Normally, we think of people as being experts, but brands can fall into that category, too. And, no, I’m not just talking about Encyclopedia Britannica, Jeopardy! and The New York Times. You don’t have to be a know-it-all smarty-pants to qualify as an expert brand. Here’s the simple test: Your brand is an expert if consumers look to it for trusted knowledge about a specific topic.

A brand might be an expert at just about anything: cooking, fitness, money, health, beauty or travel. It just takes a deep, trusted knowledge about a specific topic to qualify for expert status. So why does all this matter? Being an expert gives your brand an edge. It’s a surefire way to launch successful brand extensions—new products under the same brand name in different categories.

There’s a simple principle at work here: An expert brands succeeds in just about any product category where consumers value that brand’s special knowledge. Starbucks tapped into its coffee expertise to launch the Starbucks Verismo coffee brewer. The America Red Cross leveraged its knowledge of emergencies to sell first aid kits. And Gold’s Gym drew on its fitness expertise to move into at-home fitness equipment.

But the smartest expert brands don’t stop at one new category. The Food Network is synonymous with great cooking. So my agency helped them launch a line of cookware, utensils, kitchen textiles and other cooking products at Kohl’s. Today Food Network is dreaming even bigger. The brand just launched its first Food Network Kitchen restaurant at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in South Florida. This venture taps into the same special expertise for a totally different business opportunity.

Other expert brands might take you by surprise. Miss Universe, for example, is an expert in confident beauty. And this fact is taking the organization from the stage to shore shelves. The iconic pageant brand just announced plans to launch a new scent collection, and it will feature one perfume each based on the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants. And we’re excited to see where the brand hangs its crown next.

So what is your brand’s special expertise? And where can it take you?