This document discusses brand migration and collaborations. It begins by describing how a discussion about a beer-infused beauty product line led the author to notice many brands extending into new areas. It then examines what makes for a successful brand migration, such as maintaining a meaningful fit with the brand's core identity and offering real benefits to customers. The document provides examples of both successful and unsuccessful brand migrations. It also discusses different types of brand migrations and considers when collaborations between brands can be beneficial.

1. O P E N EY E
S T R E T C H
No. 27 | June 2016
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2. As with many good things in life, it started with a beer.
More specifically, it started last summer with a
discussion about the launch of Beer Beauty, a range
of Carlsberg beer-infused personal care products for
men, followed up by the brand’s Beer’d Beauty male
facial grooming range.
Would we buy it? Did we like it? Would it work? If not,
why not? Even if beer is full of Vitamin B and silicium,
both commonly found as actives in beauty products,
do we believe it? Did it make sense?
And then we noticed Beer Beauty was just one in a
stream of new products and collaborations crossing
our desks with ever greater frequency. From the
weird to the truly wonderful, brands are extending
themselves in ever more ways. If it isn’t stalwart
confectionery brand Kit Kat partnering with
YouTube and Google in a series of technology/
chocolate mashups, it's Ferrari Land Europe, and let’s
not get started on the Kardashian/Jenner clan output…
With ever more products, services, collaborations,
and ranges on virtual and actual shelves, what does it
take to meaningfully extend your brand in a connected,
omnichannel world? How can brands do it? And why
would they want to?
Beyond that, just what does it take to be a truly
stretchy brand? What brands can leap over their
product line and category to transform themselves
into something else entirely?
Join us for a look over the horizon...
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F O R
E - W
O R D

3. C H A P T E R 0 1
Businesses love to grow. Whether corporate giant
or individual entrepreneur, it’s natural to want to take
products or services on a journey. The journey often
involves venturing into new geographies, or exploring
horizontal and vertical line extension (think different
product varieties, or travelling up and down the
premium/mass product offer). But increasingly,
the journey is about migrating the brand into
a different category entirely.
DO BRANDS TRAVEL WELL?
MIGRATION

4. Done well, migration is excellent business sense.
When a brand has already done the work to be recognised
as a meaningful and bankable asset, it’s easier, quicker,
and – critically – cheaper to grow via extension. Distribution
is simpler as existing retailer relationships can be leveraged,
there’s less need to raise consumer awareness, and
consumer trust in the original brand reduces risk aversion
to trying something new. Extending a brand still takes
work, but building an entirely new one is always harder.
As a result, the vast majority of ‘new’ products launched
every year are actually a form of extension rather than
‘new manufacturer’ or ‘new brands’. Nielsen estimates
that extensions are around three to four times more
common than the other two combined.1
The same survey
found that 59% of global respondents preferred to buy new
products from familiar brands. Brand recognition was the
top reason for purchasing a new product in Latin America
“Even if it fits and your
brand theoretically
enables you to do it,
migration still has
to offer a meaningful
benefit to the customer.”
and, after novelty, equal second with affordability in
the USA. This, together with the fact that between
40-50% of all new products fail (although some estimates
put it as high as 80%!)2
, choosing the path of least
resistance is understandably tempting!
Given the potential upside, why wouldn’t brands want
to migrate? The answer, perhaps, lies in the myriad
extension failures that haunt (former) marketing
executives’ nightmares. There’s a good chance it will
fail and possibly damage the core brand in the process.
Some of the worst brand extensions seem so obviously
wrong that it’s hard to see how they even got off the
ground: Cosmopolitan Yogurt, Colgate frozen ready
meals, Bic disposable underwear, Tango Shower Gel,
McDonald’s McPizza (and hotels for that matter!),
Cheetos Lip Balm, Harley Davidson Fragrance, Levis
formal suits, Virgin Brides…
What’s clear from these examples is the failure to ask some
simple, but deeply important questions before starting.
What’s the fit like for a possible migration?
Does it make logical sense?
At its heart, this is about knowing what business
you’re in, and what your brand is actually known for
by the consumer, the retailer, and the wider world.
It’s not about what you think. Whether it’s a long-held
proposition or something that needs to be uncovered by
market research, understanding the elemental truths about
your brand is a must.
It seems simple, but so many brands are utterly
mistaken about this. Chewits – a leading UK brand
of highly flavoured, chewy sweets – brought out a range
of liquid hand soap. The brand’s proposition may well
have associations with flavour and fragrance, but at its
heart Chewits is all about chewiness and taste: who on
earth would want to eat soap?
Does the brand migration offer meaningful benefit
to the customer?
Even if it fits and your brand theoretically enables you to
do it, migration still has to offer a meaningful benefit to the
customer. Research shows that ‘me-too’ products seldom
1 | NIELSEN GLOBAL NEW PRODUCT INNOVATION SURVEY, Q1 2015
2 | MYTHS ABOUT NEW PRODUCT FAILURE RATES: GEORGE CASTELLION, STEPHEN K.
MARKHAM, NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY, 2013
MIGRATION
04
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succeed, regardless of how they are branded. There has to
be an offering over and above the brand fit. Heinz Cleaning
Vinegar is a case in point. At first glance, it seems great:
quality, reliability, and in line with its place in the kitchens
of the world. But cleaning vinegar is a budget conscious,
eco-friendly solution to cleaning needs. Consumers simply
don’t need an expensive branded solution when they can
get the same result from normal (and cheaper) vinegar.
It’s migration to a cold, barren wasteland.
What does the migration bring to the party in the
long term? Does it actually provide a meaningful
business prospect? Will it open up new roads or
does it lead to a cul-de-sac?
Ze Frank, a leading digital/cultural entrepreneur in the
USA, summed up brand as “the emotional aftertaste of
a series of experiences.” In the case of migration, spreading
a brand into too many places at once can certainly dilute
the taste. This is most immediately evident for designer
and celebrity brands. Burberry’s disastrous forays into
branded goods in the early noughties took the better part
of a decade from which to rebound. It confused customers
and it cast negative downmarket associations on to what
had previously been an exclusive, refined brand.
The direction of travel also matters. A bath smoothie
or fruity facemask route could be entirely possible for
fruit drink brand Innocent in terms of fit and offer. But
in business terms, it would be moving into the highly
competitive and complex beauty market. And this might
prevent the brand from a future entry into the lucrative
and growing area of wellness products.
The migration location matters too. It’s a global world, but
local appetites differ. Germ-killing brand Dettol successfully
offers body and face wipes in the Indian Subcontinent,
but this is a step too far for the UK market. The underlying
cultural norms of how a product is used and how it is
perceived can be the difference between success and failure.
It may well be cheaper, but migration needs as much
strategic consideration, if not more, as that of an
entirely new product. Not such a simple journey
after all.

5. MIGRATION
05
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Migration can take many forms, categorised as early as
1979 by Ed Tauber, legendary professor of marketing1
.
A similar product in a different form from
the original, such as Mars ice cream bars.
These are brand extensions that are the
natural companion to the original product.
Doritos tortilla chips and salsa. Gillette
razors and shaving foam.
Selling complimentary products to a nicely
targeted customer base. Saga started with
hotels for retired people and is now a
behemoth of insurance, travel, retirement
homes, magazine publishing, and
healthcare provision for the over 50s.
Designer brands lead the way in
stretch, conveying a certain lifestyle,
image, and status. Furniture, jewellery,
perfume, cosmetics, glasses, cars, fashion
– almost anything is theoretically possible
if it’s in line with the designer’s underlying
brand ethos.
From the humble acorn of Elizabeth
Taylor’s first celebrity fragrance has
sprung the mighty oak of celebrity brands
– Dr Dre Beats, George Foreman grills,
everything Kardashian, Brand Beckham,
Elle MacPherson, Jamie Oliver. The sky
(or nadir) certainly seems to be the limit.
When brands created in one channel
move to a completely different one. made.
com and Amazon now have actual ‘bricks
& mortar’ stores, and online shopping
portals like Net-a-porter have magazines.
It could be tea, it could be peanut butter
– a brand that credibly ‘owns’ something
can take it into entirely new categories.
Think Dairy Milk desserts, biscuits, drinks,
and otherwise, ditto Reese’s Peanut Butter
and Lurpak butter.
If a brand really owns a particular benefit
or attribute, it can be migrated. Dettol
has gone from a germ-killing cleaning
product into laundry care, personal care,
and health. In the USA, Arm & Hammer’s
‘freshening’ attribute has taken it from a
baking product to smell-repellent cat litter,
laundry care, toothpaste, and beyond.
BENEFIT/ATTRIBUTE
EXPERTISE
FORMAT
COMPANION
DISTINCTIVE FLAVOUR/
INGREDIENT/COMPONENT
DESIGNER
CUSTOMER BASE
CELEBRITY
Plus two new categories
from the original list
CHANNEL HOPPING
When brands gain a reputation for a
particular technical expertise in a given
area, it can be migrated into a different area
where it’s useful. Examples include Dyson’s
march across consumer durables, Nike’s
sprint into sport tech and Uber’s race into
anything involving door-to-door delivery.
1 | EDWARD M. TAUBER, 1979, NEW BRAND BENEFITS FROM EXISTING BRAND NAMES

6. Absolutely
Herbal tea upstart Pukka has upset the (organic)
applecart once again, with the launch of Pukka Organic
Supplements. Famous for its herbal teas that actually
taste of something, Pukka looks set to transfer the
deliverability factor into wellbeing.
MIGRATION
06
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7. MIGRATION
07
TASTE THE BURN
Having already channel hopped from magazine into
the consumer health business with the 2015 launch
of Men’s Health Lab Supplements, the brand continues
its journey with Men’s Health Kitchen, a range of high-
protein frozen ready meals. Featuring recipes like Beef
& Kale Hotpot with Sweet Potato, and King Prawn &
Pomegranate with Persian Rice, the range is described
as “the perfect, wholesome way for men to get a daily
protein fix, help keep weight in check, and maintain
energy levels.” If the meals actually taste good, they
might be onto something.
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8. MIGRATION
08
TOURS OF THE TIMES
The New York Times isn’t a brand you’d expect to
channel hop into the luxury travel business. But its
Times Journeys venture is gaining plaudits. Very closely
aligned with the core brand proposition of gathering
and sharing news across every possible channel,
Times Journeys provides tours to locations linked
to the paper’s news content such as Cuba, Colombia,
and Iran. Travellers are joined by a journalist or
other experts including Pulitzer Prize winners.
A JEWEL OF A HOTEL
While some designers have ventured into interior
design for hotels, luxury brand Bulgari is making
a mark with its own hotels – with three hotels
in Milan, London, and Bali, and three more planned
for Shanghai, Beijing, and Dubai in 2017. Key to
the apparent success of the venture (where many
have failed) is the slow pace of expansion.

9. BOUNCING NEW BABIES
In the USA, two specialty baby product brands are
branching out. Retailer giggle has a Lotions & Potions
line that covers several categories including bubble
bath, sunscreen, insect repellent, baby bottle steriliser,
toy & high chair cleaner, and room & linen spray.
Baby products maker Boppy – most famous for
its breastfeeding pillows – has launched Boppy Bloom
Skincare Collection, with specially formulated products
for expectant and breastfeeding mothers.
TISSUE THIN OPPORTUNITY?
Kleenex has moved into the beauty category with
its Kleenex Facial Cleansing line. Leveraging its
undisputed knowledge of gentle fabrics for your face,
the range of five products includes dual-sided water-
activated Exfoliating Cushions, Moist Facial Cleansing
Wipes, Cotton Soft Pads, Moist Eye Makeup Removers,
and oil blotting Shine Away Sheets. Currently only
available online, time will tell whether the fabric
benefit and ‘pro-vitamin complex’ give it strong
enough relevance and differentiation in this
ferociously competitive category.
MIGRATION
09

10. MIGRATION
10
ALL IN THE BEST POSSIBLE TASTE
Roberto Cavalli has jumped into food and beverage
in a big way. His Cavalli Cafés are currently marching
across the Middle East, while his recent range
of luxurious, stylised chocolates are a meaningful
addition to the Cavalli aesthetic and product stable.
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11. MIGRATION
11
SMART FASHION
Unlike many tech companies, Samsung is going it
alone with its own fashion division for wearable tech.
Along with the expected fitness oriented workout kits,
there’s Welt, an apparently simple and stylish leather
belt which keeps track of the wearer’s waistline and
physical activity levels over time. There’s also Sol,
a fashion-forward clutch bag that uses geometric
solar panels to charge the wearer’s gadgets.
PHONE LACKING FIZZ
Smartphones are not the most obvious brand extension
for a soft drink maker, and the Pepsi Phone P1 (available
in China) certainly doesn’t seem to sparkle. The phone
has a Pepsi logo on the back and the wallpaper and
bespoke icons use cues from Pepsi’s brand identity.
The jury is firmly out on whether this can make
a splash in the smartphone market.
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12. MIGRATION
12
Many designers have tried to launch beauty lines, and success is
by no means guaranteed (Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci makeup have
fizzled). Christian Louboutin Beauté, by contrast, is a brilliant migration
of the brand’s DNA into cosmetics. The story of the famous scarlet
Louboutin shoe soles is that he spontaneously grabbed a nail polish from
his assistant and painted the prototype, becoming his signature shade.
His nail polish range launch spoke of “giving back to nails what the shoe
took many years ago”. The bottles are topped with a spiked high heel lid
the exact same height as his iconic Ballerina Ultima shoes. His second
range of lipsticks, inspired by everything from Babylonian architecture
to Art Deco to Middle Eastern antiquities, is also designed to be worn as
jewellery. It’s all outlandishly impractical, but utterly desirable. A perfect
journey for a shoe brand that’s displayed in a case as often as it’s actually
worn on the feet!
HEELS
NAILS
NAILS
from
again
to
to
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13. MIGRATION
13
THE CAR IS (NOT?) THE STAR
Fragrance is often the first destination for brands when they
start exploring their stretch options. But it’s also one of the rockiest
roads travelled. Often cheaply franchised (even for luxury marques)
and relatively low priced, the risk is that the fragrance won’t add any
cachet to the brand. Mercedes went down a different path in late 2015.
Its VIP Club Collection of five fine fragrances was created by some
of today’s top perfumers including Olivier Cresp and Alberto Morillas.
Whether the quality of the perfumes can overcome (or support) the
connotations of solid, disciplined German motoring is yet to be decided…
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14. ARE TWO BRANDS BETTER THAN ONE?
C H A P T E R 0 2
If you can’t do it on your own, do it with someone
else – a mantra that can apply to so many things in
life. Collaborations are not new. In the 1930s, Salvador
Dali and Elsa Schiaparelli’s exceptional fashion/
art crossover resulted in the iconic shoe hat and
Lobster Dress. Van Cleef & Arpels famously created
a bejeweled dashboard for the mid-century Renault
Dauphine. Marriages between two or more brands
have proliferated since the 1990s – sometimes called
co-branding. It’s now part of the branding landscape
and virtually every industry is in on the act: cosmetics,
hotels, fashion, household products, and even tractors
(more on this later). Vogue now has a website page
solely dedicated to the latest fashion collaborations.
MARRIAGE

15. Just like Migration, the ultimate aim of brand Marriage
is to increase the brand value and revenues of all those
involved. Hopefully it creates something greater than
the sum of its parts. And in the process, they deliver
new product innovation or meaningful benefits to
today’s unreasonable consumers, who want everything
they consume to be value-added and personalised.
Marriages offer a way for brands to extend without
having to do everything themselves. In practice,
however, collaborations range from the magical
to the wholly functional.
MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE
Not all marriages are based on romance. Ingredient
co-branding is a case in point. With a philosophy that
one plus one is greater than two, these marriages are
everywhere: Walkers Crisps and Marmite, Bird’s Eye
Reggae Reggae Sauce Chicken Chargrills, Tabasco Jelly
Belly Beans. Or in household products, there’s Bold 2in1
with Lenor, and Dawn plus Cascade. Often owned by
the same parent company, these collaborations aim to
combine the benefits of two brands to gain market share
and steal sales from competitors. They’re not going to set
anyone’s world on fire, but they provide a reassuringly
warm halo effect.
Another loveless marriage is Expertise co-branding.
This is all about bringing together the technical strength
brands have in different domains: Apple and IBM, Intel
and everyone, Google and Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus,
Phillips Senseo and Douwe Egberts, Spotify and Uber.
It’s not that the companies couldn’t do it on their own,
but rather that the marriage is easier for both parties.
Ideally the brand values and stories should be aligned,
but at its heart this type of relationship is driven by
technical ability to deliver functional benefits to consumers.
OPPOSITES ATTRACT
This is about brands lending characteristics to each other
that they don’t or can’t have, in order to reach audiences
that they are incapable of reaching on their own. The
most obvious is Celebrity co-branding: Rihanna and
Puma, Tefal and Jamie Oliver, MAC and anyone deemed
even a little ‘quirky’. Fairly staid brands or those with a
different target audience can immediately use the brand
equity of established celebrities to further their sales on a
culturally relevant basis. The best relationships can result
in long-term brand value for both – think Michael Jordan
and Nike. The worst is when the celebrity’s personal antics
(or sheer overexposure) actively damage the corporate
brand, particularly with the ubiquity of social media.
Understanding the objectives and rules of engagement
up front is vital.
MARRIAGE
15
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One of the most newsworthy marriage of opposites
is Design co-branding, when an individual design brand,
usually niche or luxury, lends itself to a more mainstream
partner. H&M, Target, Uniqlo, Puma, Adidas, and
Topshop are all famous for their partnerships with famous
designers such as Karl Lagerfield, Alexander McQueen,
and Missoni. Success rests on the delicious mismatch
between the partners. The mainstream brand benefits
through attention from press and consumers, combined
with a reinforcement of its position as forward-thinking
and delivering great style for less money. The designer
benefits from increased awareness, and the seeding
of aspirations to some day buy the real thing. However,
designers who overextend themselves with multiple
collaborations run the risk of brand dilution.
MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN
Brilliant brand collaborations almost defy categorisation.
When you see them, your only response is “but of course,
why on earth didn’t they do it before?”
The short version is that this is a match of perfect equals.
2 + 2 = 5. Or more. The brand values, aesthetics, cultures,
flavours, quality, and expertise complement each other
on multiple levels. Whatever they create together will be
truly desirable, practical, deliver something of consumer
benefit, and provide real value in the long term.
They’ll get press coverage and a consumer buzz,
but more importantly, they also have the chance to
keep the cachet long after it’s dropped off newsfeeds.
In the mass market, think of Gordon’s Gin and
Schweppes tonic in a can. And in luxury, Breitling
and Bentley are now in a 13-year marriage that brings
together timekeeping and speed in ever more creative
and outlandish guises (air display teams anyone?).
Embedded in both is a great brand idea that is
unlocked by collaboration.
“Marriages offer a way
for brands to extend
without having to do
everything themselves.
In practice, however,
collaborations range
from the magical to
the wholly functional.”

16. Petrolheads are quivering in anticipation following the
announcement of an Aston Martin Red Bull hypercar,
codenamed Project ‘AM-RB 001’. Bringing together
Aston’s exquisite engineering style and craftsmanship
and Red Bull’s pace, modernity, and fearlessness,
the car is designed to be “the ultimate fusion of art
and technology.” We can’t wait.
MARRIAGE
16
M O R E T H A N J U S T H Y P E
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17. VISIONARY PAIR
Fashion house Maison Margiela and eyewear company
MYKITA share a similar approach to creative design: edgy,
radical reinterpretation of form and materials, and a love
of the conceptual. Launched in 2014, the MYKITA + Maison
Margiela collaboration is testament to their perfect fit,
winning design plaudits aplenty. The Spring 2016
collection is its most notable one yet.
SAILING AWAY TOGETHER
There’s likely to be significant overlap between super
car enthusiasts and yacht aficionados. But with specific
technical expertise needed for each, it’s a huge stretch
to imagine brands jumping categories to any great success.
Enter two hotly anticipated new collaborations for 2016/17 –
Bugatti with Palmer Johnson’s Niniette, and Aston Martin
with Quintessence Yachts’s AM37.
MARRIAGE
17
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18. MARRIAGE
18
APPLE GROWS INTO LUXURY
Although Apple is a premium player in the tech market, traditional luxury
is not in its brand DNA. Enter Hermès, the epitome of analogue style. The
first Apple Watch collaboration between the two brands had a handcrafted
leather strap and a Hermès watch face which was then reinterpreted by
Apple designers. It’s been so successful that the range is expanding.
MASTER COLLABORATORS
It’s more a question of who hasn’t Adidas collaborated with. But two stand
out because they both marry perfectly with Adidas’ passion to help people
live a sporting lifestyle. Adidas Stella McCartney’s sport luxe vibe has been
going strong for 12 years and recently unveiled their Team GB Rio 2016
Olympics kit. And Porsche Sport Design by Adidas has been motoring for
nine years – driven by Porsche’s ambition to translate performance into
speed and success in the most intelligent way possible.
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19. GLOOP BY GOOP
Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle and wellness website
goop generates column inches as much for hilarity
as seriousness (£155 moon dust smoothies anyone?).
But it was almost inevitable that her brand would
extend into skincare and makeup. In this two-way
collaboration launched in Spring 2016, Gwyneth was
announced as Juice Beauty’s Creative Director, Makeup.
And goop by Juice Beauty is a new addition to the ultra
premium end of the organic skincare market – no doubt
a must-have for the Primrose Hill mums.
LAUNDRY TURNS LUXURY
While several brands of fabric conditioners offer
premium ranges, The Laundress’ luxury home and
fabric cleaning range is on a different level entirely.
But add niche fragrance house Le Labo into the mix
and you get something truly special. Le Labo Rose 31
& The Laundress Signature Detergent is the ultimate
laundry product for serious frag hags.
MARRIAGE
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20. MARRIAGE
20
NAILED IT
Nail companies are not the first brands you might
think of as natural collaborators, but OPI and Essie are
both stretching in two very different ways. Coca-Cola’s
distinctive red colour is as much a part of the brand as
is its iconic shaped bottle and handwritten font. OPI
and Coke’s fantastic co-brand, initially a limited edition,
has developed into a full range of Coke-palette colours,
and continues to go from strength to strength.
By contrast, Essie plays directly in fashion with its
collaboration with accessory and fashion designer
Rebecca Minkoff, who has been the brand’s Global
Color Designer since 2015. Rebecca marries each
season’s Essie colour palette with her catwalk
collections, allowing her legion of Instagrammers to
crowdsource nail designs that appear in her shows.
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21. MARRIAGE
21
IN PERFECT COLOUR
A cosmetic marriage that truly inspires and delights is the
Sephora+PANTONE UNIVERSE™ collaboration, going from strength
to strength since 2011. With Sephora as the home of all colour makeup
and Pantone as the ultimate arbiter of colour, we fully expect to see
these guys celebrating their anniversary for years to come.

22. C H A P T E R 0 3
The ultimate nirvana of extension is a brand’s ability
to operate anywhere and however it chooses.
True brand stretch – Metamorphosis – rests on
a brand’s almost unattainable ability to personify
itself into a brand proposition that transcends
categories and channels. It’s brand as a personality
or idea, not as product. A unicorn.
IS TRUE BRAND STRETCH EVER POSSIBLE?
METAMORPHOSIS

23. Metamorphosis is almost impossible. The vast
majority of brands are grounded in a tangible product,
with brand equity and associations that mean it can
probably migrate to many places, but it’s entirely
forbidden in others. Dyson planes, quite possibly.
Dyson chocolate? No thank you.
Approaching true stretch often relies on a brand
springing from a charismatic, creative individual who
can operate almost anywhere if you believe that the
individual is truly interested in doing it. It might not
always succeed, but the permission to try is always there.
Think Richard Branson’s Virgin. In the luxury space,
Chanel can do almost anything as long as it clearly
carries the brand’s design DNA and you can imagine
Coco Chanel herself wearing it, gifting it, travelling
in it, or living in it. Walt Disney and Oprah Winfrey
are icons who passionately represent the core of the
brands they built. Even when the individual is long
gone, their personality remains a lodestone.
But if brands have so many options to Migrate and Marry,
why does Metamorphosis even matter? Why would
brands want to try? The answer lies in the rise of the
consumer as the individual. The brands they buy are the
ultimate expression of themselves. What can the brand do
for me? What does it say about me and my lifestyle?
The luxury sector has traditionally centred on the
individual in this way, where the cachet of exclusivity
transcends the functional. But consumers now want
to experience brands, not just buy them. 78% of
millennials prefer to buy experiences rather than
‘things’. And it’s not just confined to this demographic.
Experience in a connected world means an omnichannel
experience. Consumers connect with brands in so many
ways. They wear them, they talk to them, they listen to
them, they watch them, they read about them, they go to
organised events about them. 3D brands are dead, brands
need to be in 4D. ‘Inanimate and bought’
METAMORPHOSIS
23
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has become ‘alive and bought into’.
Where luxury originally led the way, more and more
mainstream brands now follow. Red Bull is really just five
or six SKUs of a not very tasty energy drink. But the Red
Bull brand proposition, Giving Wings to People and Ideas,
allows it to transcend its product category. Lots of people
love the brand, but actually hate the product. It’s now an
experience brand that happens to have a drink attached to it.
Other brands are entirely disrespectful of convention.
They just do what they can do because it’s useful to
people. Think Google, Airbnb, and Uber. All they do is
help consumers do interesting things and discover the
world – they’re tools for the individual.
So even if brands don’t want to stretch in category terms,
they still need to exist across many different channels.
This means creating a living brand that connects people
back to their ‘things’ on the shelf. And this means doing
things to get – and remain – seen. It’s not just about
long-term strategic revenue streams (that’s a given),
it’s also about tactical noise that feeds into a wider brand
personality. It’s about demonstrating facets of the brand
that surprise and provoke. It’s about connecting.
And so in the absence of Metamorphosis, this is why we
end up with things like Beer’d Beauty – playing with the
unicorns in the field of Limited Editions. Freed from the
necessity to be serious and provide long-term sustainable
source of revenues, Limited Editions enable brands to be
playful, be human, and take risks.
If successful, they can claim they always meant to do that
in the first place. Magic. Or a tragedy. Either way, they’ll
be talked about.
“It’s about demonstrating
facets of the brand that
surprise and provoke.
It’s about connecting.”

24. METAMORPHOSIS
24
RED HOT, ICE COLD
There’s absolutely no logical reason that a fridge
couldn’t be a work of art, but certainly it hasn’t
been. Until now. Dolce & Gabbana and SMEG
have launched a £20k+ Frigorifero d’Arte
(Refrigerator of Art) limited edition collection
of 100 hand-decorated, utterly show-stopping
pieces. More cool fridges please.
PURPOSE WITHOUT PASSION
Not all charity marriages are amorous.
Louis Vuitton and Unicef have a charitable
partnership in 2016, where $200 is donated
to the charity with each purchase of the specially
designed Lockit pendant and bracelet. The aim
of the project is laudable, but it’s hard to find any
meaningful connection between the two halves
of the collaboration – either in the jewellery design,
or a shared purpose in both organisations.
beautiful thinking

25. FEELING A BIT BLUE
Johnnie Walker is a serial brand stretcher, dabbling
with limited edition beard wax (to enhance
the whisky drinking experience) and a successful
partnership with Alfred Dunhill. Its latest collaboration
is a run of 100 limited edition Johnnie Walker Blue
tasting kit carry cases, crafted by luggage maker
Tumi. Although there’s no doubting Tumi’s ability
to make fantastic luggage, the collaboration falls
decidedly flat. Tumi’s adventurous, sports-led brand
just doesn’t mesh with an old world luxury vibe.
ALL IN THE BEST POSSIBLE TASTE
Carlsberg is not the only beer brand playing around
in extension. Lululemon, the yummy mummy yoga
wear company, paired up with its Vancouver neighbour
Stanley Park Brewing for the limited edition Curiosity
Lager. Only the marketing gods know if it’ll help
Lululemon break into the elusive menswear market.
Another beer mashup is health-touting breakfast
cereal Wheaties’ foray with Fulton craft brewery
to create limited edition HefeWheaties. Both brands
from Minneapolis? Check. Both made with wheat?
Check. Let’s just ignore all the inconsistencies…
More harmonious is the “sweet partnership to help
fight climate change” between Ben & Jerry and New
Belgium Brewing. Proceeds from their Salted Caramel
Brownie Ale ice cream and Salted Caramel Brownie
Ale benefit Protect Our Winters (POW), a snow sports
community environmental charity.
METAMORPHOSIS
25
beautiful thinking

26. METAMORPHOSIS
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MADE UP TOGETHER
Cosmetic brands have long played in limited edition,
with numerous collaborations popping up since the
late 90s. Today, seasonal limited editions allow brands
to pick and play with their brand equity. Sometimes,
just sometimes, this becomes something wonderful.
Kiko and industrial designer/artist Ross Lovegrove
have created makeup as luxury art in the Spring/
Summer 2016 Wanderlust Collection. Courrèges
introduced some modern playfulness into the often-
staid Estée Lauder vibe. We can only imagine what the
Victoria Beckham Estée Lauder limited collection and
Biotherm Homme x David Beckham men’s grooming
range will look like when they launch in late 2016 and
early 2017 – if anyone has metamorphosed their brand,
then Posh and Becks is it!
beautiful thinking

27. Take two Italian design icons – Vespa and Emporio
Armani – and two notable anniversaries (Vespa’s
parent company Piaggio’s 130th and Armani’s 40th)
and you get the Vespa 946 Emporio Armani: a nod
to 1946, the year the Vespa was first launched.
Designed with a special paint finish to look its
best in sunlight and luxury accessories to boot,
this limited edition is a true bella figura.
An official Manchester United x Yanmar tractor.
Need we say more? Thankfully it’s limited
edition. Let’s never mention it again.
METAMORPHOSIS
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VEHICLETOSUCCESS

28. METAMORPHOSIS
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FAST FOOD HEAVEN...
Stretching brand extension to its extreme outer limits is Burger King’s
latest venture in Helsinki, Finland: the Fast Food Sauna. The 15-person
sauna, which costs €250 to rent for three hours, has striking Burger
King branding and guests can order their burgers and fries on arrival
to be delivered while steaming. Add to that a shower room, locker
room, and a media lounge complete with a 55” TV, PlayStation 4, and
sound system and it’s apparently a perfect venue for birthday parties
and work events. Odd you might think at first, but saunas in Finland
are frequently taken as part of business and social culture. The downside?
Potentially very soggy buns indeed.
...OR HELL?
Chicken-flavoured nails? Hard to believe, yet Kentucky Fried Chicken has
launched a savoury flavoured nail polish with a choice of Original Recipe
(classic nude) and Hot & Spicy (chilli red), both with little coloured glitter
specks of spice. The social media-led teaser campaign, based out of Hong
Kong, will actually result in KFC fans voting for their favourite colour/flavour
combo to go into actual commercial production. Speechless.
beautiful thinking

29. METAMORPHOSIS
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beautiful thinking
It’s almost impossible, but personality-led brands
can do it. Celebrity fashion, accessories and beauty
is now commonplace, but some are truly
transforming themselves.
SWEEEEET
It was almost inevitable – rapper Snoop Dogg has
come out with Leafs by Snoop, a range of cannabis
flowers, concentrates, and edibles including chocolate
bars and gummies (Dogg Treats). It’s epically credible
and very beautiful. The elegant packaging features
sleek lines, bold shapes, vibrant colours and a
distinctive logo, but Snoop’s personality rings
through and true, incorporating some of his
trademark slogans like “wake and bake”.
WILL.I.AM CAN
While other musicians dabble in brand marriages,
music supremo Will.i.am continues to go it alone,
transforming himself into technology giant. In a first
for wearable tech, his latest voice-activated smartwatch
Dial runs on a bespoke operating system called AneedA
(produced by his own tech company i.am+). It has
its own built-in 4G and SIM card, so doesn't need
to be synced to another phone or device. Dial also
has a two-megapixel front-facing camera, can make
and receive calls, send emails and texts, play music,
and also allows users to track their fitness. Nifty.
HOLYSMOKING
UNICORNS

30. Innovation has been a buzzword for at least the last decade, so it’s
no surprise that brands seek ever more novel ways to extend their
offers, grow their audiences, and increase awareness. But as we’ve seen,
‘stretch’ is defined by as many failures as successes. As brand designers,
we’re here to guide and help brands on the journeys they need – or wish
– to undertake, whether within their own categories or elsewhere entirely.
We deeply understand the strategic context and challenges faced
by brands, so we can uncover unifying ideas that help them realise
their full potential. And then we express those ideas through beautiful
design and compelling communications.
We would love to hear what you think
of our latest Open Eye.
Call Steve Gibbons on +44 (0)20 7689 8999
or e-mail steve@dewgibbons.com
Open more eyes and share with:
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THANK YOU