In the early 1990s, officials at the vaunted bleach company were mulling a variety of seemingly logical directions for expansion—from carpet cleaner to laundry detergent—but they were repeatedly rebuffed by focus groups large and small. The reason is obvious … as soon as you read about it. While the Clorox brand equates to cleanliness, there is such a thing as too clean: Consumers fretted that a Clorox cleaning product might take the colors right out of clothes and carpets. The solution, then, was to play to those concerns. If Clorox was powerful enough to take the blue out of blue jeans, any brand extensions should leverage that kind of unwieldy cleaning power. Thus was born of very successful line of disinfectants and household cleaners. Brand extension magic!