Consumer evaluation of brand extensions: Comparing goods to goods brand extensions with goods to services

Studies in literature on consumer attitude toward the brand extension, and revision of attitude toward parent brand have focused on the influence of a variety of factors concerning parent brand, fit between the parent brand and extension, extension product category and consumer characteristics. In all such studies, the brand that is extended and the extension product category are both either goods-intensive offerings (GG brand extension) or services-intensive offerings (SS brand extension), and researchers have observed paucity of studies on brand extension from goods-intensive offerings to services-intensive offerings (GS brand extension), and services-intensive offerings to goods-intensive offerings (SG brand extension). In this study, the influence of factors concerning parent brand and fit between the parent brand and extension are contrasted between GG and GS brand extensions. Using survey design, data was collected from individual consumers recruited from households in two Indian cities, and analysis of the data was performed using a structural equation modeling approach. The findings from this study suggest that brand extensions from goods to goods is preferable to brand extensions from goods to services under some conditions, such as when quality variance across brand portfolio is high and when product category fit is present.