A study of factors influencing consumer decision-making on brand extension for reduced-fat line product: A comparison between United States and Thai consumers

Problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between American and Thai consumers in their perceptions of factors related to their willingness to purchase extension products for reduced-fat line products. This study indicated that several factors are most related to the evaluation to purchase such extension products. Moreover, it identified the significant differences which exist between American and Thai consumers and consumers' demographic background in their evaluation of brand extension.; Method. The data were collected through a mail questionnaire distributed to respondents in two countries, the United States and Thailand. A total of 118 usable responses were obtained from American residents and 247 usable responses were collected from Thai residents.; Mann-Whitney U, Kruskall Wallis, Students' t-tests, and one-way ANOVA were used to identify the significant mean differences between the responses of the consumers. Discriminant analysis was used to establish group predictors. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to describe the relationships of the variables to one another.; Results. Consumer perceived factors influencing their decision making were differently related to Thai and U.S. consumers' willingness to purchase on brand extension for reduced-fat line products in terms of traditional product attributes, extension product attributes, and their confidences to use the products. Thai consumers were more concerned about those factors than American consumers. The study showed the direct relationships between traditional product attributes, extension product line attributes, and behavior in consumption for American and Thai consumers' willingness to purchase extension product line (reduced-fat products). Those factors were directly related to both American and Thai consumers' involvement with willingness to purchase extension product lines. For both American and Thai consumers, extension product attributes and factors related to confidences were the best predictors of their decision to purchase extension product lines.