The reciprocal effects of brand extensions on brand knowledge

In this dissertation, I explore how brand extensions change parent brand knowledge. Previous research has primarily focused on how consumers evaluate brand extensions as opposed to the reciprocal effects on the parent brand. For example, consumers associate Evian with "pure" and "all natural." An Evian brand extension which alters these associations could change the parent brand's competitive position.;Previous brand extension research has found that the degree to which the extension fits with the parent brand's product category (category fit) and with the parent brand's image (image fit) influences consumers' evaluations of the extension. The cognitive psychology literature suggests the degree of fit will also influence reciprocal effects. However, the cognitive psychology literature indicates the breadth of the parent brand, which is defined as the degree of variation in a brand's product categories, may moderate the reciprocal effects of category and image fit.;I examine when brand extensions cause consumers to change their existing parent brand associations (both product and image) and attitudes, and to add new associations to their parent brand knowledge. The experiment is a 2 (degree of category fit) x 2 (degree of image fit) x 2 (breadth of parent brand) between-subjects design with two control groups.;Interestingly, brand extensions of a narrow parent brand had no effect on the strength of consumers' existing image associations and brand attitudes. However, brand attitudes for a broad parent brand were weakened after extensions that fit poorly with the parent brand in some way. Consumers' existing image associations were also weakened for a broad parent brand after an extension exhibiting both poor category fit and poor image fit. Consumers' existing product associations were weakened for both narrow and broad parent brands when the extension exhibited poor image fit. The results also indicate that extensions are capable of redefining consumers' understanding of the brand's core business and image by causing consumers to add new associations to their parent brand knowledge.;The results provide brand managers with an understanding of how to better manage their brand extensions depending on the breadth of the parent brand. In addition, the results indicate the extension's image fit with the parent brand plays a more important role in influencing reciprocal effects than the extensions' category fit. In particular, brand extensions exhibiting good image fit had few, if any, reciprocal effects on parent brand knowledge while brand extensions exhibiting poor image fit had negative reciprocal effects.