The authors explore the implications of considering a brand as representing a category consisting of its products. They report results of a laboratory experiment in which response times and verbal protocols were used to examine processes related to the evaluation of brand extensions. Evaluations of brand extensions were influenced both by the extension's similarity to the brand's current products (brand extension typicality) and by the variation among a brand's current products (brand breadth). An inverted U describes the relationship between brand extension typicality and evaluation process measures. Moderately typical extensions were evaluated in a more piecemeal and less global way than were either extremely typical or extremely atypical extensions. Subjects’ attitudes toward brand extensions were correlated highly with their ratings of brand extension typicality.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AakerDavid A., and KellerKevin Lane (1989), “Consumer Evaluations of Brand Extensions,”Journal of Marketing, 54(January), 27–41.
2.
BarsalouLawrence W. (1983), “Ad Hoc Categories,”Memory and Cognition, 11(3), 211–27.
3.
BarsalouLawrence W.-(1985), “Ideals, Central Tendency, and Frequency of Instantiation as Determinants of Graded Structure in Categories,”Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 11(4), 629–48.
4.
BarsalouLawrence W. (1990), “On the Indistinguishability of Exemplar Memory and Abstraction in Category Representation,” in Advances in Social Cognition, Vol. 3, SrullT. K., and WyerR. S.Jr., eds. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
5.
BettmanJames R., and CaponNoel, and LutzRichard J. (1975), “Cognitive Algebra in Multiattribute Attitude Models,”Journal of Marketing Research, 12(May), 151–64.
6.
BoushDavid, and ShippShannon, LokenBarbara, GencturkEzra, CrockettSusan, KennedyEllen, MinshallBetty, MisurellDennis, RochfordLinda, and StrobelJon (1987), “Affect Generalization to Similar and Dissimilar Brand Extensions,”Psychology and Marketing, 4(3), 225–37.
7.
BrewerMarilynn B. (1988), “A Dual Process Model of Impression Formation,” in Advances in Social Cognition, Vol. 1, SrullT. K., and WyerR. S.Jr., eds. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1–36.
8.
BrooksLee (1978), “Nonanalytic Concept Formation and Memory for Instances,” in Cognition and Categorization, RoschE., and LloydB. B., eds. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 169–215.
9.
BurkeMarian Chapman, and EdellJulie A. (1989), “The Impact of Feelings on Ad-Based Affect and Cognition,”Journal of Marketing Research, 26(February), 69–83.
10.
CohenJoel B. (1982), “The Role of Affect in Categorization: Towards a Reconsideration of the Concept of Attitude,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 9, MitchellAndrew, ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Association for Consumer Research, 94–100.
11.
CollinsAllan M., and LoftusElizabeth F. (1975), “A Spreading Activation Theory of Semantic Processing,”Psychological Review, 82(6), 407–28.
12.
FishbeinMartin, and Ajzenleek (1975), Belief, Attitude, Intention and Behavior.Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
13.
FiskeSusan T. (1982), “Schema-Triggered Affect: Applications to Social Perception,” in Affect and Cognition: The 17th Annual Carnegie Symposium on Cognition, ClarkMargaret S., and FiskeSusan T., eds. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 171–90.
14.
FiskeSusan T., and PavelchakMark A. (1986), “Category-Based Versus Piecemeal-Based Affective Responses: Developments in Schema-Triggered Affect,” in The Handbook of Motivation and Cognition: Foundation of Social Behavior, SorrentinoRichard W., and Tory HigginsE., eds. New York: Guilford Press, 167–203.
15.
GeisserSeymour, and GreenhouseSamuel W. (1958), “An Extension of Box's Results on the Use of F Distribution in Multivariate Analysis,”Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 29(April), 885–91.
16.
JuddCharles M., and LuskCynthia M. (1984), “Knowledge Structures and Evaluative Judgments: Effects of Structural Variables on Judgmental Extremity,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46(6), 1193–207.
17.
KirkRoger E. (1982), Experimental Design: Procedures for the Behavioral Sciences.Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
18.
LaTourSteven A., and MiniardPaul W. (1983), “The Misuse of Repeated Measures Analysis in Marketing Research,”Journal of Marketing Research, 20(February), 45–57.
19.
LinvillePatricia W. (1982), “The Complexity-Extremity Effect and Age-Based Stereotyping,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42(2), 193–211.
20.
LokenBarbara, and WardJames (1987), “Measures of Attribute Structure Underlying Product Typicality,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 14, WallendorfMelanie, and AndersonPaul F., eds. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 22–8.
21.
MaltBarbara C. (1989), “An On-Line Investigation of Prototype and Exemplar Strategies in Classification,”Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 15(4), 539–55.
22.
MervisCarolyn B., and RoschEleanor (1981), “Categorization of Natural Objects,”Annual Review of Psychology, 32, 89–115.
23.
ParducciAllen, and WedellDouglas H. (1986), “The Category Effect With Rating Scales: Number of Categories, Number of Stimuli, and Method of Presentation,”Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 12(4), 496–516.
24.
RoschEleanor, and MervisCarolyn B. (1975), “Family Resemblances: Studies in the Internal Structure of Categories,”Cognitive Psychology, 7(4), 573–605.
25.
RoschEleanor, and SimpsonCarol, and Scott MillerR. (1976), “Structure Bases of Typicality Effects,”Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2(4), 491–502.
26.
SmithEdward E., ShobenEdward J., and RipsLance J. (1974), “Structure and Process in Semantic Memory: A Featural Model for Semantic Decisions,”Psychological Review, 81(3), 214–41.
27.
SrullThomas K., and WyerRobert S. (1989), “Person Memory and Judgment,”Psychological Review, 96(1), 58–83.
28.
SujanMita (1985), “Consumer Knowledge: Effects on Evaluation Strategies Mediating Consumer Judgments,”Journal of Consumer Research, 12(June), 31–46.
29.
SujanMita, and DeklevaChristine (1987), “Product Categorization and Inference-Making: Some Implications for Comparative Advertising,”Journal of Consumer Research, 14(December, 372–8.
30.
TauberEdward M. (1988), “Brand Leverage: Strategy for Growth in a Cost Control World,”Journal of Advertising Research, 31(August/September), 26–30.
31.
TverskyAmos (1977), “Features of Similarity,”Psychological Review, 84(4), 327–52.
32.
WardJames, and LokenBarbara (1986), “The Quintessential Snack Food: Measurement of Product Prototypes,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 13, LutzRichard, ed. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 126–31.
33.
WrightPeter L. (1976), “An Adaptive Consumer's View of Attitudes and Choice Mechanisms as Viewed by an Equally Adaptive Advertiser,” in Attitude Research at Bay, WellsWilliam D., ed. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 113–311.
