Purpose




By outlining the evolution of brand management research over the past 25 years, as reported in the Journal of Product and Brand Management (JPBM), this paper aims to analyze the changes in the way branding has been approached in research, highlight the current challenges the discipline faces and suggest future research avenues that will hopefully further enrich brand management knowledge.




Design/methodology/approach




This paper includes internal historical literature review and commentary.




Findings




After a thorough analysis of the journal’s content, the contribution that the JPBM has made in the development of brand management knowledge over the past 25 years is highlighted. Eight major shifts in brand management research and thought, and three overarching difficulties and challenges, are identified.




Research limitations/implications




By solely focusing on the contributions published in the journal, by no means this review is exhaustive and includes all the contributions to the discipline. Its contribution is limited to the analysis of the work, and the evolution of brand management thinking, recorded in the JPBM.




Originality/value




The paper highlights the evolution of brand management thought and presents imperatives and challenges to guide future research in brand management.

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The evolution of brand management thinking over the last 25 years as recorded in the Journal of Product and Brand Management

Purpose – Brand extension strategies have become widespread since the early 1980s. However, a large proportion of brand extensions still fail, suggesting the need for methodologies that produce better predictions of success or failure of new products launched with a well-known brand name. Although the symbolic fit between established brand names and brand extensions is considered as one of the most important determinants of brand extension success or failure, managers need more accurate tools to determine, from a symbolic point-of-view, which brand extensions are consistent with their brand. This paper proposes to use Kapferer's brand identity prism to define more acceptable brand extensions. Design/methodology/approach – Two studies were conducted. A first study aimed at developing a brand identity inventory (BII). In a second study, the BII's ability to predict brand extensions' success or failure was tested. Findings – The second order structure of Kapferer's brand identity prism is confirmed. The paper then demonstrates that brand identity is useful to better predict acceptance of brand extensions. Research limitations/implications – In prior research, perceived fit was estimated by mono-item measures or by few brand associations. Brand identity provides a more accurate estimation of the fit that can rely on attributes related to brand personality and brand values – the personal dimension of brand identity – or associations related to relationships and users' image – the social dimension of brand identity. Originality/value – The findings can help managers to determine more consistent brand extensions when brands are already stretched.

Can brand identity predict brand extensions' success or failure?

Many apparel brands use growth strategies that involve extending a brand’s line horizontally (same price/quality) and/or vertically (different price/quality). While such opportunities for growth and profitability are enticing, pursuing them could dilute a highly profitable parent brand. Categorization theory’s bookkeeping model and the cue scope framework provide the theoretical framework for this study. The purpose of this study is to test whether specific attributes of a line extension (i.e. direction of extension, brand concept, price discount and perceived fit) make a parent brand more susceptible to dilution.,This experimental study manipulates brand concept (premium or value brand) and price level (horizontal or vertical: −20per cent, −80per cent) and measures perceived fit to test effects on parent brand dilution. ANOVA and t-tests are used for the analysis.,Vertical extensions dilute the parent brand, but horizontal extensions do not. Dilution is strongest for premium (vs value) brands and when line extensions are discounted (i.e. −20per cent or −80per cent lower than the parent brand), regardless of the perceived fit between brand concept and brand extension price. Overall, brand concept is the strongest predictor of parent brand dilution in the context of vertical-downward extensions.,This study establishes which factors emerge as important contributors to parent brand dilution. Although previous studies on brand dilution are abundant, few studies have compared the effects of horizontal and vertical extensions on brand dilution. This study offers strong theoretical as well as practical implications.

Vertical versus horizontal line extensions: a comparison of dilution effects

Purpose




The purpose of this study is to examine consumer attitude toward a new type of co-branded products, which encompass attributes of high-technology and luxury. The authors named these kinds of co-branded products as “high-tech luxury co-branded products” (HLCPs). Current theoretical approaches used to study co-branding strategies cannot completely explain consumer attitude toward HLCPs. In this study, the authors apply the ABC (affect-behavior-cognition) model of attitudes (as opposed to attitude as a whole) to explore how affect and cognition drive consumer behavior toward HLCPs.




Design/methodology/approach




Questionnaires were used and the respondents totaled 483 in period 1 and 331 in period 2. Respondents were collected using convenience sampling technique in one university in Spain and analyzed using structural equation modeling.




Findings




The authors finding revealed that consumers use both affect and cognition simultaneously when forming an attitude toward HLCPs. Also, consumers’ perception of product fit represents a more relevant driver of consumer behavior with respect to brand fit. Appropriate theoretical and managerial implications are derived from these results.




Originality/value




This study contributes to the understanding of consumers’ preferences toward high-tech luxury co-branded products.

Detangling consumer attitudes to better explain co-branding success

Brand extension as a strategy is used by corporates for increasing profits. It is an approach for new product development. Brand extensions have already been studied in the past few years, ...

An Integrated SEM Neural Network Approach to Study Effectiveness of Brand Extension in Indian FMCG Industry

Studies in literature on consumer attitude toward the brand extension, and revision of attitude toward parent brand have focused on the influence of a variety of factors concerning parent brand, fit between the parent brand and extension, extension product category and consumer characteristics. In all such studies, the brand that is extended and the extension product category are both either goods-intensive offerings (GG brand extension) or services-intensive offerings (SS brand extension), and researchers have observed paucity of studies on brand extension from goods-intensive offerings to services-intensive offerings (GS brand extension), and services-intensive offerings to goods-intensive offerings (SG brand extension). In this study, the influence of factors concerning parent brand and fit between the parent brand and extension are contrasted between GG and GS brand extensions. Using survey design, data was collected from individual consumers recruited from households in two Indian cities, and analysis of the data was performed using a structural equation modeling approach. The findings from this study suggest that brand extensions from goods to goods is preferable to brand extensions from goods to services under some conditions, such as when quality variance across brand portfolio is high and when product category fit is present.

Consumer evaluation of brand extensions: Comparing goods to goods brand extensions with goods to services

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to help marketing scholars view virtual worlds as new product–markets and trigger serious investigations on consumer evaluation of brand extensions when a brand is extended from the real world to a virtual world and vice versa. Design/methodology/approach – The paper makes an extensive review of studies on virtual world. Further, it amalgamates understanding from well-established literature on consumer evaluation of brand extensions into the emerging virtual world understanding to conceptualize moderating influence of contexts – the real world context and a virtual world context – on how consumers evaluate brand extensions. Findings – Through logical arguments supported by existing literature, the paper provides 14 well-conceptualized propositions that argue that the real world and virtual world contexts moderate the well-established relationships in brand extension literature. It broadly proposes that the relationships between the consumer evaluations of brand exten...

Brand extension evaluation: real world and virtual world

The purpose of this paper is to explicate the idea of egoism in the context of marketing. The idea of egoism is reviewed and contextualized into a framework for interpreting different marketer types. Marketers’ potential trade-offs with consumers and competitors are examined. Four types of marketers are explicated: extremely egoistic marketer, moderately egoistic marketer, moderately altruistic marketer, and extremely altruistic marketer. The framework offered in the paper is of relevance to marketers, media, and agencies rewarding marketing performance. The framework may help in assessing the ethical quotient in marketers’ preferences and behaviors. Studies recognizing the pertinence of egoism in marketing are scarce, and the typological framework discussed in the paper is a contribution to the marketing ethics literature.

Are Marketers Egoists? A Typological Explication

Goods and Services B rand extension refers to the use of established brand names for introducing new offerings (Loken & John, 1993). Brand extension, as a marketing strategy, re-duces marketing expenditure and risk of new product failure (Aaker & Keller, 1990; Tauber, 1988). Past research on consumer evaluation of brand extensions is focused on explaining consumers’ attitude towards brand extensions and consumers’ revision of attitude towards parent brands (see also Czellar, 2003 and Grime, Diamantapoulos, & Smith, 2002 for a similar observation). The boundary of theory development and testing, however, has scarcely been extended beyond brand extensions from good dominant offerings to good dominant offerings and brand extensions from service dominant offerings to service dominant offerings (see also Arslan & Altuna 2011, Brown, Sitchtmann, & Musante, 2011; Estelle, 2010; and Lei, Pruppers, Ouwersloot, & Lemmink, 2004 for a similar observation). The underexplored domains are highlighted in Figure 1.

Jayasankar Ramanathan

Papers

Consumer evaluation of brand extensions: Comparing goods to goods brand extensions with goods to services

Brand extension evaluation: real world and virtual world

Are Marketers Egoists? A Typological Explication

Consumer Evaluation of Brand Extensions: Good to Service and Service to Good

The Myth of the Ethical Consumer