The holiday shopping season is nigh, dear Adweek reader. So think of your loved ones and get the plastic out. After all, you might soon be buying the kid a Wu-Tang Clan bicycle. Or wrapping up a lamp from the Donny Osmond Home collection. Or uncorking a bottle of Wine for Dummies wine.
Think we’re joking? If only.
These are just a handful of 2013’s long list of brand extensions—new products created by well-known brands, usually outside their home category. When the extension works (like, say, last year’s debut of the Google Wallet), it is because it has three things going for it, according to brand-extension agency Parham | Santana: It’s a logical fit with the parent brand; it increases the brand’s competitive advantage by allowing it to excel in a new category; and, of course, it generates sales. But when the brand extension doesn’t make sense (Zippo perfume, anyone?), it leaves you wondering if the intern’s been left in charge of the R&D department.
Of course, sense and sensibility are public tastes—and that’s where you come in. Help us out by picking what you think are 2013’s best and worst brand extensions, from the list below. We’ll publish the results in our Jan. 20 issue.
Season’s greetings, and happy voting.
