Artificial Limits of Brand Extensions

Brand Extension has been one of the buzzing advisory space and as i read a neatly written post by Jennifer Rice on How far a Brand can Stretch, i was wondering if the limits we put to a brand are in any way real. I for one believe that every brand name can carry anything under it and it is only limited by its competence. There are no external limits to a brand in terms of consumer perceptions, which are absolutely and continuously capable of changing.
It may sound a little brash and provocative, so let me share where i am coming from. When i look at an Apple moving from category to category, or large conglomerate brands like the TATAs or a GE, i fail to see why a brand cannot cut across many unrelated categories.
My submission is that a brand extension assumes a certain easy-way-out by doing a me-to or a sub-optimal offering, which is aimed at purely riding on the strength of the existing equity of the brand built through the good work done in another category. It is actually a lazy marketer's answer to growth.
A brand really keen to enhance its reputation will focus on bringing something dramatically new to the new category and by doing that will not only succeed in the new initiative but also enhance the overall equity of the brand. Who would have suggested Apple expand into MP3 players?
After all, if brands are like humans, the argument can go towards their limitless potential in extending and expanding themselves. I have seen many individuals building successful reputations in more than one unrelated areas of life and being celebrated rather than questioned for it...
As the Company Brand paradigm takes hold, this question of what is the extendable limit of a brand is going to come under increasing pressure to prove itself innocent.

Brand Buildup!

The frenzy around the recent launches of the iPhone and Harry Potter book provide exciting ossibilities for brands. Personally, at one level, i cannot fathom what makes people queue up three days in advance to buy their piece of the phone or the book, but to each his own. I've queued up outside my son's school at 4am to get the admission form, waited in a stampedesque queue for 4 hours at Tirupati...

However, both iPhone and Harry Potter are aimed at the elite and if people at that level in the society can put themselves through so much to get their hands on the brand, it says something about the sources of personal identity.

It completely alters the hierarchy in the consumer-brand relationship--as marketers we are trained to earn our consumers but when the consumer has to earn the brand, one can only gape at the power of these ingenious marketers!