Consumer evaluations of extension fit and its impact upon brand personality

While the use of extension strategies have been discussed to a great extent, there is a lack of empirical evidence into the affect extensions have upon core brand personality. The primary objective of this research is to address the apparent gap in the literature by empirically investigating the impact that extensions have on core brand personality. This study also seeks to examine the impact of extension fit upon consumer evaluations extensions. After reviewing the literature, a conceptual framework linking to a set of hypotheses was developed, highlighting the impact of fit upon consumer evaluations of (a) brand personality and (b) the extension. A before-after (with control) experimental design was chosen to test the research hypotheses. This type of design was selected due to the high level of control it possessed. Mail questionnaires were produced on the basis of the literature review (Chapter 2) and conceptual framework (Chapter 3). The research instrument was pretested and then presented to a sample of executive MBA students. A response of 102 matched cases was achieved. Previously established scales were used in order to collect the data (e.g. Aaker's 1997 scale was utilised to measure brand personality). Recognised measure development procedures were then employed in order to verify the reliability and validity of the measures. Finally, the hypotheses were tested via t- tests, ANCOVA and multiple regression analyses. The main findings suggest that whilst fit does significantly affect extension evaluations, it has little impact on brand personality. Specifically, there is no difference in brand personality evaluations due to good and poor levels of fit. However, higher levels of fit are associated with more favourable extension evaluations.