Brand Extension & Growth
Leverage Your Brands as Inspiration for Business Growth
Overview:
What is Brand Extension?
A robust brand extension strategy is essential to prosper and maintain relevance in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace. In some ways, brand extension represents the most efficient and logical way to achieve profitable brand growth, yet many companies struggle with how far to stretch. Play it too safe and the likely result will be close-in, ho-hum line extensions that underwhelm customers and are short-lived in the market. Stray too far from your brand’s core positioning and you risk diluting valuable equity.
The Components of Effective Brand Extension
In order to be successful when extending brands, it is important to make sure you are remaining true to your positioning and what you stand for. However, while respecting guardrails and protecting equity is imperative, it's also important to view brands as a source of inspiration for innovation and new product development.
When considering possible paths for extension, it is important to look at brands across multiple dimensions—not just tangible attributes (such as product categories and usage occasions), but intangible dimensions as well (e.g., persona and emotional benefits).
Brand Permissions

Our Process
Questions
Addressed
- Which brand attributes represent the most lucrative opportunities for extension/growth?
- What are brands’ “bounds of extendibility”— territories that should be considered off limits?
- Which brand-centric growth opportunities are the most financially lucrative for the business?
Typical
Challenges
- The brand’s positioning and key attributes are not as well understood as they should be
- Finding intersections between “big ideas” and opportunities that are consistent with brand positioning
- The temptation to play it safe by resorting to close-in, “flavor of the month” line extensions
Ensuring
Success
- Thinking big; considering the brand as a source for inspiration and transformational growth
- Considering both tangible and intangible attributes of the brand as means for extension
- Identifying a balanced portfolio of extensions (i.e., both conservative and transformational)
Get to Know More
Ever Wonder Why Most Brand Extensions Fail?
Learn the Seven Main Pitfalls of Brand Extension and How to Avoid Them
Brand Extension & Growth Case Studies
Brand Extension &
Growth Video Galley
Reach new levels of business growth and build credibility and momentum over time with the optimal brand extension strategy.

How Can a Brand’s Extension affect Its Equity
While brand extendibility offers a lucrative path to achieving growth, a new offering can dilute the brand's valuable equity if the fit is not strong.

How Consumers’ Unknown Needs Help Identify Growth Opportunities
Discover the importance of understanding consumers' unmet needs to create products and services that fill those needs.

3 Reasons Brand Extensions Fail
Brand extensions can be a great way to grow your business, but they can fail miserably if they're not done well. Explore 3 reasons why brand extensions often fail and how to avoid them.

The Benefit of a Progressive Brand Extension Strategy
Learn why taking progressively bolder steps when extending your core offering can help your brand build credibility and momentum over time.