 37
Bobby Flay: Grilling and Cooking Jillian Michaels: Fitness & Weight Loss
Parham Santana helped the chef, restaurateur, and TV personality lend A trainer on the popular TV show The Biggest Loser, Michaels lends
his culinary expertise to an exclusive product line at Kohl’s. her expertise to books, equipment and supplements.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 39
WAY #9:
Leverage a Celebrity
Lifestyle
Create a
new product
endorsed by a
celebrity who
has a lifestyle
that attracts
aspirational-
minded
consumers.
WAY #10:
Since the 1800s, Vaseline was categories—until the company to a positive benefit for the
practically synonymous with added two modifying words lotion category. The brand
petroleum jelly. But being so to counteract this negative: extension succeeded and led
closely associated with this Intensive Care. This game- to a range of Vaseline lotion
greasy ingredient was holding changing phrase shifted the products.
the brand back from other focus from the negative (greasy)
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 45
With these resources, we have guided more than 100 brand Previously, Dr. Tauber has directed research divisions for Dancer /
extensions. Eighteen of our clients are among the top 100 global Saatchi NY and Nestle-Carnation and has identified and launched
licensors. The retail value of our brand extension efforts for clients brand extensions for many Fortune 500 companies.
is in the multi-billions of dollars.
Dr. Tauber’s clients include Nestle, Clorox, Dole, P&G, Hershey
Parham Santana’s clients are leading brand owners and retailers in and Mars.
every channel of distribution, including: Food Network, Better Homes
and Gardens, American Girl, Walmart, Target and Toys ‘R’ Us.
Research Methodology
For the underlying research of this report, Parham Santana and Dr. Edward M.
Tauber exhaustively studied brand extensions. We systematically reviewed
written literature and combed retail stores until we had identified more than 500
successful brand extensions across nearly every product category. Once this
group was chosen, we formed a database to analyze what made each one
a success and uncovered the 10 ways to successful brand extensions found here.
© Copyright 2011, Parham Santana Inc. May not be reproduced without written consent of publisher.
All images and trademarks shown herein are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
EXTENDONOMICS: 10 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR BRAND 51