The Homa Files

Many  successful new product introductions each year are brand extensions, such as Apple’s iPhone, Godiva coffee, and Jeep strollers.

Researchers conducted a few experiments to determine what makes a brand “elastic.” That is, having brand power that extends beyond a brand’s core product.

Their findings:

• Consumers tend to respond more favorably to extensions that fit with their perceptions of the parent brand.
• Consumers are more accepting of extensions into distant product categories for brands with prestige concepts (think Rolex) than brands with functional concepts (think Timex).
• With functional brands, holistic thinkers provide more favorable responses to distant extensions than analytic thinkers.

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Marketing Tip

Match product information with the consumer’s style of thinking.

“Adjectives induce a holistic frame by encouraging a focus on global, abstract relationships.

Verbs induce an analytic frame by encouraging focus on specific properties and details.” 

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Source: “What Makes Brands Elastic? The Influence of Brand Concept and Styles of Thinking on Brand Extension Evaluation,” by Alokparna Basu Monga and Deborah Roedder John. Journal of Marketing, 2010.

Source article from Marketing Profs:
http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/1866/all-together-now-stretch/?adref=NciW3610

This entry was posted on July 7, 2010 at 6:15 am and is filed under Mktg - Brands. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.