Research On The Impact Of Corporate Reputation On Consumer Attitude Toward Brand Extension From The Perspective Of Affect Transfer

Brand extension strategy is always an important research topic of brand management.The attitude of consumers will determine whether the brand extension is successful.A brand extension can be seen as a process from the viewpoint of affect transfer,in which consumers extend their good feelings for the parent brand to the extended products.As an intangible asset of a company,corporate reputation helps to form a positive brand impression and enhance consumer brand/product evaluation.How corporate reputation influences consumers’ cognitive and affective reaction,the mechanism of brand extension attitude formation and the specific mechanism of the affect transfer process remains unknown.Therefore,in the fiercely competitive market,clarifying the path and internal mechanism of how corporate reputation affects consumer attitudes toward brand extension has become an important topic for business managers and marketing academics.With the development of interdisciplinary science,exploring the inherent mechanisms of the consumer decisionmaking process using cognitive neuroscience tools and revamping the deficiencies of behavioral measurement methods is helpful.Based on the behavioral and neurophysiological research levels,from the perspective of "consumer behavior-eye-brain",methods of questionnaires,eye tracking techniques and event-related potentials(ERPs)were applied in the thesis to explore the impact of corporate reputation on consumer attitudes of brand extension,and help to uncover the formation mechanism of consumer brand extension attitude at the "electrophysiological" and "subconscious" levels of consumers.Firstly,on the basis of affect transfer,it introduced three key affect transfer factors:parent brand,extended product,and consumer characteristics in this paper,combed out the five-stage conceptual framework of consumer brand extension evaluation and created a structural equation model by fusing signal theory and brand extension evaluation measurement model.Using the method of a questionnaire survey,from the behavioral level,the study discussed the effect of corporate reputation on consumers’ brand extension attitude and revealed the regulatory role of three factors: brand attention stage(original brand awareness),product fit judgment stage(extension fit)and consumer evaluation stage(consumer empathy),to verify the fitting degree of the structural model and lay a foundation for the research in the following chapters.Secondly,from the perspective of parent brand,it explored the difference of consumer’s attention process and extended attitude towards the two types of corporate reputation information in the brand attention stage in this paper.2 corporate reputation type(capability type/social responsibility type)× 2 brand awareness(high/low)mixed design eye movement experiment was designed.Through data collection,analysis and processing,it was found that two eye movement indicators(fixation time and fixation times)reflected the difference in the allocation of attention resources of consumers to corporate competence and social responsibility information.From the behavioral and visual attention level,it revealed the cognitive processing process of consumers toward high and low well-known brands with ’ability and social responsibility reputation information.Thirdly,from the perspective of extended products,it discussed the internal psychological mechanism of the impact of corporate reputation on consumer brand extension attitude at the stage of product conformity judgment in this paper.Under the control of the same brand awareness factors,2 types of corporate reputation(competence/social responsibility)× 2 extended fit(high/low)within subjects EEG test was designed.Through data collection and analysis and processing,the results revealed two ERPs indicators(P2 and LPP)that reflect the attention and emotion mechanism in the evaluation process of consumer brand extension.From the behavioral and brain level,it revealed the evaluation process and neural activities of consumers on brands with ability and social responsibility reputation under the conditions of high fit and low fit extension in this paper.Fourthly,from the perspective of consumer characteristics,it discussed the internal psychological mechanism of the impact of corporate reputation on consumer brand extension attitude at the consumer evaluation stage in this paper.Under the condition of controlling the factors of the same brand awareness and extended fit,2 corporate reputation type(capability type/social responsibility type)× 2 consumers’ empathy(high/low)between subject EEG experiment was designed.Through data collection and analysis and processing,ERPs indicators(N2 and P3)reflecting the meaning of cognitive control,conflict and motivation in the evaluation process of consumer brand extension were found in the EEG experiment between subjects with consumer empathy(high/low).From the behavioral and brain level,it revealed the brand extension evaluation process and neural mechanism of consumers’ high and low empathy ability to ownership and social responsibility reputation in this paper.Finally,based on the above questionnaire survey on consumer attitudes toward brand extension and the results of cognitive neuroscience experiments under the influence of different factors,it put forward corresponding suggestions on corporate reputation management from two aspects in this paper: highlighting corporate capabilities and fulfilling social responsibilities;For optimizing the brand extension strategy,it put forward corresponding countermeasures and suggestions from three aspects: building a high-quality brand,designing differentiated products,and implementing precision marketing.