Effects Of Parent Brand Image And Fit On Brand Extension Attitude

Brand extension is an important subject on psychology and management. Rresearch on this problem will not only enrich the theoretical system,but also have important practical significance. Studying the factors affecting brand extension and the psychological mechanism can enrich the theoretical system of consumer psychology,meanwhile,it can provide guidance to enterprises in implementing the strategy of brand extension. Most domestic research on brand extension focuses on thoretical overviews.Actually,even if they do some empirical research,most have repeated studies abroad or done few single-factor or two-factor studies, and few have made research on various factors. In fact, brand extension is affacted by a variety of factors, between which there are complex interactions,and doing research on them will make study much deeper.In this paper,using experimental method,we probe into the effects of parent brand image and fit on brand extension attitude,and we can draw the following conclusions from this study:(1) There is interaction between parent brand and fit which includes category similarity and image similarity.(2) In terms of domestic functional brand,there is interaction between category similarity and image similarity.(3) In terms of symbolic brand, the attitude to symbolic extension is better than that to functional extension,which happens only if the extension's category is similar to that of the parent brand.(4) In terms of the foreign functional brand,the attitude to symbolic extension is better than that to functional extension, which happens only if the extension's category is similar to that of the parent brand.However,domestic functional brand is not affected by category similarity.(5) Smbolic brand has stronger far-extension. (6) In terms of the foreign functional brand,irrespective of image similarity,there is no difference between consumer attitude toward near-extension and far-extension. In the case of domestic brand,when the extension's image is similar to that of the parent brand ,attitude to far-extension is better than near-extension. But when the image is dissimilar,consumer attitude toward near-extension and far-extension is the same.