There always comes a time when a company has an opportunity to expand its best and most lucrative brands into new products, but have you ever thought about what are the most bizarre brand extensions that befuddled consumer? A brand extension, even a weird one, can be a powerful tool that boosts the revenue and prospects of a company.
Brand extension is a common method used by companies to launch a new product by using an existing brand name on a new product in a distinct category. For the brand extension to be successful, there ordinarily must be some logical association between the original product and the new one.Smith & Wesson Bikes and Apparel has one of the most bizarre brand extensions. Some of these brand extensions were not so good, and a lot of them were bizarre. Smith & Wesson, long known as a purveyor of guns to police officers (and other less lawful people), also decided to sell mountain bikes to cops in 1997. Soon after, the gun maker made the bikes available to the general public. Another one is Dr. Pepper Marinade and Barbecue Sauce. A lot of barbecue enthusiasts swear by using Dr. Pepper soda combined with some spices as a great marinade for their briskets, ribs, and other meats. While the products were positively reviewed, they didn’t gain much traction, and the company soon buried them. Do you know why that happened to them?
Brand extension research mainly focuses on consumer evaluation of extension and attitude toward the parent brand. In their 1990 model, Aaker and Keller provide a sufficient depth and breadth proposition to examine consumer behavior and a conceptual framework. The authors use three dimensions to measure the fit of extension. Brand extension can also be done through marketing strategies such as guerrilla marketing, where brands can promote their goods or services through unconventional means such as emotional connections to the brand by tackling social problems/dilemmas. These emotional connections are done through social experiments where brands express their concern and offer small solutions thereby making the brand stand out and seem righteous.
If you want to see what are the most bizarre brand extensions that befuddled consumers, check Insider Monkey’s list of 5 Bizarre Brand Extensions That Befuddled Consumers and find out more about this interesting topic.
