The Effect Of Social Status On Evaluation Of Upward Brand Extension

Social status is a kind of identity widely existing in group life.Social status is an individual's perception of being respected,admired and voluntarily obeyed by others based on perceived social value.High social status is accompanied by rich social,material and psychological interests.Therefore,the thirst for social status is a basic motivation commonly owned by human beings.In the field of marketing,enterprises make use of consumers' psychology of pursuing social status and maintain high position,and carry out a series of marketing activities,in which the upward brand extension is the most popular brand strategy.Psychologists and marketing scientists mainly focus on the influence of social status acquisition and loss on individual behavior,and the influence factors that cause status consumption.Their researches take social status as a dependent variable,and rarely regard social status as an independent variable.Although some scholars have studied individual factors of consumers will affect the evaluation of brand extension,yet no scholars have studied the impact of social status on evaluation of brand extension.Therefore,this paper combines social status with upward brand extension,and explores the influence mechanism and boundary conditions of the effect of social status on evaluation of upward brand extension.Based on four studies,this paper explores the influence of social status on upward brand extension evaluation,the mediating effect of brand trust and the moderating effect of narcissistic trait.Study 1a uses questionnaires to explore the relationship between perceptive social status of oneself and upward brand extension evaluation.The result shows that social status has a significant positive impact on the evaluation of upward brand extension.Study 1b uses an experimental method to stimulate the individuals' social status and research the impact of transient social status on upward brand extension evaluation.The result shows that the evaluation of upward brand extension in high social status group is significantly higher than that in low social status group.In study 2,individual social status is stimulated by a different experimental method from study 1b.Study 2 explores the intermediary role of brand trust between social status and upward brand extension evaluation,and explains the mechanism in detail.Study 3 introduces narcissistic trait into research to explore the boundary condition of the influence of social status on the evaluation of upward brand extension.The result shows that compared with low narcissistic individuals,high narcissistic individuals' social status has a more significant impact on the evaluation of upward brand extension.This research proves the influence mechanism and boundary condition of individuals' social status on upward brand extension evaluation,which has positive theoretical and practical significance.It enriches two kinds of literature about the influence of social status on consumer behavior and the evaluation of brand extension by consumers.At the same time,this research can provide guidance for enterprises with upward brand extension in selecting the target market.It also provides a reference for arousing individuals' high social status in the case of advertising publicity or sales promotion of products.