Rohini Ahluwalia
Executive Summary
In today’s marketplace, brand extensions have become an
important avenue for growth and new product introductions for most companies, making a brand’s “stretchability” (or extension potential) and the factors that influence it a consequential issue for marketers. The current research uses an individual-difference approach to identify one such variable—namely, the extent to which the consumer’s self-construal is interdependent.
Self-construal refers to a person’s view of self. People who have an independent self-construal are expected to hold a view of self that emphasizes their separateness, internal attributes, and uniqueness, whereas an interdependent self-construal is associated with a more relationship-driven, interdependent self-view, which stresses connectedness, social context, and relationships. Consumers in several East Asian countries and the Mediterranean, ethnic groups such as Asian Americans and Hispanics, and female consumers are likely to rank high on interdependent self-construal, where as those who hail from Western and North European countries, Caucasian Americans, and males typically tend to have a more independent self-construal.
An important determinant of extension success is its “fit” or perceived similarity to the parent-brand name. A key finding in the reported research is that highly interdependent consumers are likely to perceive a higher level of fit between the extension and the brand than their less interdependent counterparts. Specifically, this research demonstrates that high interdependents possess a relational processing advantage, or a superior ability to uncover relationships, connections, or similarities between a brand and its extension, which in turn enhances their receptivity to brand stretches. This advantage emerges most clearly in the domain of moderate fit extensions or moderate brand stretches (in which some level of product category and/or attribute overlap exists between the extension and the parent brand), indicating that these types of brand stretches have a reasonable chance of success, especially if its target market tends to include highly relational thinkers (e.g., women, Easterners, Asian Americans, Hispanics). These relational thinking segments may present the most return for investment with extensions that represent a moderate stretch.
Importantly, this research also identifies a limiting factor for the relational processing advantage of high interdependents—namely, the extent of stretch. The findings suggest that as the extent of the stretch increases, the relationship between the brand and its new extension becomes more difficult to uncover (stretches that lack both product category and attribute overlap with the parent brand), making this advantage less likely to emerge under typical marketplace conditions. As such, identifying tenuous relationships between the brand and extension necessitates a significant level of effort; thus, the advantage is likely to emerge for farther brand stretches only if the consumer is motivated to engage in the level of effort required to uncover these relationships. This point is demonstrated in Experiments 3 and 4, in which the relational processing advantage emerges even in the domain of far stretches for highly interdependent consumers motivated to attend to information about the new extension.
Notably, consumers’ processing motivation can be enhanced with several marketing strategies. One technique is the use of particular copy strategies in advertising (e.g., using a question headline, as in Experiment 4). Similarly, other rhetorical figures in advertising (e.g., puns, metaphors) that are likely to motivate consumers to elaborate could similarly be included in the marketing messages to enhance the acceptance of farther brand stretches by the segment of highly interdependent consumers. In addition to copy strategies, provision of samples or interaction with the product (direct experience) is also expected to enhance elaboration of the extension information and therefore is likely to augment the acceptability of farther brand stretches for these target markets.
In summary, highly interdependent consumers, who possess a relational processing advantage, are expected to be more accepting of moderate brand stretches than consumer segments that tend to be less interdependent in their self-construal. The processing advantage of high interdependents is likely to emerge even for farther brand stretches if the marketer can motivate them to elaborate on the brand extension information (e.g., through copy strategies and product experience strategies).
Biography
Rohini Ahluwalia is Associate Professor of Marketing in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Professor Ahluwalia’s is currently involved in two streams of research. The first focuses on branding issues, such as understanding the “stretchability” of a brand, using an information-processing perspective. The second attempts to understand how people process, resist, and are influenced by counterattitudinal and negative information (related to both brands and political candidates). Her research has been published in Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of Marketing. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of Consumer Psychology.
Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. XLV, No. 3, June 2008
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