Evaluation of Brand Extensions: The Role of Product Feature Similarity and Brand Concept Consistency

TLDR

The study investigates how product feature similarity and brand concept consistency influence the success of brand extensions. Consumers evaluate brand extensions based on both product feature similarity and brand concept consistency, with the strongest positive responses occurring when both are high; the influence of each factor varies by brand type, and prestige brands can extend to products with lower feature similarity when concept consistency is high.

Abstract

This article examines two factors that differentiate between successful and unsuccessful brand extensions: product feature similarity and brand concept consistency. The results reveal that, in identifying brand extensions, consumers take into account not only information about the product-level feature similarity between the new product and the products already associated with the brand, but also the concept consistency between the brand concept and the extension. For both function-oriented and prestige-oriented brand names, the most favorable reactions occur when brand extensions are made with high brand concept consistency and high product feature similarity. In addition, the relative impact of these two factors differs to some extent, depending on the nature of the brand-name concept. When a brand's concept is consistent with those of its extension products, the prestige brand seems to have greater extendibility to products with low feature similarity than the functional brand does.