Brand extensions for Aquafina and Carefree

+ Who would have thought the next logical step for brand expansion for bottled water would be foaming cleanser, a clarifying toner and a facial scrub. In a way, I'd be less surprised if it came from Evian or some other high-priced water. But this is Aquafina, a Pepsi-Co. product, which makes it more odd, IMHO.

"It's a leap and a half from the core product, but there is definitely a connection," said Charles Riotto, president at International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Assn., New York. "People associate Aquafina with purity, which is the type of thing consumers would look for in facial cleansers."

The move helps extend the Aquafina brand name from the beverage aisle to the cosmetics aisle, Riotto affirmed. "Plus the brand name will now pop up in other places of the house. One of the main benefits of licensing is to build more awareness for the brand, not to mention the royalties from the revenue stream."

Another brand that recently extended its product line is Carefree. Known for ages for making pantyliners, they have now jumped into the hair removal fray. Since this the season for breaking out the shorts, I have been paying more attention to the hair removal spots of late. And yesterday I saw a commercial for the Carefree product. At first I thought it was odd, but perhaps they just happened to have the same name. Today I was at the market for weekly provisions and decided to look at the packaging. It's the same pink flower deal as on their pantyliner products.

But what is more odd is that either my google-fu is way off or their site for the hair removal line doesn't exist yet. Perhaps some genius decided to build it all out in flash so that no search engine could find it. But even still. I couldn't even find any press releases on it either or anything at all on the Johnson & Johnson site (the parent co). Granted I only spent a few minutes searching, but, you'd think product extension would warrant some chest thumping. *shrug* At least the packaging for the hair removal stuff is less pink than their other pantyliner packaging. You know, because pink=girls/women. Ugh.