Consumer product companies across a variety of industries are increasingly teaming up brands, combining two familiar names into one, in order to market new products. Specialty coffee retailer Starbucks Corp. and chocolate maker Hershey Co. have joined forces to develop new confections. Tide detergent with Downy fabric softener or Lever soap with Vaseline lotion. Procter & Gamble Co. started offering Puffs facial tissues with the scent of Vicks mentholated ointment.

"It's really a product we're uniquely positioned to offer," said Matt Griffith, a P&G associate brand manager for Puffs. The combination of Vicks and Puffs adds Vicks' "iconic scent" to the competitive facial tissue category, he said.

P&G, the world's largest consumer products company, has been broadening its lineup over the last couple of years with such brand blends as Olay skin care added to CoverGirl makeup and Secret deodorant products, Febreze scent freshener and Downy to Tide laundry detergents, and Scope mouthwash into Crest toothpaste. Other companies also have been doubling up brands to make new products.

"It's kind of one-plus-one equals three," said Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys Inc., a New York-based customer research marketing firm. "They're taking two brands to make something that differentiates, that supercharges, the brand."

(Source: Ohio.com)