Could diversification lead to consumer confusion between your own products?

The State of Illinois has passed an emergency rule which prevents the display of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages bearing the same brand name alongside one another in stores.

This raises an interesting point, which hadn't occurred to me before. One example mentioned in this article is a particularly good one - Coca Cola is one of the most famous brands in the world, known specifically for their soft drinks. 

But now that their range has expanded to include co-branded alcoholic beverages like the pre-mixed Jack Daniels and Coke in a can product, is there a risk of consumer confusion between the traditional Coca Cola soft drinks and the "new" alcoholic products? Is there a risk of damage to consumer trust in the brand, if they accidentally purchase alcoholic when they were looking for a soft drink? Whilst children should not be able to purchase the alcoholic product themselves, what happens if an adult accidentally gives it to them, thinking it's a soft drink?

For brand owners, or course, they cannot simply change their branding from product to product, it's important to have uniformity between them so that consumers recognise the products they produce, but there is a balance to be had between maintaining the brand's identity, and designing the packaging of products falling within a separate category, to appropriately distance the two. In the case of the Jack Daniels and Coke product, I personally think it would be difficult not to notice the prominent Jack Daniels branding, and also the styling of the label to reflect the distinctive white-on-black labelling of a bottle of Jack Daniels, but that doesn't mean the risk of confusion or accidental purchase is entirely avoided, particularly if the products are displayed side by side in a refrigerator.

It remains to be seen whether other States will adopt similar rules governing product display like this, or even whether other countries would consider the same, but I for one can understand the reasoning for these measures being implemented.