Brand Extension Effects and Core Attributes of Experience Product Franchises: A Bayesian Approach

An experience product's quality is difficult to assess prior to purchase, largely due to the limited availability of information before consumption. In the absence of perfect information, firms routinely use certain market signals to provide product quality information to consumers. Accordingly, drawing from signaling theory, this research aims to identify a collection of product core attributes in the form of signals and brand extension features to successfully manage experience product franchises. In doing so, we make use of Bayesian models with both deterministic effects via the use of predictor variables and probabilistic effects via the use of brand extension properties. Such models allow us to explore specifically the relative performance effects of the parent product of a franchise and of its extensions given the same level of product core attributes. The results of this study, based on the motion picture franchise data, indicate that there are critical product core attributes such as continuity, timing, and prior perception that collectively lead to successful successive generations. Furthermore, our study shows that brand features measured by the relationships between the parent product and its subsequent extensions at the infancy of the franchise are essential for the continuation of experience products. Similarly, our results indicate that the parent product's success on later extensions' performance starts to diminish, implying that the established brand name is what carries the franchise forward.