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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - You're familiar with Jeep, of course. You've seen the brand on off-road vehicles like the small Wrangler and soon you'll be seeing it on the big three-row Jeep Commander.
You've also seen it on baby strollers with big, knobby tires. You may have seen it on boxy-looking radios and on outdoor flashlights and duffel bags, portable DVD players and wheelbarrows.
Almost all car brands offer items on their Web sites and at dealerships for sale to loyal customers. You can buy hats, t-shirts, little model cars and watches emblazoned with just about any car brand.
Dodge, corporate kin to Jeep, goes so far as to sell Ram Tough salt and pepper shakers on its Web site.
A few car brands with real cachet have branched out into broader consumer goods. Cadillac recently licensed its brand for a bicycle. The Hummer name adorns an off-road bike and a line of men's fragrances.
But no brand, it seems, does more than Jeep.
Jeep-brand baby strollers are among the best-selling strollers on the market. The Jeep Liberty Limited Urban Terrain Stroller has three big air-filled tires, a stereo system and a steering wheel so your little one can pretend to drive. The Wrangler is a foldable umbrella stroller.
The brand is also on play-yards -- what used to be known as playpens -- and baby carriers.
Jeep luggage is available at major department stores. The Jeep wheelbarrow, which the company claims is the first with disc brakes, is sold at hardware stores.
"They've probably got the broadest line of merchandise of any of the auto brands," said Charles Riotto, president of LIMA, the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers Association.
What makes this work for Jeep -- and the reason that Ford and Toyota don't have strollers and wheelbarrows on the market -- is that Jeep is an unusual brand.
Other car brands have long histories of making just one type of car, giving them a strong, simple brand image. Ferrari is known for sports cars. Rolls Royce is known for super-expensive luxury cars. Land Rover, like Jeep, has a reputation for off-road prowess.
But there's an important difference between those brands and Jeep.
"The other car brands that do have a powerful image are all at the high end, " said Laura Reis, president of marketing strategy consultants Reis & Reis and co-author of the book "The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding."
So, while Mercedes-Benz and Volvo may have a few items with their brand on them, fear of "cheapening" the brand probably prevents them from lending their brands to many different types of products. Jeep, on the other hand , can go onto any sort of product that could conceivably go -- or be carried -- off-road.
A Chrysler executive insists all this isn't just about the money.
"The money is good but it pales in comparison to the money we make selling the automobiles," said Jeff Bell, DaimlerChrysler's vice president in charge of the Chrysler Group.
The idea behind doing all this, he said, is to reinforce the "Jeep lifestyle."
That means the company has to be careful about what it gets into. Not only must products fit the brand image, they must be safe and had better not break too easily.
For the Jeep baby carrier, the company worried that babies might fall out if parents didn't use it correctly. Dropping babies is not something Jeep wanted to be associated with.
"It took us a year to get the snap system 100 percent fine," said Deborah Joester, president of the Joester Loria Group, the company that handles licensed products for Jeep.
The Jeep baby carrier now has a snap that changes color when properly closed.
Of course, there is a risk for Jeep in all of this "brand extension." If the licensed products get too popular, the motor vehicle brand may start to lose its meaning.
"When you say 'I just bought a Jeep,' do you mean a car or a stroller?" said Reis, the branding consultant.
Jeep has made at least one real misstep in its branding business, DaimlerChrysler vice president Bell admits. The wheelbarrow. Its all-work, no-play image just doesn't fit for Jeep.
"I would love to have killed it if it hadn't been successful," he said.
But sales are too brisk to stop now.
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