| This research examined the role of ownership and usage effects of a core brand on core brand extension evaluations. Building on the previous research on the key factors driving the commercial success of brand extensions, the study tried to determine if consumers with favorable usage experience with a core brand are more likely to view a brand extension derived from a core brand favorably, and express higher purchase intentions for it, than are consumers without such favorable core brand usage experience.;An Internet based survey instrument was administered to 528 members of an online consumer panel in which two consumer electronics products were examined: (1) Dell computers; and (2) Nokia cellular/wireless telephones. For each product, a hypothetical close, medium and far core brand extension was evaluated.;For Dell, no statistically significant differences were found between users and non-users in the appeal of and purchase intentions for the three hypothetical brand extensions. For Nokia, users of the core brand did not show statistically significant higher appeal ratings for either the close or far core brand extension. A statistically significant higher appeal rating was found for the medium brand extension, but its magnitude was small. Nokia core brand users showed statistically significant differences of small magnitude for purchase intentions for all three extensions.;Given the non-significance of most of the hypotheses tested and the small differences in magnitude of the few tests that did show significance, the study found insufficient evidence to support an ownership halo effect in the consumer evaluation of core brand extensions. These findings provide managers and marketers with solid evidence that brand extension launch and support activities need not be differentiated between core brand users and non-users. To do so would lead to an inefficient allocation of marketing resources. |
