The Malleable Brand: The Role of Implicit Theories in Evaluating Brand Extensions (original) (raw)
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The majority of brand extensions reportedly fail, suggesting the need for methodologies that allow for better strategic prediction of categories into which a brand should extend or license. Prior literature suggests that brand extensions are likely to be more successful if a brand extends into another category into which its existing brand associations and imagery “fit” better and if the extending brand is “atypical” (if it possesses associations and imagery that are broad and abstract rather than tied too closely to the brand's original product category). The authors develop a methodology in this study to estimate brand and category personality structures, using a Bayesian factor model that separates the two by means of brand-level and category-level random effects. This methodology leads to measures of a brand's fit and atypicality. The authors illustrate and validate the model on two nationally representative data sets on brand personalities in three categories (jeans, ma...
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2005
There has been much research into the psychology of branding, and this has generated numerous advances in our understanding of the fundamental social psychological constructs that govern consumers' brand perceptions, cognitions, and relationships. This proliferation of brand research has accumulated abundant empirical evidence and produced numerous consumer psychology theories around key brand constructs, including brand evaluations, brand awareness, brand image, brand equity, brand personality, brand relationships, brand associations, brand extensions, brand community, and brand alliances. Although there is little or no debate on the merits of these various constructs and theories, it is our contention that this somewhat diffused knowledge is ripe for greater integration between the concepts along with a better articulation of their interconnections within a general framework or theory. We are well aware that "grand unifying attempts" at developing one model or theory of consumer behavior were the hallmark of early consumer psychology research, and we believe that there would be much naIvete in fully revisiting these attempts. However, we also believe that recent developments in social cognition research, and implicit social cognition in particular, provide us with the means to articulate formally a more unified brand theory that can integrate many of the constructs we identified earlier. Our research aims for theoretical integration at two levels. First, we seek to develop a framework that pulls together the numerous brand-related constructs that have emerged in the marketing literature. Second, we incorporate chief constructs from social cognition into branding theory (e.g., attitudes, stereotypes, selfesteem, and self-concept) in order to explain and predict consumer response and prescribe brand strategy. Third, we chiefly focus our effort on implicit brand
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Journal of Brand Management, 2001
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