Today I will be discussing brand extension. This is a term used to describe a spin-off of any given brand by the company that manufactures it in order to expand their repertoire of products and therefore make more money! By spin-off I don't mean the Joey spin-off that followed Friends and for some reason was picked up for a second season, but more so in terms of products, such as Coca-Cola and Coke Zero.
When I think of brand extension, I naturally thought of Coca-Cola because of how many different new brands they have come up with. At the moment, there is the original product, Caffeine-Free Coke, Cherry Coke, "New Coke", Lemon Coke, Vanilla Coke, Low-Carb Coke, Lime Coke, Raspberry Coke, Coke Zero, Coke Black Cherry Vanilla, Coke Blak (coffee-flavoured), Blood Orange Coke and good old Orange Coke.
That's quite a mouthful.
Judging by how many brand extensions Coca-Cola has come up with and how many of them have gone on to have a lasting impact on the market, I'd say Coke hasn't done so well. The problem is that you can't take a flavour that's so unique on its own like Coke and mix it with a random fruit flavour in hopes that it will be "exotic". Coke should just stick to what it's good at and focus their marketing efforts on regular old Coke. Going a step further, they should even spend more on the diet versions of Coca-Cola, but find a way to make their product calorie-free without using cancer-inducing aspartame. Then they would strike a gold-mine. I might even consider drinking it.
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