The Best (and Worst) Brand Extensions

In theory, launching a successful brand extension should be easy. All you have to do is take a familiar name and slap it on a new product in another category. Then again, in view of history’s epic flops including Hooter’s Air, Colgate TV dinners and the Evian water-filled bra, perhaps it’s not that easy. Regardless, each year witnesses a new crop of brands that try. And judging from the results of Adweek’s exclusive reader survey of the past year’s best and worst extensions—conducted in partnership with brand-extension agency Parham | Santana—it’s clear that some marketers know how far they can stretch a brand name, while others have gone clear around the bend.