The Best Brand Extensions of 2013

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In a sea of questionable extensions, you voted this one the absolute worst. Basketball great Shaquille O’Neal played in 15 All-Star games, won seven MVPs and ranks sixth in points scored in NBA history. Surely, that qualifies him to make … soda? Add one more stat for Shaq: most pointless idea.

Despite it being the height of flu season, there’s another malady sweeping the land, mercilessly infecting otherwise healthy products.

Call it “delusions of brandeur.” Explains John Parham, founder of Parham | Santana, a New York consultancy specializing in expanding brand footprints: “It’s the condition where a brand thinks that since 99 percent of America knows its name it can put that name on anything.”

That might explain why a $37 billion beer brand like Heineken would deem a line of shoes a fine sideline, or why the licensors of the Grateful Dead would introduce a line of skis, or why...

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