Taking advantage of someone’s brand to promote yours.

Judging from the title you are probably thinking “what?! Isn’t that called cheating? Isn’t that immoral?”. Yes and no. I will start by writing here two different stories I have personally experienced about missed opportunities that might enlighten your views on this subject.
Case 1 : “Muddy Boots”
There was this programme on television some time ago where some people would go to investors with their business ideas and 1 would be picked to be helped. I remember a couple from the country who sold hamburgers. Their image was very strong: the young couple wearing muddy boots. They managed to pitch successfully to Waitrose. Well done you might think. Oh well…
A couple of years on, walking in one of these food and wine shows in London, I came across the “Muddy boots” stand (or so I thought). I was very delighted to meet a business that had been on TV and so I immediately went to talk them. It went something like this:
“-Hi, you guys were on TV some years ago, I thought that was brilliant!
-Actually, that was not us, it was someone who “stole our idea” and we had to sue* them. They sold hamburgers and we sell sausages.
– I am sorry to hear that, I didn’t remember what they sold, just the “muddy boots”. Oh well, at least it was free advertisement for you, right?.
-Well, we spent a lot of money, creating our reputation and logo for them to steal our idea. We don’t like to be associated with them and that is why they had to pay as compensation and were ot allowed to use “muddy boots” as their logo. 
-I see, well, I thought it was good for you anyway, because I only came here because I thought you were the guys on TV and I didn’t quite remember what you sold…”
This goes to show how powerful an image can be and it struck me as interesting when I learnt that a “copy” business managed to be more successful than its predecessor.  However, instead of using of the fame the “muddy boots”  brand the original company didn’t want to take advantage of its copycat. In fact, he opposed so strongly about the connection it put me off buying his sausages. Am I the only one talking sense here?
Case 2 : A matter of colour
I was volunteering for this charity, which I can’t name for obvious reasons, and they have a beautiful concept “do the work your neighbours would do for you in the old days”. It is (or was) a local charity that worked in a specific area of London helping residents in that area. They did everything from shopping to gardening and dog walking for people who were depressed, lonely, housebound for some reason or just too old to do it for themselves.
The charity was facing financial challenges during these difficult times and I was invited to attend a meeting to discuss the charity’s future. The message was loud and clear: if they didn’t get more money and volunteers the charity would cease to exist in two years.
I suggested a “rebrand”. Changing the  logo, having a better website, looking for more volunteers in a proactive way, engaging with local shops and community (churches etc) going to the local supermarket that sponsors local charities.
New logo designed, website, everything free due to the efforts of lots of designers and friends I have. The reply was:
“We don’t like this colour because it reminds us of the borough. The council has reduced its funding to us so we do not want to be associated with them”.
Fair enough. The only problem was that, the borough is a strong brand. It claims 8 out of 10 residents are satisfied with the borough as a place to live which is better than most of London (2009 survey). This means pretty much all residents there like being associated with the area. In fact, local shops have campaigns saying “we love ……..”  where residents gets discounts. The borough is now ranked 6th/150 top-tier authorities in England.
Despite this proven success the  charity refused  to use “borough colours”  and the idea of rebranding! It still has a unappealing website, fewer volunteers, less money and more work to do.
Of course, this might be a simplistic way of viewing things as we have to take into account the feelings of all those involved. I would not personally like if someone stole my idea to promote itself and ended up being more successful than I am, neither to use the same colours as an organisation that has just reduced my income. However, if it’s business I still believe it might be worth putting feelings aside and benefitting from it. The rest, will be history.
Do you have any similar experiences to share? Have you ever taken advantage of someone’s brand to promote yours? If so please let me know.

* Just for info: the “copycat” hamburger got to keep the name “muddy boots” but the original got to keep the logo that was an image of muddy boots.