Tide laundry detergent maintains the same market share it had 50 years ago because of the sales contributions from its various line extensions. It can be said that Tide employs a preemptive cannibalization strategy in generating line extensions

What does this mean?

When there is a threat of losing consumers to a competing brand, companies sometimes opt for preemptive cannibalization. This causes consumers to switch between the same brand's products, preventing loss of customers. Even though Tide's various line extensions may cannibalize sales of its other products, if the extensions had not been introduced, then customers would have defected to another brand offering the same type of extension. In this way, Tide has maintained its market share through preemptive cannibalization.