Brand Extension: 8 Successful Examples You Can Learn From

Brand extension, also known as brand stretching, is a marketing and sales strategy that brands use to open themselves up to wider market potential. Brands will take their existing and usually well-known brand name and put it on a whole new line or area of products. 

The main goal of a brand extension is to further grow a brand online and offline which can lead to a much larger market share, plus increased brand awareness and profits. 

Usually, brands will extend into products or services that are parallel to their existing offering. A brand extension allows successful brands to use their existing success and industry presence to launch something new, without having to start from scratch. 

There are various different types of brand extensions for you to consider and, depending on your goals, you’ll want to pick the one that’s right for you.

Line Extension 

A line extension is the most straightforward type of brand extension – in fact, there’s a chance you’ve already done it. A line extension is where a brand launches a new range of products that fall into the same category as the existing product line. For example, a candle brand may launch a special Christmas range of candles featuring favorite festive scents. 

Customer Base Extension 

Customer base extension is where you focus on a specific demographic within your audience and expand your products or services based on their needs. For example, a home furniture brand may choose to focus on first-time homeowners, offering starter kits and supplies for a first house move. 

Complementary Product Extension 

A complementary product extension sees brands launch new products that complement their existing lines. For example, a toothpaste brand may decide to launch toothbrushes to complement their existing products and target their customer base which they have determined is conscious about oral health. 

Brand Lifestyle Extension

A brand lifestyle extension is a good choice of brand extension for companies that rely on the lifestyle they promote to customers. One of the best brand extension examples is Jeep. Famous for their cars that promote an outdoor lifestyle, the brand launched tents, bicycles, and camping equipment to help further promote this lifestyle. 

Company Authority Extension 

A company authority extension can be used when a brand is deemed an expert in their field. Once you have achieved this, you can use that expertise and authority to branch out into new products that people will trust. For example, you may be at the top of your game when it comes to pushchairs and prams, allowing you to use that authority and status to launch a range of car seats and cots that parents will trust thanks to your existing authority. 

Take a look at the eight example businesses below, all of whom have launched successful brand extensions.

#1. Apple: Company Authority and Line Extension

Apple started out as a computer company, but after evolving its own expertise, was able to extend its brand as per the needs of its customers. When digital music grew popular, Apple created the iPod, and when the market needed a great smartphone, Apple stepped forward with the iPhone – a product that, over 2024, was used by 155 million people in the US alone.

This tech giant is able to use its status and expertise to build brand loyalty and trust in new product lines, now spanning laptops, phones, earphones, accessories, smart watches, streaming services, and even location tracking devices.

Apple has grown into the major international brand it is today through clever and strategic brand extensions that meet an audience need or gap in the market. Its hardware, software, and services integrate across products seamlessly, which enhances user convenience and encourages brand loyalty. For example, Airdrop, iMessage, Facetime, and Find My Devices work across its full range of products to enhance user experience when combined.

#2. Google: Company Authority and Line Extension

Google is another example of a tech brand that launched brand extensions in line with a rapidly moving market.

Starting out as the search engine we all know and use, as the tech landscape changed and advanced, so too did Google’s offering. Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Docs all launched with the sole purpose of making users’ lives technologically easier.

Google now even offers users Google Hangouts and Google smart home hubs, both of which are brand extensions that grew from an ever-changing market. Google knew that in order to stay at the top, it had to keep evolving and extending.

#3. Dyson: Customer Base and Company Authority Extension

Even five years ago, Dyson was best known for its vacuum cleaners. Seen by many as the industry leader, it’s no surprise that Dyson used this authority to branch out into new product lines.

Fans, air purifiers, and hand dryers were a more obvious step, however what many people didn’t see coming was the extension into hair dryers and hair stylers. TheDyson Airwrap is now one of the most popular hair tools in the market. Why? Because it’s made by a brand that people trust.

The Dyson brand was already known for its innovation and efficiency, and it was able to use this, along with its reputation for industry-leading technology and expertise, to launch into a new area successfully.

#4. Colgate: Complementary Product Extension

Colgate’s brand extensions have been hit-and-miss, to say the least. Famous for its toothpaste, the brand decided it was time to expand and in the 1980s launched a line of frozen ready meals.

Yes, that’s right, you could enjoy a Colgate-branded Lasagna for dinner back in 1982. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the brand extension failed and nobody was interested in buying their dinner from their toothpaste brand.

Fast forward a few years and Colgate fared much better when it launched another brand extension, this time into the world of electric toothbrushes. This was the perfect plan. A new line of products that complement its existing ones all while using its authority and status in the oral health industry to encourage sales. A much better idea than making frozen dinners…

#5. Virgin: Lifestyle Extension

Virgin originally started out as a mail-order record store back in 1970. Since then the brand has grown into a record label with product lines spanning travel, leisure, consumer goods, and more.

It can seem to some like Virgin’s product lines are totally unrelated – after all, what does an experience day have to do with a record label? The reality, however, is that every one of Virgin’s brand extensions has been centered on creating a specific lifestyle for customers.

While Virgin has succeeded in creating a lifestyle for customers that “disrupts the status quo” not every brand extension they tried has worked. The less said about Virgin Cola and Virgin Brides the better…

#6. Hootsuite: Complementary Product Extension

Hootsuite is a great example of a successful brand launching new brand extensions in order to enhance its service offering to users.

The social media management platform was already seen as an industry leader when it branched out into an array of product extensions.

Each of the extensions is to be used alongside its existing service offering including Hootsuite Insights and Hootsuite Academy.

This is a great example of using your success to launch new products that complement and work with your existing offering, helping to open up your potential customer base and build brand loyalty.

#7. RedBull: Lifestyle Extension

RedBull may be best known for its energy drinks but the brand has cleverly used brand extensions to build a full lifestyle around the drinks.

RedBull now offers extreme sports, events, and clothing – all that link back to the limitless potential that the drink gives you.

Strategic lifestyle extensions mean that RedBull is now much more than just an energy drinks brand and is the go-to for risk-taking and physical performance.

#8. Amazon

Amazon is a success story of the ages, and much of that success is down to clever brand extensions.

Amazon started off as an online bookstore and is now the biggest online marketplace in the world… quite an achievement!

Over the years, Amazon has utilized multiple different types of brand extensions to facilitate growth including new product lines (Amazon Fresh) and brand lifestyle extensions via Alexa and the Prime delivery service.

On top of this, Amazon continued to capitalize on its bookstore origins by adapting to change in the market, launching Amazon Kindles, its bestselling eReader devices, and Audible, an audiobook listening service.

Here are my tips for implementing brand extensions successfully:

1. Conduct market research and test your product before launching: Make sure your target audience is in need of your brand extension and that there’s a gap in the market for it. Test your products with those who know your business best – your current customers. Take their feedback on board and use it to assess whether this is the right move for your business, and if it is, how to finetune it to keep your current customers happy.
2. Choose a brand extension that’s relevant to your parent company: Whether you’re releasing a new product variant or entering a new market entirely, your brand extension should never contradict your business’ core beliefs. Not only will this help to grow your brand authority, but also leverage existing brand awareness and strengthen your image.
3. Market your product well: To successfully promote your product, inform customers via email and social media marketing. It’s important to leverage your trusted brand name and the products you’re known for within your marketing to maximize its impact.

My final tip is to be selective with the brand extensions you take forward – it’ll take time to craft the perfect ideas for your business. Expanding too frequently can reduce their impact and dilute your core message.

There are various reasons brand extensions can be beneficial to your business including:

• A profit boost. Not only do they give you the potential to make more sales and therefore more money, but as you already have an existing brand status, you won’t need to spend as much money on marketing and branding as you would if you were starting from scratch. 
• A new audience. Brand extensions are a great way of getting yourselves noticed by a new, wider audience. 
• Brand trust. Customers are much more likely to trust products and services if they can see that the company has experience in that sector already. At the same time, offering a wider range of products can help to increase customer loyalty. 
• Brand revival. Sometimes brands can get tired, old, and appear outdated. A brand extension can be a great way to revive your brand by generating a buzz and reaching new customers. 

As you can see from these eight brand extension examples, there are a myriad of ways you can utilize them to grow your brand and scale your ecommerce business.

While strategic and well-thought-out brand extensions can lead to great success, just like Colgate’s frozen ready meals, not everything is necessarily going to be the right fit.

Taking the time to discover what brand extensions will work for you and most importantly, what your audience wants or needs, is the key to success. The most successful brand extensions are those that strike the right balance between innovation and existing brand values.