The impact of parent brand attribute associations and affect on brand extension evaluation

A model specifying the role of parent brand attribute beliefs and affect in consumer's initial evaluation of a brand extension was proposed and tested using hypothetical extensions of different brands. This study suggests a more prominent role for parent brand attribute associations than for parent brand affect in extension attitude formation that had been presumed in the literature. Further, the study documents the importance of an extension's fit with the parent's image while at the same time suggesting that similarity of the product categories of the extension and the parent is of no consequence in extension evaluation. Managers are advised to link extensions to parent brand attribute associations and image in consumers' minds for greater success. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.